DIY

Home DIY

How to Easily Take Apart a Pallet

Recycling shipping pallets is the easiest way to get amazing home décor, art, and furniture. However, before you can create all the amazing stuffs, you need to disassemble them first!

These pallets are designed for shipping industry. So, it is not a surprise when they come with strength. These pallets are not only sturdily assembled, but also difficult to dismantle. Spiral nail inserted to all joints using high-pressured air. These nails are the real problem, but fear not because with a little energy, patience, your own hands, and tips from me, you can take rid of these nails without any problem at all, especially without tearing the whole part!

Stringers and slats are two main parts of your pallets. Slats are the upper pieces that are connected to the stringers, as the bottom pieces, with nails on both the centers and ends. Shipping industry uses different pallets to carry different objects with different specifications. They not only come with different materials, but also size of both slats and stringers. All depends on the object it carries.

Now, some people may think thing I am going to tell you is not important, but still I believe you need to know it before you can dismantle your wooden shipping pallet. It is about the age of your pallet. The older the age is, the easier you can remove the nails.
Now, before we begin disassembling your wood pallet, we must eliminate any safety risk first. Take a look at the wood roughness and how splintery it may become. So, unless you don’t concern on your own safety, start wearing safety glasses and work gloves.

Don’t forget to wear safety glasses!
Work gloves are mandatory whenever you work with wood pallets, unless you’re a fan of splinters.

This job also requires hammer and pry bar. So, don’t forget them

Disassembling your shipping wooden pallet

1. Loosen the nails.
Loosen nails will help you easily pull them out. Start with one slat (see image below). Use the pry bar to separate the slat from the stringer until you have pulled some part of the nails. Use the hammer if you cannot get the pry bar between the slat and stringer properly.

2. Repeat the same action with the remaining center and end part of the slat (see image below) until you free the slate. Flip over the slate to remove any remaining nail and take the reverse side to hammer them. Finish with flipping back the slat and use the pry bar to remove any remaining nail.

3. Repeat the process until all slats have been disassembled with the stringers. You’re done! Just remember to do each process carefully, especially when loosening the nails. If you do it too quickly, the pallet may be cracked.

That’s all you need to disassemble your wooden pallet. Your job now is to gather any unique idea to make something unique from this pallet.

As conclusion of this post, I need to give you some advice. Some pallets do not entirely come with natural treatment. Some of them come with chemical treatment which may become hazardous to your health. Try not to use these pallets because before they were used to carry any goods, they were treated with either heat or chemical. For this particular project, my recommendation would be HT-marked wooden pallets. These pallets were treated, just like the previous pallets. The only difference is the treatment does not involve any chemical substance. They were treated with heat and dried in a kiln.

For your own health, I must remind you that all pallets are also possible host for any insect, mold, bacteria, and other micro-organism. We never know the origin of these pallets and where they used to be until it arrived at your place. Something dangerous or hazardous may touched the pallets, such as pesticide. Remember these things when you consider using pallets on your next DIY project.

5 Creative Pallet Shelf Ideas for Your Inspiration

Have a place for everything and everything in its place. But what if there is nowhere to place everything? Make your home clutter-free without buying more furniture for the purpose.  Salvage and restore pallet wood from old crates, and with creativity and ingenuity, you can have racks and shelves to serve the purpose. Here are some of the great rack designs to organize your home.

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Make a rack for your hats and gloves without spending money on it. Using pallet wood that you have salvaged from scrap, you can make your rack. Nail together some planks and place hooks that you have removed from old furniture at home. Using some tools, you can make decorative edgings to lend your rack a classy look. You can place this in the hallway and all family members can place their hats, caps, and gloves on the rack instead of dumping them on chairs and sofas.

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You can also make a hanging rack for the bathroom. Damp towels and other bathroom paraphernalia can be placed on the rack to keep them dry. In addition, there will be less clutter in the bathroom, and it will be a safe place for the whole family.

Keeping your jewelry items in boxes is fine but if you want to make decorative display furniture, you can make a rack where you can display your bracelets, necklaces, rings, earrings, bungles, and the like.  You can apply dark varnish to give the rack a vintage and antique look. Then, place hooks on the planks where you can hang your jewelry items conveniently. For the safety of your items, cover the rack with glass.

