Introduction: Nintendo NES Pallet Table

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After some time I present you a new pallet project I did for me and my living room - I finally found some time and finished something I had in my wish list for some time now: Nintendo NES alike pallet table. It was absolute pleasure to create something that reminds you on happy geek childhood days when playing console was something you had to earn doing all the chores and you would be so happy when parents said yes. Anyhow, this instructable is pretty strait forward (as any pallet table making instructable) but the final result is really amazing, for me at least. Enjoy.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

Like I said, this project consumed good amount of working hours (for sanding and painting as always with palettes) it's really very simple and strait forward to do. You just fin a good, clean pallets, sand them, paint them, play around with masking tape and you're there.

Tools

  • electrical sander(s)
  • drill
  • paint brush
  • sand paper

Materials

  • 2 x wooden standard size palettes (in EU its 120 x 80 x 14.5 cm)
  • about 1.3l of paint (1l black + 0.05l red +0.05l gray + 0.2 white)
  • 4 bolts with nuts
  • 4 standard furniture wheels
  • some masking tape

So the first thing is you should rearrange your pallets to "fill all the blanks" on the upper pallet - I've managed to take planks out of the bottom one and force them on the upper one. I was also lucky to find some fantastic beech wood pallets (normally they are made out of cheaper and lighter pine wood), so the overall result was even better. After this rearrangement it was all about sanding, sanding and sanding.

Step 2: Paint and Assembly

In the last few months of extensive pallet work I've done, I found that using concrete paints are definitely the best when making something like this: they are cheap; very very resilient to rain, sun, scratching, etc; you really need only one coat, because they cover wood amazingly good (even when painting with brush); you can use them with compressor/paint brush and they are cheaper than any other paint. The very good alternative is water base paint - they are a bit more expensive but still the best choice if you are making something like a dining table (due to minimal chemical compounds inside). I've combined both paint types with this one.

After you paint your table in primary paint it's time for some masking tape art. The pictures explain it better than words - you just need a bit of practice and outlining should go easily - the only problematic area is that movement arrows area where you need to be a bit careful.

Wheels are must have if your ask me (but not mandatory of course) because your table will be pretty heavy and moving around (especially on rug I have) would be hard to do without them.

p.s. if you are thinking on how to connect top and bottom pallet, please check description I made on my Union Jack pallet table - it should help.

Step 3: The Final Result

And that's it! The only additional thing I did are these rear speakers I had from my home theater - I had no way of using them properly (due to strange living room layout) so I decided to "install" them inside the bottom pallet to have some sound coming at my feet. In order to do this I had to cut a small hole in my rug (few mm in diameter, just enough for wires to go trough) but this is absolutely unnoticeable.

You are free to make this project on your own - my pictures state that this is my original design in case someone (it actually happened a few times now) try to use them without any credit. I do sell this (and other things I do) via my new GEEK shop and each of these and other Original design products are signed as proof of authenticity so if you decide to give credit I would more than thankful.

Enjoy and geek on!