Build your own garden furniture? Good idea! If you like to spend your time in the garden and have a little craftsmanship, there are great projects in the starting blocks in spring: Why not create your very own retreat with an individual flair with your own hands?
There is plenty of beautiful garden furniture. Finding the perfect piece in this huge selection is not that easy. Many garden lovers already have a very clear idea in their head of what the bench or garden table should look like. So why not start a DIY project and build the lounge furniture yourself? Your own ideas can be implemented perfectly and the savings potential is great. And another advantage is obvious: it’s actually a lot of fun to make a rustic garden bench or a small table yourself. We give a few tips on how you can build beautiful garden furniture yourself from pallets.
Garden furniture made from pallets: building it yourself made easy
You don’t have to be a carpenter to build lounge furniture for the garden yourself. Existing materials can often easily be upcycled. Pallets are popular because they can be used to create chic DIY garden lounges in no time. Numerous garden furniture can be built from pallets, such as benches, tables, Hollywood swings or outdoor counters. Raised beds can also be made in no time. Pallet projects are particularly suitable for beginners because they require neither a comprehensive understanding of the craft nor many professional tools.
Click here to find a cordless drill/screwdriver on Ebay
Pallet furniture in the garden is also trendy because it is stable, durable, weatherproof and can easily be given a very personal touch. They are also cheap to buy. Pallets are always available for little money in classified ads or hardware stores. But be careful: not all palettes are the same. Untreated Euro pallets are best suited for building garden furniture. Pallets that were previously used in logistics are often contaminated with pollutants. Here are a few tips on what to pay attention to when using pallets to build furniture:
- The pallets should be well made, untreated and in good condition.
- Standardized Euro pallets have a size of 120 x 80 centimeters. As a rule, several of these are necessary, for example to build a complete garden lounge yourself.
- If present, protruding nails should be removed.
- Before processing, it is advisable to sand the pallets and treat them with wood oil, varnish or glaze so that they can withstand the weather.
- For pallets made of softwood such as pine, spruce or fir, treatment with blue stain protection may be necessary to protect the garden furniture from blue stain fungi.
- Even if pallets are sawn apart for further processing: don’t forget to sand them. This saves splinters and improves subsequent paint application.
- Pre-drilling holes makes the work easier; the same applies here: always rework with sandpaper.
- Depending on the size, garden furniture made from pallets can be quite heavy – to make transport easier, transport wheels can be attached under the individual pieces of furniture.
Build garden furniture yourself: These tools make the work easier
Nails can be removed optimally with a cow’s foot, and with a sander the pallet becomes nice and smooth in no time and is easy to process. You can use a hand sander set, which is particularly inexpensive, but requires a lot of muscle strength and endurance. An electric sander is more expensive, but it takes a lot of work away. It’s worth purchasing, especially if there are more projects coming up in the future. The pallet can be sawn to the correct dimensions using a hand saw or jigsaw. Here, too, it makes sense to consider choosing an electric model in the long term.
Click here to find a hand sanding set on offer at Lidl
And here you can find a cordless multi-sander on offer at Lidl
In addition to a saw, you also need a drill/driver, which is used to insert the wood screws into the pallets. Electrical devices are best equipped with a battery, as this means you can work directly in the garden when the sun is shining and a socket is obsolete. A hammer is also recommended in order to make any fastenings with nails. If you want the self-made garden furniture to receive an individual coat of paint at the end, a paint spray system is a good idea – especially if a lot of large furniture needs to be processed.
Click here to find a hand saw on offer at Lidl
And here you can find a cordless jigsaw on Ebay
Step-by-step instructions: Build your own garden lounge out of pallets
A seating area with a lounge feel is an easy-to-implement project that adds rustic charm to the garden. If you want to build your own garden furniture out of wood, a DIY lounge made from pallets is a good idea. That’s how it works:
Material:
- Five standard Euro pallets
- wood screws
- Steel angle
- Wood varnish
- Possibly suitable upholstery
Tools:
- Hand sander set or sander
- Drill/driver
- Brush for painting
Directions:
- As a first step, the wood of the pallets must be completely sanded so that it is no longer so rough and splinters. Glaze and paint are also easier to apply after sanding.
- Now two pallets are placed next to each other on the short side.
- A third pallet is placed in the middle on top.
- The whole thing is screwed together with brackets so that the piece of furniture is stable.
- The two remaining pallets are then screwed onto one of the long sides of the construction to form a backrest.
- The piece of garden furniture gets its final coat of paint with wood varnish or glaze and is ready for outdoor use.
- The self-built lounge with two seats and a storage area in the middle is ready.
- If you want, you can add colorful upholstery or give the whole thing a personal touch with a little color.
Would you like to add a DIY pallet table? Very easy! To do this, place two pallets flush on top of each other and screw them together. A sheet of plywood can also serve as a table top – simply attach it to the upper pallet with nails.
Click here to see the offer of a multi-hammer on Ebay
This means that the self-made garden furniture remains weatherproof
Wood is a particularly robust material, but if self-made wooden garden furniture is left outside in all weathers, rain, wind and sun affect the surface. Moisture in particular causes lasting damage to the wood over time. If moisture has penetrated deeply, it continues its damaging effect, heat and frost do the rest – and soon the beautiful, new piece of furniture is no longer usable.
Wood can be protected against the weather with the right treatment. It is best to apply wood protection before building garden furniture; pallets can be optimally treated with oil, wax, glaze, paint or varnish after sanding. But don’t worry, if the self-built garden lounge is already finished, it can still be reworked at the end.
Tip: Varnish is slightly less durable than wood oil, wax or glaze. In general, care should be taken to store or cover garden furniture in winter – then nothing can go wrong and the self-made garden furniture will still look fresh next year.
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