With these rack ideas, you can have a safe, clutter-free, and lovely home at all times.

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How to Make a DIY Pallet Bed Frame

One of the home furniture items in which you might need to invest big money is the bed. Go to any mattress store and you’ll find prices ranging from a thousand bucks on the low end to $5,000+ or more! Bed frames, especially those made of hard wood, are quite expensive, and if you need to furnish several rooms, the cost can make a dent on your pocket. Why not recycle pallet wood to make a sturdy and attractive bed frame instead? Here is how this DIY pallet project can be done.

Here’s a good example using six pallets that demonstrates just how simple it can be to make:

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Commercial movable bed frames are quite costly, but if you know how to use hammer, plane, nails, sander, and paint brush, you can save a lot of money by using pallet wood from discarded crates. For a bed frame, pallet wood pieces that are in good condition would be the best choice. They must be thick and sturdy to support the weight of one or two people. Consider the size of the bed you’re planning on using – a full, queen, or king size will each require a slightly different amount of pallets.

The head board can be made from two pallets put together to form a double purpose headboard, which will be a support and a storage place for items you always want to be close to you when you sleep such as your mobile phone or tablet, headset, charger, books, and magazines.

Determine the size of the bed and make the frame by nailing wood planks together. Then, make the head board from wood planks as well. Design the head board in such a way that there are recesses to contain gadgets, books, and magazines. After finishing the frame and headboard, apply paint. White is ideal, but using a color that matches the paint of the room will be fine. Then, attach metal wheels to make it easy for the bed to be moved.

This DIY bed frame from pallet wood will be a treasure to your home and could last for many years. And if the time comes when you need to get rid of it in a move or something, it won’t be that hard considering you didn’t spend very much on it.

Need some more inspiration for your next diy pallet bed frame? Check out the images below to get some great ideas. Have a questions? Let us know in the comments.

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How to Make a Pallet Planter Box in a Few Easy Steps

When people said it is difficult to make a pallet planter box, it only means one thing: they don’t know the secret. Lucky for you, I am going to show you the secret of a beautiful diy pallet planter box. With only light efforts, you can get a nice decoration for your home porch and home lawn.

First, we need to know how many pallet woods we need for the pallet planter box, including length and width for each unit. This is not difficult at all, because we only need to measure the dimension of the plastic pot. Once you get the measurement, you can start measuring the pallet wood based on the dimension of the plastic pot. Take a look at the picture below.
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Cut the woods and form them as a block surrounding the plastic pot. Place the open side at the top, as you can see from the picture. Now, you have a beautiful diy pallet garden planter for your beautiful home or garden.

What if you cannot get a square plastic box as we use in this diy pallet planter box tutorial? Well, don’t worry because you can use any shape you like. We use the square one just because it is the most common shape in the market 🙂

If you followed the instruction carefully, then you should have realized the pallet woods still have fibers on it which makes it look dirty. Here is my tip. Clean the fibers with sand paper until you get smooth surface and clean it with soapy water to give it chic appearance.

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Now, you can place this amazing decoration at your garden or house porch.

Where to find pallets

Pallets are flat, square or rectangular structures that are used to hold goods during shipping and warehousing operations to make transportation and stacking easier. While some plastic and metal pallets are now produced, they’re traditionally and still most commonly made of wood, and the wooden kind is what we’ll focus on here. Why? Because they’re widely available and the wood in them is very useful for making inexpensive-but-durable furniture and other items. This economical and environmentally friendly re-purposing is already popular in a few countries and rapidly spreading worldwide.

If you’re interested in building something with recycled pallet wood, you’re going to need some pallets. The best place to find them depends on where you’re living, but don’t worry: almost anywhere you are, there are discarded pallets close by. (And if not, there’s always the internet – more on that below.)

Stores that sell furniture, appliances and hardware are a great place to start looking. Much of their stock is shipped on pallets, so they usually have plenty of extras available. The best time to go is early in the morning just after they’ve received their deliveries for the day. You’ll probably have your pick of pallets for free or at a nominal cost; otherwise, just ask store personnel to save you a few next time they get a shipment. They’ll probably be more than happy to have you take the unwanted pallets off their hands.

