A friend of mine wanted a stand for her dog's food and water bowls (she owns a particularly messy dog) so I decided to make her one out of reclaimed pallet wood. Its a relatively simple project to build and turned out quite well (for both owner and pet!).

Materials:

Pallet Wood (Make sure to know how the pallets were treated and what they were used for)

Wood Screws

Metal Dog Bowls

Wood Glue (and optionally super glue)

Stain / Polyurethane

Black Paint

Tools:

Jigsaw

Miter Saw or Circular Saw

Power Drill

Sander or Sand Paper

Brushes

Step 1: Cutting the Holes

After deciding on the appropriate dimensions (taking into consideration the dog's height) I cut the pallet boards with a miter saw (a circular saw would also have worked). Then I traced the bowls onto the boards and made a smaller circle inside which compensates for the lip around the bowls, allowing them to rest inside. Next I cut out the four half circles from the boards with a jigsaw and fit the metal dog bowls inside.

Step 2: Building the Stand

To make the sides of the stand I cut the lengths of pallet board and mitered the edges at a 45 degree angle. Then I cut a pallet stringer (the roughly 2x4 piece of wood) to make four posts which the sides and tops will be attached to. Next its time to glue and screw it all together. I attached the shorter sides to the posts first, followed by the long sides to create a box. The top pieces are now attached, resting on the posts in each corner.

I found that the top sagged a bit in the middle so I cut a few bars of wood to brace the top, adding them on the inside. Ideally this step should be done before attaching the top to the box as there will be more room to work.

Step 3: Final Touches

After sanding the stand I applied a medium brown stain. I purchased some wooden letters from a craft store and painted them black before gluing them onto the front of the box with super glue. Finally I covered the stand in a few coats of polyurethane to make it more water resistant and placed the bowls inside.

Hope you enjoyed this Instructable and feel free to vote for it in the Reclaimed Wood and Dog Contests!