Fancy feet and colourful cushions give upcycling a new chic
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You'll be surprised how easy it is to turn old wooden pallets into a great sofa base. If you’re happy to rough it, you don’t have to do anything more than throw some cushions on top! But, to upscale your pallets, add some little feet and paint the whole arrangement a deep, inky blue.
This project is very simple to execute, and you can create several different set-ups with just two pallets.
Set them at rightangles to create an L-shaped lounging sofa for lazy sunny afternoons, sit them alongside each other to make a long bench for when a crowd comes by, or place them opposite each other for a leisurely catch-up with a friend. This way, you can have a different sofa set-up for every occasion!
4 Attach the legs by drilling a hole the size of the leg thread in each corner on the underside of the pallet, 2in (5cm) in from the edges.
5 Push the leg through and secure in place with a nut. If your pallet is too thick for the thread of your furniture leg, apply wood glue to the top of the leg and glue in place (the thread should fit snugly in the wood).
3 Using a palm sander, sand your pallets smooth all over.
6 Paint the pallets all over (we used Cuprinol Garden Shades Matt Wood Paint in Urban Slate, £16/2.5L, B&Q). When dry, add your mattresses (ours are covered with fabric from clothandcandy. co.uk).
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2 We used a reciprocating saw to cut the pallets, but you can use a handsaw, too. Cut through the entire depth of the sofa along the line you’ve drawn. Repeat to cut the second pallet to size.
1 No pallet is the same, so have a look at which way your pallet will work best as a sofa to fit your mattress and suit your outside space. Measure and mark where you need to cut the pallet to fit your mattress. Pallets are usually about 48in (120cm) long. We cut ours down to a width of
24in (60cm).
This project is an extract from Pallet Wood Projects for Outdoor Spaces by Hester van Overbeek, published by CICO Books
(£12.99).