DIY Weekend: How to build pallet furniture

This weekend we accomplished so many house projects that my head is STILL spinning. I can’t believe how much we got done in just 48 hours! This was the last weekend we had before heading back to the mainland for the wedding (OMG!) and we figured that waiting until after the honeymoon was a bad idea. Coming home to a whole bunch of work? No thanks.

It’s no surprise to anyone who has read this blog for some time that we love DIY projects. Specifically, projects that involve re-purposing pallets.
Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

And finally–our new patio couch!

We’re still waiting on the cushions, but I can’t wait to spend our time out here!

When it comes to building pallet furniture, the very first and most important aspect is picking pallets that aren’t worn down, contain loose boards or are starting to splinter. Weak boards = weak furniture.

Next, make sure your pallets are nice and clean. I’m a psychopath neat freak, so anything that comes into my house that was once outdoors takes a bleach and hot water bath. I highly recommend scrubbing your pallets outdoors and letting them dry in the sun and overnight–or at least 24 full hours.

Once the pallets are dry, now is the time to sand. I can’t emphasize the sanding portion enough–even pallets that seem “smooth enough” will not be “smooth enough” once they’re inside your house. I promise. Nothing says hello like a splinter in the ass. I highly recommend a power sander–this part is really annoying and tedious but SO IMPORTANT.

All sanded? Perfect. Take a damp cloth and wipe off all the sanding dust, because now you can treat or paint the wood! Our wall pallet is just treated wood–no paint. But our coffee table and sofa are both painted using a dry brush technique.

We are really classy and usually do all of these things in our front yard so every neighbor can see.

If you paint or treat the wood, let your pallets dry again for 24 hours. I know that it’s really annoying to keep waiting, but it’s SO IMPORTANT, because otherwise your wood will warp, get moldy, etc.

Now it’s time for some fun!

For our coffee table, we stacked three pallets together, alternating wood grains so that from the top, it has a cool design. Using the longest, skinniest nails we could find, we nailed the pallets together on an angle. BE CAREFUL! This is a really good way to split the wood, so make sure you’re nailing on the pallet brace, no just one of the skinny boards.

Because I am picky, I told Dane I didn’t want a stationery table, so he added wheels. On the bottom pallet, he attached wheels by screwing on brackets using a nut and bolt. We haven’t done it yet, but a custom piece of glass is going to go on top!

For our sofa, we used the same stacking/nailing technique, except ix-nayed the wheels–I didn’t want to be flying around on the patio after one too many wine coolers Diet Cokes. Instead of stacking the third pallet on top, we used it as a back. Use the same nailing technique. This takes a little bit of finagling, because it’s a lot of wood to nail through. Have patience–it DOES work! As luck would have it, two pallets side by side fit SNUGLY on our patio, so we didn’t have to nail the two “jumbo chairs” together. This works in our favor considering we will be outta here in about a year and need to move those bad boys (hopefully without the movers breaking them!).

We picked up some fun lights from Target’s back-to-dorm sale and used a staple gun to affix them to the top of the couch back. Yes, of course I could have just woven them on the back, but the lights were going about 15 different directions and that didn’t sit well with my OCD. Ain’t nothin’ a staple gun can’t fix people.

Honestly, I love how all of these projects have turned out and since I’ve gotten so many questions I figured I would throw all my helpful hints out there. If you have any questions or your own tips/tricks–I’d love to hear them! We’ll be building some lounge chairs next 🙂