Pallet Beer Bottle Opener

created this simple refurbished pallet-wood bottle opener, in the spirit of The Office, of course.

you need:

-pallet
-hammer and crowbar
-saw
-drill
-screws
-paint (i used a variety of brown, red, blue, green, black and white to mix into a dark brown and a sea-green to give it a rustic look)
- bottle opener (i got mine at a hardware store)

the best way I've found to do this is to hammer in the edge of the crowbar into the crevasse between the wood and the frame and gently rock it to loosen the nails. do this to each side and in the middle. after it's loosened, I hammer the backside of the wood across the entire wood pallet to pop it off the nail. this way it becomes less strained and has a smaller chance of cracking or breaking.
after the wood comes off the frame, hammer the sharp side of the nails down and pull from the top to get all the nails out of the wood.

I decided to use 3 pallet pieces at 15 inches long each to make the back. To attach them, I cut two 1.5 X 9.5 inch pieces to lay across the top and bottom of the back to secure the pallet boards together.

I used an 8 inch piece of pallet for the front, two 3 inch pieces for the sides, and an 8x2.5 inch piece for the bottom. to secure, I drilled and screwed in 2 screws per side and then attached with 4 screws on the backside.
I wasn't overly concerned about the shapes and matchup between the pallet pieces because I wanted it to have a beat-up and rustic look and the pallet wasn't in great shape to start. I mainly just insured the pieces could go together without much of a gap or without cracking the wood.

to give the wood an old-fashioned, stressed look, I used a little paint and broad brush strokes with the dark brown. the wood made this easy because it didn't take to the paint in several spots and made it look splotchy without much help. the light brown you see is the bare board.
after the brown dried for the most part, I mixed blue and yellow and brown and white to make a sea green color. I added a substantial amount of water to the mix before applying to the wood. using the same technique (little paint on the brush and broad strokes) I added the greenish layer. after that dried, I lightly added one more light coat of a more bright sea green with less water mixed in. I let this dry before continuing with the lettering

measure where your bottle opener will go and then add whatever words or details you would like. I lined the top screws in my bottle opener up with the small wood pieces on the back that secured the pallet boards together.

to create your words, if you have a stencil, that may help, but I did mine free hand. I attempted to mod podge the words previously by transferring a photo, but because the pallet is so rough, it didn't take and I just ended up with a mess on my board I had to touch up with more paint :/

let this dry then hang and crack a cold one!