Scrap Take 2 - Bookshelf

In these parts we are picky about our pallet wood.  It has to be hardwood, rough sawn and well worn. No ordinary pine need apply. Who knew all the options that existed when it came to picking up wood next to a dumpster?  

Our pile of primo pallet wood was cluttering our always full garage, so we came up with a plan to add a little storage to the vacant corner in our living room.  Game plan: make our shoe bench by our garage entry on steroids, height to be determined by the length of the boards we have, and at least 2 shelves.

It took a lot of elbow grease to hand sand the sliver nightmare away and not loose the character of the awesome rough sawn wood.  But it was worth it!

After the all the sanding, a little thinned stain to tint the wood, we sealed it with 3-4 coats of matte finish water-based poly. The matte finish offers protection for the wood, seals down the rough edges/burrs that were left (aka slivers) and maintains the non-glossy rough around the edges look we wanted. 

It looks rough to the touch, but in fact it's smooth like butter!

End product - the world's heaviest bookcase and finally a home {burlap bins} for the ever growing collection of Legos!! Next project: Create a lamp for new bookcase.....