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Building Tiny House Cabinets With Reclaimed Pallet Wood

I put a barn wood post in my off grid tiny house by the stairs to support the loft better and transfer the weight to the floor. And then I built a storage cabinet for our clothes and blankets in the space at the top of the stairs using all recycled pallet wood.

 

I spent a considerable amount of time out by the barn wood pile sorting through the various pieces of wood looking for the perfect piece to use as a post in our tiny house on wheels. Since I got married, I put in an extension to the catwalk upstairs in the tiny house loft. Now I have to support that area better so that we can put some weight on it.

 

Up to now all of our clothes have been in a junk dresser that we salvaged on the side of the road one day. But this is huge and clunky and way too large for our tiny house loft. It was meant to be temporary. But I had to add some support to the loft by the stairs before I could put any real weight up there.

 

 

 

So I found a post that had two 2x9 inch boards nailed to it. This post looked to be the right size and length for my project. I tried to pry off the larger boards but the nails were too long and thick. My hammer could not even get around the nails due to their thick shafts. I have nothing that I can use to remove these nails or take apart this wood.

 

Trying to pry apart reclaimed barn woodTrying to pry apart reclaimed barn wood

 

So I spent some time searching for another post that I could use in the tiny house. Finally I found the perfect post but it was buried deeply in the barn wood pile. I worked for about an hour to remove the post from the pile and then carried this tree over to the work bench by the tiny house. It was about 14 feet long and rough sawn lumber from about 100 years ago. It was heavy.

 

I eventually managed to get it on the work bench though and got it cut to size for the tiny house. I first used a circular saw to get clean, straight cuts. Then I used a reciprocating saw to finish the cut deep into the thick barn wood post.

 

Cutting 100 year old barn wood to make a post for my tiny houseCutting 100 year old barn wood to make a post for my tiny house

 

I brought the huge piece of tree into the tiny house and wedged it into place. It fits perfectly. I dont even have to fasten it to keep it in place for now. I will let it dry and shrink for a while before I fasten it down in case it shrinks too much and I have to wedge it in later with shims.

 

Making a reclaimed barn wood post in my tiny houseMaking a reclaimed barn wood post in my tiny house

 

Next I went out to the wood storage tent to search for the perfect wood to build a cabinet for our clothes and bedding. I found a large crate that was used one time to haul a large commercial lawn mower. This was shipped with no fluids so the wood is clean. I pried the pallet apart to get to boards that I wanted. Originally I had intended to build the cabinet using 2x2 lumber but could not find enough dry wood at this time. Most of my pallet wood is outside in the weather. So I ended up using 2x4 lumber.

I built myself a nice frame using the lumber and then brought it upstairs to the tiny house loft. There is a 2 foot by 4 foot space at the top of the stairs that I had always wanted to store our clothes in. The new cabinet frame fit in perfectly. Next I cut some scrap plywood that I had on hand and dropped it into place. A few screws that I recycled from dismantling the recycled store sales counter held the shelves down.

 

Building a recycled pallet wood cabinetBuilding a recycled pallet wood cabinet

 

Next I have to close off the sides of our new cabinet and make a door when I get some time. It is going to be harder to find wood for this project so it may take some time. But for now we can put our clothes away neatly instead of living out of boxes.

 

You can watch the video of today's work here: Building Stuff In Tiny House With Reclaimed Lumber

 

While you are over there please subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow our daily videos as we strive to become self sufficient and off the grid on a budget.





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Troy Reid

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