Light Up Pallet Head Board and Bonus Phone Dock

This project took me a couple of hours to complete the head board.

You will want a basic knowledge of how to take apart pallets, I will be posting another instructable on how to take apart pallets. You will also want to know the size of your bed (queen, king, double, twin or single) this will change the width of the head board.

The wood was taken from a construction site near my house with the permission of the foreman. Please do not steal pallets

The lights in the head board have been set up to be controlled by any smartphone, and you are able to choose your own mood lighting, which will require a plug

The Bonus 2 for 1 instructable phone docks are custom made to fit an iPhone 4s and one for an iPhone 5s. but these steps can be changed to fit the age a model of the phone you own. these also require a Plug.

Please enjoy this Instructable, if you have any questions i'll do my best to answer a quick as possible and I would love to see pictures if you make your own.

• A responsibly required pallet (from local mall, construction site or grocery store with permission)
• Save the nails from the pallet slats
• Crowbar
• Hammer
• Saw (hand or circular)
• Pliers
• Drill
• Carving knifes
• Chisel sets
• Charging cables
• Power source (wall plug)
• LED Light system (recommend the Phillips Hue aprox. 100$ + hue base station)

The pallet I choose for this project had two different size slats on it

If you cannot remove all the nails hammer them flat.

I did all of this work inside my 5th floor apartment so I did not have the freedom to use power tools so i used hand tools the only difference will be how fast you can cut the wood.

Pro tip: have a second pallet to cut your wood on.

At this step it is important to have the raw materials ready and know the size of your bed. I have made this head board the same with as a kingsize mattress, as i currently have a queen and have allowed for room to grow.

The slats that come on top of the pallet I have placed end to end, and have taken a single slat and used it as a middle post. You will want to lay out enough slats so that it is above your bed height, below your bed height slats are not needed as you will not see them.

The 2x4 that is the sides of the pallet are used as the legs. This arrangement allowed me to use one entire pallet for this project.

You will want have two of the slats saved to make a cap for the top of the bed frame.

Start nailing your boards together.

I like to use the nails that come from the pallet as they are spiral nails and hold onto the wood together very well.

The legs of the pallet have been positioned the same width as the head board attachment brackets of my bed frame, be sure to space accordingly. This also allows the custom iPhone docks to be beside you hovering over your night stand.

Use two nails per end of the board this will stop the boards from rotating.

The Phillips Hue LED Light strips come with an adhesive backing that I have stuck to the legs and the underside of the cap.

this allows the light to flood down the wall and through the holes between the slats.

The app that phillips provides allows you to change the colours and have custom settings to set the perfect mood for those perfect evenings. ;-)

Take a break and enjoy a cup of coffee and a sandwich, the next steps are optional. The head board has been completed at this point and now you get your bonus Instructable, the custom phone docks...

I have used some spare wood that I found around the house, probably from some shelf I took apart.

The wood should be thick enough that when there is weight put on it it stays put. The friction holds it in place and ensure you measure enough room to lay the phone on the shelf plus the thickness of the slats.

You will want to cut the second piece of wood to be shorter by the thickness of your slats, so that you have a stopper so the shelf does not fall out the back. My shelf is 5" and the smaller shelf is 3 3/4" wide.

You will want to draw out the measurement of the bottom of your phone in the middle of the smaller piece and then start to carve.

The hole you carve you will want to make at a 45 degree angle. this will allow the phone to stand at an angle that you can read the screen.

Then clamp the two pieces together and drill a hole through for the cable and chisel out the hole to the shape of your connector

On the first piece you will want to carve a path for the cable to run along from the hole to the back of the board. and widen the hole so you can fold the cable down push the cable back up.

Once you dry fit the pieces together its time to glue the two together, align with the hole and wait for it to dry before gluing the connector in place and inserting the phone.

If you have any questions please message me or leave a comment below and I'll do my best to get back to you and I would love to see pictures if you make one as well. Happy building