Make It Monday: Outdoor Living With Pallets Series – Part 1

Okay so I’ve finally started creating my outdoor living space.  I have to admit when I told my family that I was going to be creating pallet patio furniture, they said “And you’re going to put it where?”  There were a few moments I thought s&^# what am I doing? After I started sanding the creative juices started flowing and I gathered more ideas on my Pinterest board and my confidence came back.  I have to admit this project can definitely be done in 1 weekend, but I’ve been breaking it up because of my schedule.

For the next few weeks I’ll releasing parts of my Outdoor Living series as Make It Monday features showcasing the process of creating my pallet furniture and transformation of my patio.  I hope you are as excited as I am and hopefully you can use this as a guide to creating your very own outdoor living space.

CHOOSING PALLETS

When I first got the idea of using pallets I was blown away then I did my research on the origination of pallets and boy did I learn that not all pallets are created equal.  As a matter of fact you have to be very careful where you get pallets from and want to make sure they are marked HT for heat treated.  It’s best to get them from a commercial businesses that doesn’t ship chemicals or foods.  I would even go as far as saying if you’re going to reuse pallets make sure it’s for outdoor projects only.  Here’s a little more information on how to know which pallets are safe from which ones are not by DIY Ready .

I was lucky enough to get pallets from a paper company and they were already cut into the sizes I wanted as well as stored indoors.

SANDING PALLETS

6 – Pallets sized 32 inches by 25 inches (free)

1- Electric sander from Harbor Freight ($12.99 on sale)

1 package of multi grit sand paper ($1.99 on sale)

1 pair of work gloves from Harbor Freight ($1.99)

Put your work gloves on and get your sanding on.  This process took about 1 hour for me because I wanted to make sure that I was able to get the surfaces very smooth so it would be easier to paint. I used a medium grit sandpaper and cut it to the size of the sander.

PAINTING PALLETS

This was the next extent of my research I didn’t want to just use spray paint or any old paint, since the whole purpose of this project is to create something I’d have for a while.  I needed something that would hold up in the changing seasons even though it is going on a covered patio.  I came across Behr Weatherproofing All-In-One Wood Stain & Sealer in pewter which is normally used for painting decks.  You can choose from various colors.

Painting the pallets took about 3-4 hours total. I wanted to make sure the each of the six pallets were completely covered. Here’s a snapshot of midway through the process.  I had to wait for the tops to dry before painting the bottom.

I wanted to get an idea of the type of setup I wanted so I setup one just to see how it looks.  I didn’t nail or glue them together yet, the below picture is just the look I’m shooting for, you may have seen it this weekend when I posted it on my Instagram page.

Okay that’s all for today, but be sure to subscribe to my blog to view the next part as I work my way through this project.