Man Cave Wood Pallet Bar {Step By Step}

Just the other day when I visited my friend for our weekend party time, he asked me if I could make a Man Cave Wood Pallet Bar for his theater room.

I quickly wore my DIY hat and decided to get it ready to have a great time on the upcoming weekend.

Are you also looking to spice up your kitchen or entertainment room with a man cave pallet bar?

Follow this step-by-step guide as I present them in this article.

Materials For Wood Pallet Bar

• 2” x 4” x 10” (9)
• 1” x 6” x 10” (4)
• 1” x 4” x 10” (2)
• 1” x 4” x 8” (1)
• 3” angle braces (2)
• 2 ½” wood screws
• Kreg Jig
• 2 ½” Kreg screws
• Measuring tape
• Table saw (for ripping boards)
• Chop saw
• Air Nailer (I use a Ryobi Airstrike) with 1 ½” nails
• Cordless drill
• Orbital Sander
• stain and a top coat of your choice (I used Minwax Dark Walnut and Semi-Gloss Polyurethane)
• wood glue
• clamps

The overall size of this bar is 39 ¼” by 9.8.”

How To Build A Man Cave Wood Pallet Bar

Step 1: Build the side of the base frame

To build the side of your base frame, you will want to cut (4) 2×4” @ 16 and (4) 2×4” @ 38 1/2.  

Drill 2 pocketholes into each end of the 16” 2×4 and use Kreg Screws to attach it to your 38 ½” 2×4 boards. Make sure your 38 ½” boards are standing on their side when you drill them in.

Step 2: Set bar length

Next, cut (3) 2×4” to the length you want your bar to be.  

I used (3) 1 ½ boards which made my overall bar, once done, about 9×8 (including the bar top).  

I used regular wood screws to nail those into the inside of the side frame, two boards at the top (front and back of the bar), and one at the bottom.

Step 3: Complete the base frame

Next, I cut 10 more 2×4” @ 38 ½ and screwed these into the long 2×4 I just framed. I spaced them evenly apart.  

This will be what the pallet wood will be nailed to, so you want to make sure you have enough supports to have somewhere for each board to attach to.  

Note: You can use more or less depending on how long your reclaimed wood is.

You will also have to cut 2 x 4 boards on the inside of the frame nailed into the front 2×4.  

 

I cut mine at 31 ½.

These boards will need to fit inside your top and bottom 1 ½” boards.

You can see the stacked 2×4” in the picture below.  

I just used my nail gun to attach them to the other screwed 2×4.

In this step, you can begin attaching pallet boards to the front area. 

Step 4: Increase stability

Also, grab some angle braces and attach them to your base.  

Then screw those into the subfloor to give sufficient stability to your oversized bar.  

If you don’t want to do this, then you will have to make your sides way wider to accommodate the size of this bar.  

Don’t worry about the openness of angle braces. They will be covered with pallet wood.  

Tip: You could also attach one side to wall studs for more stability if it touches a side wall (see angle brace in the picture below).

Step 5: Connect the board to the tabletop.

To add stability to the tabletop, add 7 or so 2×4” and cut @ 16”. 

Drill 2 pocket holes into each end and secure them to the top 1 ½” boards with Kreg Jig screws.

Step 6: Integrate all parts

Now using pallet boards and a nail gun, attach pallet boards to the front and side of your base, making sure a nail goes into all those 2 x 4 supports. 

All my pallet boards ran horizontally except for the inside corner edge piece.  

You want to be careful in the corners that you don’t have any cut edges showing.  

You want to maintain the worn edge showing (see the picture below to see what I mean). You might have to rip that vertical board to fit just so.

 

You will also have to add additional support to the side frame inside in order to have something to attach your pallet boards too. 

See picture below.

Challenge I Faced

The only part that drove me crazy was having to build around all the cords to the sound system/TV.  

I just left that open, and we ended up finding a small table to slide underneath the bar to have all that stuff sit on. It isn’t the best solution but something that works for now. I also added pallet wood to the inside top 2×4.

Learning

I thought long and hard about all the options for the bar top.  

In the end, in order to keep the cost low on this build, I used (4) 1×6 pieces of pine wood and drilled pocketholes on the backside, and glued and clamped them together.  

Then I flipped it over and sanded the snot out of it so you could barely see the seams. 

I highly recommend an orbital sander for this; a regular palm sander would take days to make smooth. 

I forgot to take a picture of the pocketholes but it looks similar to this without the side pieces and only 4 boards!

Step 7: Fitting

Next, I added 1”x4” pieces and framed out the bar top, so it looked thicker.  

I air-nailed them into the bar top and mitered the corners, and dry-fit it to the base.  

Note: I did not add a trim piece to the side closest to the wall. I just butt the top right edge of the bar top to the wall edge

Step 8: Finish

For the top I used Minwax Dark Walnut, followed by about 5 coats of Minwax Semi-Gloss Polyurethane.  

Make sure to sand with 400 grit between coats to get a nice smooth finish. I raised it up during this process, so I didn’t have to tape it off.

To attach the bar top to the base, I used long screws on the inside.

 

All my sanding paid off.  You can barely even tell I joined the top together with pocketholes.  To attach the bar top to the base I used long screws on the inside. 

If you don’t mind nail holes you can also drive air nails through the top or trim into the base. 

Since it is rustic already I didn’t patch up any holes.

The final outcome is here 🙂 

This stamp on the wood is my favorite part of the bar!

Want to know how it looked when we arrived at the theater room the upcoming weekend?

Here you go!

Customization

• My friend added bar stools for extra coziness. You can add them too. 
• You can also add a coat of varnish for that extra shine if you don’t like the raw appearance. 
• You can include a storage unit just beneath the table if you want to use it to store liquor and other eatables. 
• Push this man cave pallet bar adjacent to your kitchen countertop and add a cozy velvet cloth over it. It can glow in grandeur.

This stamp on the wood is my favorite part of the bar!

It is perfect for extra seats and an eating area for the big game.

My friend ended up purchasing 3 leather like barstools. He could have fit 4 in the space tightly.

But men need room I guess (you know the rule of sitting a chair away from each other in a movie theater??) 

Obviously if he didn’t have the sound stuff under there he could fit 4-5 stools.

How Much Does It Cost To Make A Wood Pallet Bar

It costs about $135 to build a 10 feet bar for a man cave.

I found some reclaimed pallet-type wood for free, and this saved my expenses. 

You should go for wooden pallets as I did. It will save time and money.

 

TOUCHDOWN!!!! Man cave perfection.  I would have more décor on the walls but hey!

To each his own ;-P

For more building plans click on the pictures below to check out!

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