DIY Deck Pallet Furniture

By Elle

The moment I saw this blog post about DIY pallet furniture for the deck, I knew I had to try it.

Pallets are pretty easy to come by, which is why people love to remake them into all sorts of things. Knowing we’d need about eight pallets, we picked up 10 (for free) at Lowe’s, figuring that one or two would end up as trash or spare parts.

Cutting them apart was the most challenging and time-consuming part, but once that was done, it was smooth sailing. Check out the photos and let me know what you think!

We cut the pallets in half across the middle to make them about 42 inches wide and about 18 inches deep. Then we sanded down all the edges.

We needed to remove boards on some pallets and add boards to others. I helped with my foot. 🙂

Pallets aren’t designed to be disassembled; they’re held together with sturdy, twisty nails that aren’t easily removed. To salvage the wood, the best way to “remove” the nails is to cut them with a Sawzall.

We went back and forth about covering the table top with treated lumber but then decided a couple coats of exterior paint would do the trick.

Once all the pieces were cut and “assembled” (aka piled on top of each other), we hauled out the patio furniture cushions and celebrated. Hmm, one glass and two bottles. I think we got that backward. Or not.

We painted (most of) the seating a nice bright yellow (if you really want to know the color, leave me a comment; I’m too lazy to run out to the garage to look), and we decided to paint the table purple, red and yellow. I still have some touching up to do. Next year!

Ta da! This is pretty much the finished product. We bought the green cushions from Lowe’s, on sale (about $80). The pillows are from Plow & Hearth and Lowe’s, all on sale (about $95). The indoor/outdoor rug is from Lowe’s, also on sale (about $35).

We didn’t bother putting legs on the pallets or even fastening them together. They’re quite fixed where they are because of their weight, and keeping them loose means that we can rearrange as we please. (Like flipping the direction of the corner pallets so the edges aren’t sticking out!)

Love the chevron design on these, the last of my pillow purchases. I ran into Lowe’s to check on something else and saw them. The last two at $3.50 each. Yay!

OK, so you’re going to think I’m a Lowe’s junkie, but that’s where everything on the table came from, with the exception of the flower pots. I wanted to stay with a white theme for tabletop stuff because everything else is so laden with color.