5 Springtime Pallet Projects For Your Garden

This article contains five tutorials of furniture and pallet accessories for your garden. You will learn how to create a garden furniture set, a swing bed, a vertical planter, a garden lounge chair, and a henhouse.

Our advice before you start

• To dismantle the pallets, use a crowbar and a hammer or mass. You can check our article to learn how to dismantle a pallet in several ways.
• Preferably use stainless steel fixing material to avoid corrosion on the wood.
• Apply oil or stain to protect the wood from bad weather, fungi, and insects. You can also paint it with a “special exterior” resin paint.
• Reuse the nails recovered when dismantling the pallets. They are generally of good quality. Straighten them up with pliers if necessary.

A pallet garden lounge

Ideal for the beginners, this pallet garden lounge is easy to build but you’ll need to collect 11 wood pallets of the same dimensions, preferably EURO type but other sizes will also work. After, you can cover the seat and backrest with cushions or order a custom foam and make a cover from the fabric of your choice.

Tip: Place the sofa and table on small concrete paving stones to prevent soil moisture from soaking into the wood by capillary action. You can also use castors or simply screw plastic end caps for furniture legs to slightly raise the furniture from the floor.

Materials needed:

• 11 wood pallets of the same size (EURO pallets are great to use)
• Drill-driver
• Jigsaw
• Wood screws

Step-by-step instructions:

• Assemble 6 pallets, 2 to 2 on top of each other, to form the base of this “L” shaped sofa.
• Remove 3 pallets to recover the top 3 floors. Remove the footings, crosspieces and wooden studs from underneath.
• Screw these three trays to the back of the base pallets, as shown in the picture. The backrest is mounted and the pallets are sealed together.
• Cut the last 2 pallets flush with the central studs and stack them to form the coffee table.

A pallet swing bed

A project to create a relaxing space in the garden, where you can take a nap and read a book while swinging in the shade of a tree.

You can also make a classic swing with a smaller pallet or a swing for 2 people in the same spirit by adding a backrest.

This model was made with American pallets. The top rows of boards are laid on 3 solid rafters.

Use screws long enough to pass through the batten and rafter and pre-drill the wood with a thinner drill bit than the screws to avoid splitting it.

Materials needed:

• Two American pallets
• Three wooden cleats (size to be adapted according to the thickness of the pallets to be able to slide them between the soles and the floor)
• Jigsaw
• Drill-driver
• Wood drill bit
• Metre and pencil
• Rope
• Mattress
• Fastening screws and bolts

Step-by-step instructions:

• Determine the required pallet length according to the size of the mattress
• Transfer the length to the cleats and cut them to the right size
• Slide the cleats under the two adjacent pallets
• Screw the cleats to the rafters
• Drill the holes at the ends and tie the rope securely
• Hang the assembly on branches thick enough to support the weight

A vertical pallet planter

An easy and fun creation to decorate a terrace or a balcony. The trick is to transform a pallet into a vegetal wall to grow vegetables, salads, herbs or flowers.

Materials needed:

• 1 wood pallet
• Jute fabric (or geotextile felt)
• Opaque thick tarpaulin
• Scissors
• Construction site stapler and staples
• Planting soil.

Step-by-step instructions:

• Stretch the burlap under the top boards and staple it
• Tighten the tarpaulin at the back and sides of the pallet and staple it
• Form a flap around the contours to make it more resistant
• Fill the inside with soil and pack. Water from above to moisten the soil
• To plant vegetables or flowers in cups, make a small cross-shaped incision in the canvas and push the clod into the soil.

A pallet lounge chair

This lounge chair consists of a single long pallet to which additional slats have been added to fill the spaces in the seating area, as well as a fixed backrest assembled with the boards of a 2nd pallet.

The horizontal part can also be formed by two pallets of the same size, fixed side by side if you do not find an elongated pallet.

It is possible to add two wide castors with brakes under the backrest to easily move the lounge chair.

Materials needed:

• 1 large pallet and 1 normal pallet
• Cleats or pallet scraps to fill gaps
• Wood screws
• Jigsaw
• Drill-driver
• Sanding machine or sandpaper

Step-by-step instructions:

• Place the boards to fill the empty spaces on top of the long horizontal pallet
• Disassemble the 2nd pallet to retrieve the boards
• Attach 3 inclined boards between 2 boards of the horizontal pallet to form the structure of the backrest
• Place a reinforcing bar transversely under the horizontal pallet if necessary to lock the backrest
• Cut the backrest boards to the same width as the horizontal pallet boards
• Screw the boards onto the backrest at the same distance as the horizontal pallet boards for better aesthetics.

A pallet henhouse

As economical as it is practical, this DIY triangle henhouse, entirely made of recycled material, is also very decorative.

It is covered with ochre paint to resist external conditions. The roof of the shelter is opened by a system of hinges for easy cleaning. The hens can access it by a ramp with small steps in cleats.

Materials needed:

• Pallets
• Longboards
• Wooden cleats
• Fall of wood or plywood boards for the front and back of the nest box
• Roll of chicken wire mesh
• Rigid protective plastic for the nest box floor
• Construction site stapler and staples
• Hinges or gable ends
• Agglo fastening screws
• Wood pulp
• Measuring and tracing kit
• Angle and level

Step-by-step instructions:

• Dismantle the pallets to collect the boards
• Make the two side frames. Assemble for each 3 large horizontal and 3 vertical boards.
• Place the boards at the front and rear to form the triangle structure. Cut the beveled edges according to the slope of the side frames.
• Attach the two small cleats in the center between the 2 side frames.
• Place the pallet boards in a wink on each side of the nest box.
• Install 3 more boards to form the roof ridge. Two on the sides and one on top.
• Attach the hinges and connect the two roof panels to the ridge.
• Build the nest box floor and install the front and rear walls.
• Install the access ramp at the entrance of the nest box.
• Cut out and staple the grid walls all around the hen house.
• Fill the holes with wood paste and apply a wood stain or other.

Discover more ideas & projects for your garden made from repurposed pallet wood.