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This faux pallet wall makes a gorgeous wood feature wall to hang your TV (and hide the cords), and is an easy DIY that can be done over one weekend. This post contains step by step instructions how to make a faux pallet wood accent wall and wood plank TV wall mount, using store bought planks instead of pallet wood.

Faux Pallet Wood TV Wall

At our last house, our living room had vaulted ceilings with a brick fireplace that formed a perfect accent wall and natural focal point in the room. Having a natural focal point made it easy to know where to center furniture, and was the perfect starting point for holiday decorating. 

This living room, however, doesn’t have a natural feature point.

As part of our renovation, we tore down 7 walls to create an open concept space. While I love the open concept, it left a long, grey wall that extended from the front corner of the house, all the way to the back corner.

It was just a loooong wall of nothing but pale grey. While I knew I needed some way to make it into an accent wall or feature wall, I wasn’t sure exactly how to do so.

And I had practicality to consider, too. This was our TV wall, and we had a tiny media unit to put somewhere.

Once the renovations were done, we just plopped down a TV stand and media unit, and never really did much else, but I never really loved the look.

Basic Entertainment and Media Stand Be Gone

Eventually, I hit a breaking point with this TV stand.

I couldn’t stand the open back that showed all those cords, so I never put much of an attempt into decorating it.

I knew I wanted to do something to break up the long expanse of pale grey of the wall. But until I decided what, I just didn’t care to fiddle with anything else.

Which brought me to a weekend of furious Googling…

Wood Pallet vs Wood Accent Wall

You see, I love dimension on walls like the board and batten we added to our foyer/mudroom.

Plants just add so much character and depth as opposed to just painting a flat wall.

I also love the trend of using pallet boards to build a wood wall. DIY pallet walls have a gorgeous, shabby chic barn wood look to it!

However, it wasn’t until I saw this fireplace surround from Thrifty Decor Chick, that I knew what I wanted.

I love the idea of building a bump-out from the wall. For one, building a bump-out would add dimension to the long, flat wall. However, I also loved that practical aspect of it, as it would not only hide the television and media unit cords, but it would also hid the wall mount for the TV.

I knew it’d be difficult to achieve the bump out with a pallet wood wall. I also knew I didn’t really want the natural pallet wood look or even a wood look, because there was already enough wood tones going on in this room.

By using store bought planks instead of pallet boards, I figured I could make something that looked enough like pallet wood to be on trend, with a bit more structure, polish, and practicality to suit my project’s needs.

(If you’re really set on using pallet boards / making a pallet wood wall, I’ve added my thoughts on how to create this project from pallet wood at the bottom of this post!)

How to Build a Faux Pallet Wall for Your TV

Materials You’ll Need for my Faux Pallet Wood Wall

• 2×4’s (how many you need depends on how wide your wall will be)
• 3″ screws
• 1.5″ screws
• Plank Paneling (we needed 4 packs, and this is what we chose to use as an alternative to pallet wood/reclaimed barn wood)
• Corner molding
• Crown molding
• Wood putty
• Painters tape
• Paint

How to Build and Install a Faux Pallet Wood Wall

Frame the Wood Accent Wall with Studs to Create a Bump Out

The key to this wood TV wall is creating a “bump out” that will hide your TV mount and all the cords.

And to create said bump-out, you need to build out a frame for the wood wall.

Start by screwing 2×4’s into the existing studs in your wall.

We used 3″ screws, and drilled them in at an angle to attach them to the existing studs. You’ll need to do as many of these as you want your plank wall wide.

(I took this picture a few steps in, but it still gives you an idea of how we attached the studs and cut them around the baseboard)

Build the Wood TV Mount

You also need to decide where you want your TV mount to be, and cut the studs to allow room for that.

We used scrap wood to build the wood TV mount base.

By building this part out from the wall, it will make the mount flush with the new plank wall. But how far out you need to build it depends somewhat on the type of TV mount you buy.

Make sure you use a level when you’re on the TV mount step. It would be pretty frustrating to go to all this trouble and end up with a crooked TV!

Cut a Cord Hole

Because of where our outlets are in this room, we cut a circle in the side of the outer stud to pull our cords through.

