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Jason Lee from Renaissance Church in Providence, RI brings us this great wall backdrop created out of simple pallets.
They constructed a 2×4 wall frame and anchored it to the concrete wall of the building. Then they secured the pallet boards to the frame with nail guns. The cross in the center was marked out beforehand with yarn, and they attached the pallet boards around the yarn so the negative space left would be in the form of a cross.
You can check out a time lapse here.
Budget: ~$300
- free pallets from around town
- $175 for 2x4s and hardware
- $75 for nail gun rental
- $50 food for volunteers
They built the entire wall, frame and all, in one day. The pallets were collected beforehand, and took about 5 hours to break down with 10 workers. They used around 40-50 pallets.
I write and speak about the creative process – especially for churches. Call me a resource for the church creative wanting to make their ministry better.
This looks great! what an awesome use of pallets!
How long did it take to put the wall up?
One day! We met at 8:30AM and left at 4PM. Check it out in action here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=503585862992911
Awesome design. I’m getting an error whenever I try an follow the time lapse link. Do you have another copy of the link?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=503585862992911
When you put the pieces of pallet together, was there any pattern that you used, or did you just start putting it together and just put it together as you went along. Also is there some places that you had to stack nail pieces on pieces to cover up holes or is it just one level of pallet pieces.
thanks
There wasn’t any particular pattern we were following, we just picked up random boards and nailed them on wherever they fit. The wall is has multiple layers. with some parts being level and some overlapping.
Sweet wall!! If you used 50 pallets, what are the dimensions of your wall? Thanks so much!!
Thanks! The wall is roughly 11 1/2 feet high by 32 feet wide.
What size are the projector screens on both sides of the wall?
Hi Justin, our screens are about 10′ x 5.5′ (16:9 ratio).
Jason
You are a truly amazing artist!!!!!!!!! So many of your ideas inspier me and my wonderful team to support the message at our church in a more ecreative and impactful way. We have recently been challanged to now support the message not seasonally but by subject. This causes us to spend a lot more time and budget to get the job done. However we chose to spend that 1,000.00 on lighting,how do you met this challange? Can you give me more spacific ideas using lighting to help make our old stuff look great? I love what you do and want to use as many ideas I can. I am a High School Science Teacher ( Horticulture science) So I know brainstorming in a group can result in awsome things. I just need help keeping goning on such a small ( “o”) budget for this year!
Ronda Kurka
Thank you Ronda!
1,000 can go a long way with lighting, or a very short way depending on how you go about it. We’ve gotten great results using cheap clip lamps from Home Depot and using all sorts of different wattage bulbs in different colors. Colors and light temperature definitely contribute a huge part to setting the mood. You probably want to stay away from fluorescent lighting (amidst the energy saving benefits and longer bulb life) and stick with incandescent bulbs. Also with lighting you want to be very aware if your power source, so that you are not overloading the circuit. I can go into more details in an email if you wish to contact me further!
Awesome set, guys! Loved the time lapse!
Just curious, did you do anything to treat the pallet wood before using it for the wall? We’re looking at doing a pallet-based design but are unsure if we need to go though the trouble of washing, sanding, staining, or painting the wood!
Thanks for the post!
Thanks Dave!
We did not treat the wood in anyway. I was going for the raw, weathered look, which all of the pallets we found already had. I was counting on the pallets being all sorts of different colors, and that some would be new and clean and others would be old and dirty. You definitely want to avoid retrieving pallets from grocery stores or dining establishments because they will use pallets to transport produce, and with that comes along all sorts of bacteria and other nasty items that you don’t want to deal with!
we’re working on a similar backdrop at our new church building that we’re renovating! Thanks for the inspiration… it’s coming along, take a look:
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/294897_331832093603405_1721405472_n.jpg
Did you build the wall the same way that is described at the top of this page? It look a little different, did you use a wooden frame? I really like the look you have and I am wanting to do the same thing in my youth room that i am building. I dont want this as a stage design but as a wall in our lobby. thanks for you help!
We built it very similarly. We framed the wall with sideways 2×4′s and used a finish nailer. Took 6 of us about 6 hours.
We are thinking about doing something similar, I was wondering about how this affected the sound? Do you know?
At the scale we built it, the wall acts as a sound dampener. The broken up surface helped to tame the natural reflections from sound bouncing off the flat back wall. Our drummers can now play louder without completely overwhelming the band :)
Ours in making an excellent sound baffle, eliminating reflections pretty nicely. Here is an updated pic of ours… we’re still working on it and hope to move into our new facility Late March!
https://twitter.com/ewagenmaker/status/306572945545900034/photo/1
What did you find the best/easiest way to take the slats off the pallets?
What I did was used a skill saw and chopped off the two end braces along with a few inches on each side of the pallet slats, then used a pry bar to get the middle brace off.
The best method in my experience is to use a reciprocating saw ( http://www.milwaukeetool.com/~/media/Images/Power%20Tools/Corded/6519-30/44880_6519-31-lg.ashx ) with a long 8-10 inch metal blade and cut straight through the nails that are holding the pallets together. This way you can make full use of all the wood and nothings to waste. You don’t need to deal with trying to pry nails off and you won’t have oddly shaped pieces of wood stuck on other pieces!
Hey!
We are doing this design for our entire youth room! It’s very innovative and elegant! I was wondering how many pallets it took to cover that size wall?
It took us about 40 pallets. We had our first service today… here’s a shot of the final at our place! http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/576581_10151351570893803_1226380713_n.jpg
Our wall is roughly 32′ x 16′ and we used about 50 pallets.