Repurposed Pallets

 

If you’ve ever driven through the industrial/manufacturing area where you live, or cruised the craigslist FREE page, you’ve probably come across someone trying to give away wood pallets. This is a great opportunity for beginner woodworkers to capitalize on free materials while diverting perfectly good pieces of wood from the landfill – win win!

The issue is how to transform the pallet from a big bulky piece of packing/shipping material into useful lumber. After doing a bunch of research and letting a couple pallets sit in my garage for the last few months, I found this video which is really awesome and gives you a smart, sensible method for dismantling the pallets without sawing them to pieces.

As always, the real process was a little harder than the YouTube expert made it look (ha!) but all in all it was a success. I used the wood to make a bunch of up-cycled wood crates in varying sizes, for a little gift project I am working on. I always feel so wasteful when I give a gift wrapped in all kinds of single use packaging… this way, I’m recycling and the cool little crate becomes part of the gift!

These crates could also be used to make a cool shelving unit, a wine rack, garden supply storage, you name it and Pinterest has something in store for you! Depending on how “rustic” of a look you’re going for, it would be fun to play around with different stains, sanding grains, and mix/match of wood tones. I mixed and matched the colors I had to work with, gave it a rough sand and called it a day since I liked the natural coloring, but maybe I’ll try staining my next batch.

Do you have awesome ideas for repurposed pallets?? Share them in the comments, I would love to give it a try!