By cutting a cord hole, you can keep your electronics cords tucked nicely behind your wood wall, which will give you a much tidier look!

Consider Cord Access

We placed the power strip in the bottom of the wall. We did so knowing we would be cutting an access hole in the planks so that we could always reach it, and that we planned to have a media unit/credenza in front of the wood TV wall to cover it.

The other options is to keep the cut outs from the planks and use them to make a “door” that attaches with hinges to hide it. (If you end up using pallet wood or barn wood that is shorter and more randomly arranged, you could also just arrange it so there’s a gap for cords).

Then we pulled the cords up through the TV mount and taped them in place so they wouldn’t fall as we were working.

In real life, we did all these steps before we started screwing the wood planks in, but I wanted to show you a picture with the planks so you could see the access hole we cut out for the power strip.

You can also see in the picture above how we bumped out the electrical outlet so that it would be flush with the new wall (on the right edge of the picture).

Attach the Front Planks (My DIY Pallet Alternative)

Attach your planks to the new studs using 1.5″ screws.

We attached the front pieces first, being sure to cut around where the TV would mount would sit and any electrical outlets.

Install Side Pieces and Corner Molding

Then attach your side pieces, corner molding and finally the crown molding to finish it off.

Fill, Finish, and Paint

Use the wood putty to fill any nail holes, and tape off the entire unit using good quality painter’s tape.

And then start painting!

We had to use a brush and a roller because of the grooves in the wood planks. It went very quickly, though. It only took about 45 minutes for one coat of paint.

The plank kits that I link to in the supply list are stain-grade, if you want the look of a stained plank wall instead of a painted wall.

And for those of you who are wondering, the paint color for this wood TV wall is this deep gray from Sherwin Williams.

A Note About Centering Your Television on a Wood TV Wall

One thing I do want to point out is this finished picture before we started painting.

Do you notice anything that makes you scratch your head?

The TV mount is very off-center.

We wanted our TV mount to be attached to the original studs in the main wall for safety and stability.

That meant that the mount wasn’t centered on the wall.

To get around this, we chose a mount that we could slide the TV left to right a few inches on, so in the end the TV itself is centered even if the mount isn’t.

Pallet Wood vs. Planks

Don’t get me wrong, I do love the pallet wood and reclaimed barn wood aesthetic, and definitely considered it for this project.

So why did we use store bought planks instead of pallet wood?

To start with, the reasons above: I didn’t want a stained or natural wood accent wall, because we already had a lot of wood happening in the room. And if I was going to paint it anyway? It didn’t seem like there was a lot of point in going to the trouble of using reclaimed wood pallet boards.

However, I also held back for a few other reasons. For one, we have young kids running in and out of the house all the time, and I was concerned about safety of rough wood, especially around splinters, etc.

Finally, I also really wonder about cleaning pallet walls and rough barn wood or reclaimed wood. Part of the beauty of these accent walls is their texture and roughness, but I have some serious questions about how you dust and clean them.

We lived in an apartment with a massive brick wall for a few years, and it was TOUGH to dust!

Could You Use Wood Pallets for the Boards?

I’ve thought a lot about how I’d change this project if I was really married to the idea of using a proper pallet wood or barn wood for the boards.

I think it’s possible, but would require a bit of adjusting.

Pallet wood planks are about 36″ long, and studs in a home are typically 16″to 24″ apart. So you should theoretically be able to screw the pallet wood into the studs to install a pallet wall.

However, one of the key tricks when you install a pallet wall is scattering the pallet boards, so they look a bit random. This is kind of important to getting the shabby chic pallet wood wall aesthetic.

What I probably would have done is installed plywood sheets to cover the studs, painted the plywood sheets a really dark color to account for gaps in pallet wood, and then attached the pallet wood to the plywood using liquid nails. Voila: a pallet wall with a bump out!

Final Thoughts About Our Faux Pallet Wood TV Wall Mount and Accent Wall

We LOVE the way this built in wood TV wall mount turned out!

A wood feature wall was exactly what this room needed to add a defined focal point, and it’s so practical since it serves as a wood TV wall mount, too.

I’m currently trying to convince my husband we should build one for our bedroom and add sconces for over our  nightstands!

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