Hide Unsightly Washing Machine Hookups With A Rustic Wooden DIY
If your laundry room is adjacent to your living space, in an area where guests walk through, or even if you've just had it renovated, chances are you've done a lot to make the space look clean and uncluttered. Perhaps you utilize a system of bins, cabinets, and drawers to manage your hampers, detergents, and other supplies. So why not create a decorative solution to hide your washing machine hoses and hookups? It's an easy DIY you can build from old pallets and doesn't require any particularly advanced skills.
Your laundry hookups are typically located in a small square alcove in the wall above your machines. Before you get started, measure this space and how far out the hoses protrude, and use these measurements to determine how big you want your piece to be and how much you'd like it to cover. Naturally, the hoses still need to connect to your washer, so you won't be able to hide them completely, but if your wall dips below the top line of the washer, it could keep them out of your sight line.
Making a decorative pallet wall
Before building a wall out of pallets, you need to deconstruct them. Pallets are made from rough wood, so you need to make sure you wear work gloves to save yourself from potential splinters. Pry all the boards off of the structure with a crowbar or the claw of your hammer. Use multiple pallets to get enough boards for your project. Sand each piece down with coarse-to-medium-grit sandpaper on a power sander. How coarse it needs to be depends entirely on the condition of the wood.
Because you're hiding important utility connections behind your wall, building your decorative wall a few inches away from the room's actual wall is best. At the same time, you must be able to access those hoses. To this end, rebuild your pallet wall on the original pallet structure, which will create that necessary distance, and if you mount it to your wall with the pallet supports on the top and bottom, you'll still be able to reach behind it.
Laundry rooms can get pretty humid, so use wood stain on each board. You can use a single stain across all the boards or various colors for artistic interest. For stability on the finished piece, place a piece of plywood across the pallet supports as a base. Use nails or wood glue to affix them right up against one another, without gaps, in whatever pattern suits you.
Where to find pallets
Pallets are ubiquitous in the large volume retail space, where they're used to store and move multiple cases of product at a time. Of course, they're not as accessible to everyone else, but getting them can be easier than you think. Many retailers have so many pallets pass through their stores that they routinely discard them. If you drive around the back of a commercial building and see pallets stacked up, it's possible you might be able to have some — but don't take them without asking. Go into the store and ask a manager in charge if you could take a couple of their pallets out back. And then, most importantly, respect their answer. If they allow you two, don't take three. If they say they can't spare any, move on to another store. It won't be hard to find someone who won't mind sending a few your way.
Other places to find free pallets are Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, though it should be noted that it's best to pick up items in a public location and never to go to a stranger's home alone. A safer option might be to call your local home improvement store to find out if they offer recycled pallets, though there might be a cost. There is also bulk pallet wood available for sale on Etsy for various prices, but it'd be best to search for free shipping due to its weight.