Finished sideboard with white cabinet doors and a wood plank top

DIY A Sideboard With Reclaimed Materials

The Stardust Repurpose Team is at it again! This time they built a sideboard for our conference room by reusing reclaimed base cabinets, hardwood flooring, and pallet wood.

Easily replicate this DIY sideboard for your own home by following our how-to steps.

Rows of single cabinets for sale in a Reuse Center

Step 1

Select your cabinets. It’s best to use base cabinets with similar cabinet door styles unless you’d like a more mismatched look. The number of cabinets will depend on how long you want your piece to be. We created our reclaimed sideboard with one long base cabinet.

Green Sheen eco-friendly paint can with gray cabinet doors and drawers

Step 2

Prep your cabinets for paint or stain. We used GreenSheen eco-friendly paint in grey which we sell for just $16 a gallon.

Two plywood sheets cut to size for the sideboard project

Step 3

Next you’ll want to create the top for the base cabinets. Cut a piece of plywood to fit over your cabinets. Make sure you cut the plywood so that’s it even with the edge of the cabinets.

Volunteer laying reclaimed flooring strips onto a plywood top

Step 4

Once the plywood was cut we chose to use hardwood flooring to cover it. Snap the flooring in place and use nails, glue or staples to adhere it to the plywood.

Stack of wooden shipping pallets on a lot

Step 5

To cap off the hardwood floor top we repurposed scrap pallet wood to use as trim. Prep the pallet wood by removing any nails and sand down to get a smooth finish.

Gray painted pallet wood boards propped up on a drop cloth

Step 6

Cut the pallet wood on a diagonal to fit the pieces together.We decided to stain the wood by mixing water with the GreenSheen paint. To create the stain use 50% water and 50% paint. Attach the pallet wood trim to the edges of the top with a nail gun.

Hardwood flooring glued onto the sideboard as a new top

Step 7

Mount the hardwood flooring top to the base cabinets with a few finishing nails.

Finished sideboard with white cabinet doors and a wood plank top

Step 8

Install your reclaimed sideboard into place and you’re finished! For a more built-in look add trim to the bottom of the base cabinets.