This can also work at your local grocery or pet supply store, whose canned goods are likely to be trucked in on pallets.

If you live in an area with a lot of manufacturing, you can look for pallets at the beginning of the supply chain instead of the end. Factories often hold periodic auctions to sell off obsolete or worn-out equipment, and most factories use pallets for moving materials and products around the plant.

Or maybe your city’s going through a construction boom. In that case, head down to a construction site (don’t forget your hardhat!) and ask whether they have any pallets they’d like to get rid of. You might not find such a good selection of pallets this way, but the ones you do find are likely to be strong, durable, and best of all, free.

If all else fails, look for pallet retailers on the internet. One advantage to this approach is that you’ll be able to choose from a wide variety of pallets and easily find some that meet your particular needs. Then you can simply place an order and wait for them to be delivered. Of course, you’ll end up paying a bit more this way, but you’ll find that prices and shipping rates are still surprisingly affordable.

How to Build a Comfortable Pallet Sofa in 3 Simple Steps

I bet you never thought about building a couch for yourself. A couch or sofa is one of the most basic, yet effective types of pallet furniture you can make. They’re highly usable and rewarding to relax on after completion. Plus, it’s not very hard to make a halfway decent one for yourself. One thing to keep in mind is the location, because this thing can get real heavy real fast. These are best used outdoors, or in an open-air space, but you could always make a pallet loveseat that weighs a little bit less. Below you’ll find a quick breakdown of how to approach this diy pallet build.

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Step 1 – Acquire pallets and prep the frame

You’ll need a decent amount of used pallets for this project, somewhere in the range of 6-8 to create something like you’ll see here. The first thing you should do is sand any surfaces that will be exposed. Nobody likes splinters, and you don’t want your project to bite you. Arrange two pallets on top of one another, two on the side for armrests, and two behind to get the basic frame laid out.

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Step 2 – Add surfacing

You’ll want to cover the bare surface with something a bit more aesthetically pleasing, and in this case we chose a sort of grooved plywood. Get creative and use whatever you think will work. The main places you should cover are the armrests, the top of the back bolsters, and the bottom of the front.

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Step 3 – Add cushions

You may want to have something custom made for the couch, that way the cushion fits perfectly up and down. Otherwise you might end up with loose fitting cushions that move around too much. Alternatively, you could cover the frame with a fabric, and choose some outdoor cushions to sit on top. It’s up to you really. Whatever you choose will add much more charm and appeal to the overall design than the simple wood pallets could ever provide.

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Step 4 – Relax!

The result will be a totally hand-made pallet sofa that has a rustic look and feel to it without sacrificing comfort. Overall the cost will be less than $100 in most cases, if not free depending on the choices you make for cushions, surfacing, and so on. This is a pretty straightforward project that anyone can complete in a matter of an afternoon with a few friends and some beers to help with the creative juices.

45+ Incredibly Simple DIY Pallet Swings. Number 5 Looks So Comfy!

Who doesn’t love a good porch swing? Or perhaps a rope swing? The fresh air blowing past, sun on your face, or maybe relaxing in the shade with a calm rocking motion while reading a book in the warm summer afternoon. You get it. Any sort of furniture that swings brings with it a certain air of freedom and fun, and with that in mind we gathered some of the coolest DIY pallet swings together for this post. There’s not much to putting these things together.

Some of the hardware you can use includes a heavy duty swivel like the Hammaka Hammock Chair Swivel for example or this Byer of Maine Swivel Hook. Attach something like that to the ceiling, tree limb, or some other sturdy surface and get a heavy duty chain, metal cable, or even some thick rope to attach it to the pallet surface. It goes without saying that you should use relatively new pallets for a project like this, as the wood will be sturdier and less prone to cracking. You don’t want your peaceful afternoon siesta ruined by a sudden smash to the ground.

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Decorating the pallets for a nice look and comfortable feel is also easy enough. Find some pillows at the store, thrift shop, or from your closet and lay them on; cushions from an old couch can work. Be creative and think of the sort of surface you feel best on. The good thing is you can make it however you want. Amazon has all sorts of outdoor cushions up for grabs and is worth checking out.

