Habitat TV

An easy pallet screen

Rubbish bins can be an eyesore but need to be close to the house and driveway for practical reasons. A pallet is just the right height for hiding a standard rubbish bin. For this project, three pallets were screwed together and painted with Resene Zircon, Resene Aviator on the edges and Resene Morning Glory for the street-number detailing. Pallets come in different sizes, make sure your pallet is tall enough to hide your bin.

You will need:

- 3 pallets (our pallets were 1225mm in height x 1005mm width x 145mm depth)
- 4 fence palings cut to the height of the pallet
- Your choice of Resene colours – we used Resene Aviator, Resene Zircon and Resene Morning Glory
Sandpaper
- Hammer and nails
- Screws

To create the screen:

Step 1 Measure and cut two fence palings to the same height, width and depth as your pallets (our pallet was 1225mm H x 1005mm W x 145mm D). Sand the wood and wipe clean with a dry cloth. Paint with two coats of Resene Aviator, allowing dry time between coats.

Step 2 Measure and cut the other two fence palings to the same height, width and depth as your pallet (our pallet was 1225mm H x 1005mm W x 145mm D). Sand the wood and wipe clean with a dry cloth. Paint with two coats of Resene Aviator, allowing dry time between coats.

Step 3 Use a stencil to apply a street number to the side of one of the pallets and paint the stencil detail in Resene Morning Glory.  Remove the stencil carefully and use a small paintbrush to tidy up any ragged edges.

Step 4 Sand down all three pallets and wipe clean with a dry cloth. Paint with two coats of Resene Zircon.

Step 5 Stand two pallets side by side vertically and at a 90 degree angle. Screw them together at the top, bottom and in the middle. Line the third pallet up to create the third side of your ‘box’, screw together at the top, middle and bottom.

Step 6 Nail the blue palings to the front and top of the two side pallets. 

Wheel in your rubbish bin.