Once
irreplaceable utilities for transporting and shipping goods, today the
forklift’s best friends are getting increasingly popular as a resource for many
environmentally friendly DIY projects. Wood pallets are finding innovative
purposes, ranging from outlandish furniture to many storage options.
Of
course, what made them so popular and readily available is their ridiculously
low price. With a couple of basic tools and hardware, everyone can repurpose
wood pallets into new designs.
Choosing the Right Pallets for the Job
Not all
pallets, however can be repurposed. Before you start with your DIY project, you
need to know which can be used and which cannot. As their primary role is the
one of shipping crates and stock, you can find a great deal of
them behind storage facilities,
supermarkets, or in dumpsters, especially near factories.
When you are
choosing wood pallets, you need to take care that the wood is undamaged, as
well pick only ones that are not chemically treated, they don’t have an MB
stamp on them. You cannot make use of plastic pallets either. They can be
recycled and repurposed, but in other ways, and that isn’t what concerns us
here.
Flower Boxes
The
easiest way to repurpose wood pallets is to make them a part of your garden
décor. You can make interesting garden planters out of them. Take the
measurement and see how many pallets you need for this job. Remove the boards
from the pallets and use a sander to smoothen them and make their surface even.
You will
also need to saw a plank or two to fit into your measurements. Make the bottom
and the top frame of the planter by nailing four planks for each. When
finished, you can paint or stain your planter box, but make sure you treat the
wood against insects and rotting.
Shelves
In
addition wood pallets make great furniture pieces, storages and shelves. In a
recent chat with reputed Darwin-based
suppliers of packing supplies, pallet shelves can be used both outdoor and
indoor with great success. As you cannot use the whole pallets, you need to
take them apart and tailor the planks to lengths you need.
In this
project as well, a couple of power tools, especially a sander will make a great
use. Make sure you smoothen the planks as you don’t want your goods or
provisions damaged. One interesting project makes use of pallet planks for
building a wine shelf, with a double bottom, which has a series of notches for
holding wine glasses’ stems as they hang upside down.
Pallet Decks
If you
have somehow always managed to spend that deck fund you have been raising, take
a note of this. Using wood pallets you can make the simplest and cheapest
backyard deck that will make your neighbors watch in awe. Still, this is a
slightly more extensive project than the previous two, so you need to measure
the area the deck will be covering and prepare it.
Once you
have collected the number of pallets you need, inspect them to see if they are
firm enough to be used as a supporting construction. You wouldn’t want your
mother in law to fall through, would you? You still have to include some of
additional boards to fill up spaces between pallet boards, in order to make the
whole affair more stable and easier to maintain.
Starting
as humble shipping crates, wood pallets have found their way into our homes,
designer gardens and wine cellars. Their versatility and usefulness depends
solely on your imagination and dexterity.
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