DIY Pallet Wood Dog
I’ve got a fun project to share with you today, dogs made from pallet wood. We made one DIY Pallet Wood Dog to keep and another to give as a gift. If you are a dog lover, you’ll most likely love this project.
How to Make a DIY Pallet Wood Dog
Supplies
- Aged boards from a pallet – Order pallet wood if you don’t have a source.
- Luan or thin plyboard
- Dog silhouette – We used this one.
- Bandsaw and/or Jigsaw
- Wood glue, pencil, clamps
- Hanger
Procedure
Obtain Pallet Wood
This past spring I had a few pallet projects in mind and asked on Facebook if anyone had a pallet that I could have. Several people responded and I was able to easily obtain two pallets. I never got around to my intended projects but I did use a board from one pallet to make this sign for our lake house and we used other boards from that pallet to make two pallet wood dogs.
Pallet wood ages nicely and neither my lake house sign nor these dogs required any stain. If you have new pallet wood, you’ll need to stain or paint your finished project.
Make a Template
Find a dog silhouette picture that you like and print it out. We found one that looks a lot like our dog, Sherman. Draw the dog the size that you want on a piece of luan. We didn’t have one sheet that was large enough, so we used two scrap pieces. If you can’t draw, enlarge the picture ( I like to use Block Posters), print it out, and tape the sections together to make a pattern.
Trace Dog Template on Pallet Wood
Line up pallet wood pieces and hold in place with a board clamped to the wood pieces.
Position dog template on wood. Our dog was wider than the boards, so we cut the tail separately.
Clamp the template into place so that it doesn’t move when you trace it.
Trace the dog onto the wood.
Cut out the Dog
Use either a jigsaw or band saw to cut out the dog pieces. We found that a band saw made smoother cuts. Our regular band saw’s blade broke during this project so we had to switch over to my granddad’s. This baby is ancient but still works perfectly.
We ended up using the first four boards for this section of the dog and then cut the remaining pieces using two more boards.
The dog pieces are cut out and ready to be glued together.
Attach the Pieces
Pallet wood isn’t regular. The wood has different widths, some boards are slightly cupped, and it hasn’t been planed to make it smooth. If the wood was regular, we could have connected the pieces with biscuit joints but since it was irregular and we wanted to see a small space between each board, we chose not to connect the pieces using biscuits, instead we used strips of luan.
The strips are in place here but not glued.
Glue the pieces together one section at a time. Clamp into place until the glue is dry.
Here the dog’s nose is glued to his face.
Now his body is glued together.
Now the tail piece is glued to the middle body piece.
Attach a Hanger
Estimate the center of mass for the hanger placement so that the dog will hang evenly. Another options for hanging include screws with wire or drill keyholes.
We made two dogs, a large one and a small one. Here you can see the large dog’s hanger placement.
We used a saw tooth hanger for the small dog. We like to stamp our projects with our personalized branding irons.
The Finished Products
The large dog is for our home but we’ve yet to decide on a place to display it. The small dog was a Christmas gift for Mr. SP’s sister.
We love this project and are looking forward to finding a special place to hang it.
The smaller dog will make its home in California in my sister-in-law’s home.
Pin It!
Pallet Wood Dogs to Buy
If you want a pallet wood dog but don’t want to make one yourself, check out these pallet wood dogs:
- Handmade Rustic Pallet Dog
- Labrador Retriever
- Beagle
- Rat Terrier
- Chesapeake Bay Retriever
- Brittany Spaniel
- Wirehaired Griffon
- Dachshund
- Great Pyrenees
- Weimaraner
- Boykin Spaniel
Other Pallet Wood Projects
This is so cute, and I know so many people with dogs that will love this. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Chas! Now I just need to find the perfect spot to display our dog.
Paula
Your project turned out great. I had several pallets but ended up just taking them to the dump because they were impossible to take apart. I’m sure if I had more patience I could have found a YouTube with handy dandy tips but nope.
Pallets aren’t easy to take apart. I leave that to my husband because I once tried and I wasn’t successful.
Paula
Love this idea! Well done.
As to books, I just finished The Pilot’s Wife, what a wonderful book! It isn’t a long book but gets you hooked and stays that way due to the well done writting. It’s about the airplane crash her husband was flying. Not saying more, but it’s like an onion with many, many layers to peel back! Another book is The Great Influenza, the pandemic 1918 flu that killed millions. A true book that examines Pres Wilson, the Johns Hopkins hospital and so much more. I love almost all of the Dick Francis books. Try Hot Money, Straight or Banker. Horses are always involved somehow, you always learn a lot in an interesting fashion. Hope you enjoy my suggestions, I’m beyond being an avid reader! If you like sifi try Anne MacCafery, she has The Dragon’s of Pern series, plus tons of other things. For great characters try Charlotte Armstrong, The Family Vault is the first in one run. Outrageous, nutty people bent on murder! Happy reading!
Thank you for the book suggestions. I’ve written them all down for my next library trip.
Paula
What an adorable project! You are so creative AND talented, Paula!
Shelley
Thank you, Shelley! Now I need to find the perfect place to hang this. It probably will end up either in our office or at the lake.
Paula
Love this project. You guys are so talented! Job well done.
Thank you so much, Elizabeth! We both were thrilled with the end result of this project.
Paula
So cute! I absolutely love dogs, so I will be convincing my husband to make this one! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Pamela! I am already thinking about making a rabbit for Easter.
Paula
The knot in the the wood is at the perfect spot for the dog’s eye/ eyebrow area! I like it. I sure do appreciate how much goes into a blog post like this now that I know all that’s involved! Did you see my candy cane pictures in front of beadboard?! It makes a good background, doesn’t it.
Thank you, Liberty! I’ve got to find a place to hang my dog. The little one is now at home in CA with my husband’s sister.
Paula
Surprise! You’ve been featured at BOTW : ). We both picked comforting things during winter (by accident)… just different things! https://www.b4andafters.com/the-best-of-the-weekend-link-party-jan18/
Have a wonderful week!
That is so cute and clever! I’ve never even thought about doing anything like this! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Thank you, DeeDee! We are thrilled with how this project turned out.
Paula
I love this. And any dog lover will. Thanks for sharing at the Snickerdoodle Create Bake Make Party.
I just love pallet wood and this reminds me of the mermaid I made for my daughter. Thank you for sharing at Party In Your PJs!
The dog pallet came out so cute looks great
Thank you, Laura! We are so pleased with this project.
Paula
This is adorable. It’d be so cute on the front porch of a dog lover. Thanks for linking to Keep In Touch.
My nieces both have Australian Sheep dogs… they would BOTH love this project! Thanks for sharing on Homestyle Gathering!
One of these made with an Australian Sheep dog silhouette would be a great project for your nieces to make or for a gift for them. Glad I could join your first party.
Paula
Thanks to give an idea… I would definitely follow it… its too cute
What an awesome project and very well done! I love it!
Paula, brilliant idea, just made two silhouettes of our two spaniels, happy to share so you can see! We live in northern Scotland.
I would love to see what you made. If you want to share, please send a picture of your project to me. ([email protected])
Paula