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Ultimate Collection of DIY Pallet Furniture Ideas

We come across so many great ideas that showcase pallets, and thought it would be nice to gather some of them in one place for your viewing pleasure. The amount of creativity shown below is astounding, and we can’t even imagine how some people come up with these ideas, but they do. From using pallets for gardening, to creating a beautiful pallet sofa, pallet bench, and much more. Most of these projects can be accomplished in an afternoon. While a fair amount may require some sort of instructions on cutting angles and so forth, the vast majority of these DIY projects can be done without instructions to be honest.

When building pallet furniture it’s important to keep in mind a few things.

  • Always sand the wood. Pallets are typically unfinished and have course edges that would give you splinters. You don’t want to be attacked by the piece of furniture you just built!
  • Use 2x4s or similar pieces of lumber to brace pallets together and create separation between them.
  • Keep a jigsaw handy for those tricky cuts, especially the curved kind
  • Use your imagination and let your creative spark take over – you’ll be surprised how easy it is to build many of these pallet projects

Now go forth and create your own tables, chairs, benches, and planters!

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7 Impressive DIY Pallet Tables

We’re always impressed at the ingenuity some people display. Like with these tables for example, all of which are totally awesome and built for just a few dollars. Check out these examples below for ideas to create your own DIY pallet table from what would otherwise be scrap wood.

 Two old crates + window

This one has a classy yet rustic feel with the combination of wood and glass.

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DIY Round Pallet Table

This approach is simple. Buy a table stand on Amazon, or re-purpose one you already have. Then use a jigsaw to cut a round piece of plywood, and lay the pallet staves over it. Use the jigsaw to trim the staves to match the curved edge, and voila, you have a beautiful round table for outside.

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Pallet Kitchen Table

Here’s a great example of how you can re-use pallet to create a kitchen table that not only looks great but won’t give you splinters. Using about 5 pallets, some wood stain and sanding you can build this in an afternoon, easily.

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Pallet Picnic Table

If you want a nice place to sit the kids outside, but don’t want to buy a picnic table this might be the best option. It’s a fairly simple approach, using several pallets that have been taken apart to a degree and then joined together with a bench on either side.

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Pallet Coffee Table on Wheels

Here’s another great idea, and one that’s simple to do. Attach four wheels to the bottom of a pallet, with a 2×4 separating them and you’re good to go.

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Pallet Planting Table

We love planting tables for the versatility they offer, and the amount of bending over they save on our backs. This one uses a single pallet for the back, some 2x4s and a few pieces of flat plywood for a work surface.

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Colorful Dining Table

One of our favorite examples is this dining table, which makes use of sanded and finished pallets laid tight together and joined by a clean metal frame.

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5 Amazing Pallet Bars For Your Inspiration

By far one of the easiest and coolest things we’ve seen done with a pallet is transforming it into a bar. Some are outdoors, others are inside, and some are meant to simply hold all your booze in a nice neat fashion. Whatever you’re looking for, the following examples should get your creative juices flowing.

1. The Outdoor Pallet Bar

All you need for this is a few pallets and a 1″ x 6″ or similar piece of reclaimed wood for the counter.

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2. DIY Pallet Cooler

Now here’s a cooler that brings rustic style to replace those big ugly blue things you have laying around. Sturdy, solid, and functional for sure, even if it might involve a little more planning than other DIY pallet projects.

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3. Pallet Bar V2

Here’s another look at a bar made from reclaimed pallets, only this time showing the inside of the unit, where convenient shelves have been built in to hold all your high end booze.

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4. Pallet Bar V3

Here we have one built for the inside, using a simple configuration that involves two pieces of copper, a couple 2x4s for the shelving, and of course booze. Don’t forget the booze.

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5. Pallet Tiki Bar

Sometimes you want to take the vibe back to the beach, and what better way than with a backyard tiki bar? If you’re looking for a budget approach, check this one out. It uses just six pallets, one 2×4 post, and some plywood for the counter. Simple as pie, and with a hanging sign above it you’ll be set. Oh, and booze.

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