Our DIY pallet coffee table and pallet benches are finished! So happy to finally share with you the free building plans of these easy DIY pallet outdoor furniture!
The unique pallet table and benches are made from reclaimed pallet wood, a modular metal shelving unit, and a material that’s locally abundant – beach pebbles. We love the blend of rustic pallet wood, fresh colors, simple clean lines, and a touch of industrial gabion ( a cage filled with rocks or concrete, for use in civil engineering, road building, etc) !
To build any pallet furniture, the first step is to find quality pallets.
Not all pallets are made equal. After building so many pallet projects, we have realized that the right pallets will make your project a lot easier! Here’s a detailed guide All About Pallets: where to find, how to select and take apart pallets!
All About Pallets: where to find, how to select and take apart pallets
( Some of the helpful resources are affiliate links. Full disclosure here. ) Below is our favorite tool to use when taking apart pallets: a Duckbill Deck Wrecker we got on Amazon , love it!
Tools and materials to build a pallet coffee table and bench:
- Pallets, and tools to dissemble pallets: our favorite method is with this tool – a Duckbill Deck Wrecker we got on Amazon. This tool lifts those boards easily, and you can take out the nails with a hammer.
- IMPORTANT: wear eye goggles and dust mask
- Kreg Jig K4 Pocket Hole System and Kreg screws. The Kreg jig is super useful and easy to use for creating very strong joints.
- Circular saw or jig saw. We also made a cross-cut jig, see Step 3. (If you have a table saw, great!)
- Sanding pad or power sander, wood glue and clamps,
- acrylic paint or other type of water proof paint, wood finish or furniture wax – recipe to follow
How to build a simple pallet bench.
For the DIY pallet bench top ( and table top ), select board of the same thickness. Although most boards on pallets are either 3.5″ or 5.5″ wide, the thickness can vary from 0.5″ to 0.8″. The sides of the benches can have more variations.
After all the pieces are cut and sanded, we painted the frames of the pallet benches a happy lemon yellow.
Next, drill pocket holes in the pieces the needs them, such as the bracing pieces under the pallet table top and the pallet bench top, and the frame around the table top.
To make the pallet bench, the easier way would be to build the frame first with pocket hole screws, then glue or nail the side and top boards. ( I always realize a better way AFTER! )
As you can see we need a lot of pieces of the same length. Even though pallet wood is quite irregular, we still want the cuts to be as clean and square as possible. This jig worked great. See below.
We used 1/4″ and 1/2″ plywood, and finished wood 1Xs to make the jig, after cutting the pieces using a straight edge guide which came with the circular saw, we glued the pieces together.
This jig is made for our Makita circular saw, and cuts pieces under 1.5″ thick. It very simple to make, but there are lot of considerations from blade cutting depth, to clearances on several parts of the saw when it slide along the guide. Please refer to the diagram here (right click and save if you want to print it out) which explains the design considerations for a jig that will work for your saw.
How to build an unique pallet coffee table.
The hollow post that the pallet coffee table top fit into will be secured inside the gabion. Because the gabion cage in this case is 15″x15″x15″, the post needs to be a size that fits inside and still leave room for the pebbles / rocks, which are not just decorative, but more importantly – they contribute to a strong base.
The base of the pallet coffee table slides into a hollow post stabilized by the metal cages filled with rock / pebbles. When making the base and the post, the most important thing to remember is that they should be the same height, and fit snugly. The dimensions shown in the diagram is adjustable depending on the size of your metal cage and the size of wood you are using. We made them with vertical boards joined together by horizontal braces, and pocket hole screws at right angles. There are about 2″ to 3″ of spacing all the way around between the cage and post for the pebbles. And that took 50lbs of pebbles to fill!
To make the tabletop, arrange the measured and cut boards in a way that accentuate the variations of the pallet wood, attache back brace pieces with glue or nails, then attach the frame all around the 4 sides with pocket hole screws.
We applied a finishing wax mentioned also in the pallet wood crates project – apply a generous amount onto the wood surface, and enjoy the delicious honey smell on your pallet furniture!
To assemble the pallet coffee table, collect some pebbles or rocks from your mountains and rivers nearby. We used beach pebbles, which make us think of the ocean.
Center the hollow post inside the metal wire cage, fill pebbles all around the post to the top. Slide the pallet coffee table base inside the post. The pebbles heavy weight hold the post and table in place, and create a strong and sturdy base.
Now we can sit in the garden and enjoy a nice book outdoors accompanied by bird songs!
And the pallet crates and image transfer tutorial mentioned earlier is here-
Update: Now the furniture is part of this: We turned a rental patio into a beautiful pallet outdoor room! 
Makeover: a rental patio into a beautiful pallet outdoor room
Happy creating! See you soon!
Source: apieceofrainbow.com
