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Wooden Pallet Furniture

Quick the sun’s out and it might have disappeared again by the time you read this so I wanted to rush in and show you this, because if you’re anything like the rest of us you will have seen the sun, realised you hate your garden furniture, realised you haven’t got a squillion pounds to spend on a new set and gone back inside to wait for the inevitable rain.

image by reena @hygge_for_home
image by reena @hygge_for_home

But wait, there is this. This is garden furniture from Homebase that is basically kiln dried wooden pallets that you can buy for £23 a pop and you can build your own furniture. And ain’t that a clever idea? The sofa as pictured below would cost you £230 (without the cushions) but you could build a smaller or simpler one.

diy pallet garden furniture from homebase
diy pallet garden furniture from homebase

If you wanted this one then there are also cushions to fit as shown below. You have to buy the fixings and the pallets don’t come with instructions but it’s fairly easy to see how this sofa has been assembled.

diy pallet garden furniture from homebase
diy pallet garden furniture from homebase

And if you’re still not sure the top and bottom of this post has pictures by Reena, aka @hygge_for_home on instagram, who made her garden furniture from old scaffolding planks which cost between £5 and £10 a plank. She then commissioned a carpenter to build the seating for her and it has weathered over the years. Add some throws and cushions and the odd sheepskin for those chilly evenings.

image by reena @hygge_for_home
image by reena @hygge_for_home

What do you think? I think it’s a clever way to acquire affordable garden furniture that you can also customise to any awkward or small spaces that you might have, without needing to hire a carpenter as you can fix the pallets together yourself. The pallets are treated and are ready to be painted,  waxed or finished however you choose. If you check the link above you will also see ideas for a table, a wall planter and and sort of plant/tool/drinks cupboard. Basically, buy a few pallets and see what you can make.

 

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

13 Comments

  1. I can confirm that these are new, purpose built pallets that have been planned to reduce the likelyhood of splinters etc.
    These are manufactured from FSC verified timber (timber from a sustainable source)

    The Benefit of buying new pallets is you can get pallets that are all the same size……….. this is very difficult to achieve if you upcycle from used pallets. Used pallets also take significant time & labour to prepare and are very often broken!

    These new pallets are fantastic, take less time and effort to prepare (compared to 2nd hand) and you still get to make it your own! Win win I say

  2. Should these be recycled pallets?
    There would be quite a few issues for Homebase to overcome in order to do this – would you really want your toddler having a chew on a pallet that had carried a load of leaking car batteries at some point in its life?
    Pallets are actually a valuable item that get used many times over. Business will often send goods out on the pallets that come in with the raw materials. There are loads of companies that buy used pallets, sort them, repair them, take apart trashed ones for spare parts. Any industrial estate is often visited by flatbed trucks with a groaning pile of pallets on the back driven by strong armed men looking in every corner for an addition to the load. So don’t feel guilty for buying new ones…besides you can always sell them to be recycled once you are done with them!
    If you really want to do this with recycled pallets, 30 seconds on the web will find you a supplier. Expect to pay about £10.00 for one in good condition. Just watch out for splinters, contamination and variation in some of the materials.

    1. That’s a really interesting comment and full of valid points. I guess we can recyle our own pallets if we wish but to sell them to the mass market is clearly more complicated than it appears – I certainly hadn’t thought about considering what the pallets may have held during their working life. Thank you for sharing such an informed viewpoint.

  3. Pallets are easy to get hold of for free, as businesses often have to pay to have them taken away, so it’s worth trawling your local industrial park and knocking on some doors.
    There are also books and websites with ideas and instructions for reusing pallets.

  4. Pallets are great! I use them for indoor furniture too – especially as ready made bases for ottomans, then just upholster around them. It’s not difficult at all really if you have a staple gun and can sew what really just amounts to a bigger version of a cushion cover. I made this ottoman with a square pallet I found, because I thought the size was cute and then just added some high density foam on top and a cover. It was the first I’d done, so kind of felt my way through it – but it was an easy weekend project and no power tools needed! https://www.facebook.com/rebirthedvintage/photos/a.155260241786210.1073741829.153222435323324/155262285119339/?type=3&theater

  5. I love wooden pallet furniture. My favorite use of it seen so far is having the palettes used as a bed frame. Throw lots of plant greenery in the bedroom along with it and you have a very cute “Jungalow” aesthetic.

  6. That’s amazing, as I only looked at the pics and then read the comments. I would never have considered that they were pallets specially made to be furniture when like Jane said there are thousands of the things just waiting to be upcycled and reused, we did this ourselves for our garden. Go Reena!

  7. The actual used pallets I see here are not worth the “recycling.” And the furniture looks so uncomfortable. This idea seems “radical chic” in the words of the late Thomas Wolfe.

  8. Are these pallets made for the job of being smooth surfaced ‘pallets’, or actual, re-cycled pallets? A great idea if these are up-cyclers!

    1. I asked and they have been specially made but it would be cool if they were actual, recycled ones wouldn’t it. Maybe if it takes off they might consider doing that….

      1. Thank you, Kate. Yes indeedy, it would be verrry cool if they could up-re-cycle the many thousands of trashed pallets accumulating on this planet. Hopefully, folk might at least be able to use them as fire fuel, if nothing else. I always love your honest words, annnd posted images.

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