We quickly, easily and simply make a sofa from pallets for a summer residence or a city apartment

Rough loft-style design is now at the peak of popularity. And this is a very attractive option, especially since many things for such an interior can be made literally from waste material. The remains of water pipes, primitive lamps, raw bricks and even construction pallets - that's what can, with the right approach, become an interior decoration not only for summer cottages, but also for urban apartments. Today we will talk about a sofa made of pallets: we will figure out how to make stylish furniture out of this construction waste.

Where to get pallets

Let's start with a clarification - pallet furniture fits perfectly not only into the loft-style interior, but also into any of the rustic styles: country, provence, rustic. This option will look good in a minimalist interior. Of the obvious advantages of pallet furniture, it is worth noting the naturalness of the material. After all, pallets are made from a solid solid board, otherwise they will not cope with their main task.

PHOTO: pulscen.ru

So where can you get pallets? There are two main options that are available to literally everyone.

The first is construction. Pallets are used for loading and transporting bricks and blocks. At any construction site, this stuff is enough in huge quantities, and with rare exceptions, you will be happy to give away some of the pallets, because the builders have to dispose of them for a fee.

The second option available for searching is traffic light stores. In them, the goods are laid out on the sales floor directly on pallets, and for a nominal fee you can certainly negotiate with the network staff to purchase the required number of pallets.

PHOTO: pallet-trading.rf

How to choose furniture pallets

We have already mentioned the standard sizes of pallets, but you need to keep in mind that there is another variety - the so-called euro pallets. They, unlike the standard ones, have a width of not 100, but 80 cm.

PHOTO: p-61.ru

In addition to size, pallets may differ in the source material. Usually, dense and durable wood is selected for them, which is able to cope with a load weighing a ton: pine, oak or linden. Used pallets, if they have not received mechanical damage and have not lost their strength in any way, can be safely used again.

If we consider the components of pallets, then this is a bar, usually from 70 to 100 mm, and a board with a thickness of 15 to 20 mm.

If you have the opportunity to choose pallets, pay attention to some features and, above all, to the integrity of the boards. It is clear that you will not accept pallets with broken parts, but there may be hidden defects that are not visible at first sight. The most dangerous is rotten boards. To find them, you need to turn the pallet and inspect it from all sides. Rot is manifested by a loose darkened surface. It is better not to take pallets with such a defect.

PHOTO: tdlider.com

If you plan to make furniture out of pallets, then it is better to choose those that do not have paint on them. Usually no one paints pallets, and the presence of paint suggests that these pallets have been used for a long time and repeatedly, otherwise why paint a one-time thing? Paint can hide defects, so it's better not to take this.

Finally, pallets can be affected by fungus, which shows up in blackened parts. It is almost impossible to completely eliminate such a defect either by grinding or special processing, so if you have a choice, do not take pallets with blackened boards.

How to prepare furniture pallets

So, you managed to get solid pallets without defects and rot and deliver them home. Before proceeding with the assembly of furniture, you need to process them so that they look like an exquisite nuance of the interior from waste material.

You should start by cleaning the pan from dirt. Initial - with a broom or broom, then you can wash the pan with a brush and detergent. Then the pallet should be well dried in the sun.

Since you plan to make furniture from this material, you need to completely remove everything that can injure or cause any inconvenience. To do this, carefully sand the wood to remove all bumps and burrs. This can be done with an angle grinder or a grinder with a grinding nozzle.

PHOTO: greensector.ru

Grinding should be carried out with an emery tape, successively changing the grain size to a finer one. The work is quite painstaking, and it can only be facilitated by the fact that it is necessary to grind the details with which the person will be in direct contact. But there is a nuance here: leaving other sides and details unpolished, you will then spend much more drying oil and paint or wax for processing, and look like such a partial polishing will be like that. In this situation, it is better to perform rough grinding with coarse sandpaper on all parts and from all sides, and more thorough grinding on the most contact points.

After grinding, the pallets should be prepared for further processing. Not everyone paints such furniture, some prefer to leave the natural color and texture of wood.

PHOTO: Pinterest

A good option is to use different stains. They retain a natural pattern, but at the same time give the wood noble shades. Even simple pine can look like mahogany with this treatment. In addition, any treatment will protect the tree from exposure to moisture and ultraviolet radiation. You need to be especially careful about this issue if you are making garden furniture, the lower parts of which are in direct contact with the ground. In this case, it would even be logical to provide for some more serious protection, such as rubber gaskets.

Tools needed to create furniture from pallets

Obviously, you will need a grinder or angle grinder to process pallets. But this is not enough for further work. You need to prepare more and other tools. You can not do without a drill or a powerful screwdriver. To remove nails from pallets, you will need a nail puller. You also need a saw, at least a manual one, as well as a measuring tool - a tape measure and a corner.

PHOTO: econet.ru

From fasteners, in addition to self-tapping screws, you may need bolts and screws, as well as mechanisms for transformation, if you have conceived such a model. Think, maybe you will still need wheels for easy movement and some additional fittings like handles.

When it comes to treatments, water-based stains are the easiest option. They do not have a sharp specific smell, they are perfectly absorbed and preserve the wood well. Acrylic paint can be an alternative - it can also be used indoors.

But if you are making furniture for a summer residence, and it will have to be outdoors most of the year air, it is better to use alkyd or oil-based paints - they are not afraid of atmospheric moisture.

What can be done from pallets

Before moving on to specific step-by-step master classes, it is worth deciding in principle what can be made from pallets. And there are actually a lot of options:

1. Tables of different configurations. A small coffee table can be quickly assembled from three pallets, you don’t even need to disassemble or saw something. Pallets are simply stacked, and a Plexiglas sheet can be used as a countertop. By the way, according to exactly the same principle, you can build a dining table for summer gatherings in the open air or a desk for an office in an apartment.

   PHOTO: Pinterest

2. Beds, including doubles. These are very simple designs, which, nevertheless, are in no way inferior in strength to factory models. It will not be difficult for you to literally assemble a low Japanese-style bed from literally 4 pallets or, using 2 times more material, perform a more familiar, “European” version. The same pallets can also become a colorful headboard.

   PHOTO: supercindy.nl

3. Sofas and armchairs are what are most often made from pallets. In order for the use of such furniture to be as comfortable as possible, you will need to add soft pillows. Sofas can be ordinary, corner and even transforming.

   PHOTO: easypalletideas.com

4. Pallets can become the basis for creating various bedside tables, shoe racks, coasters and shelves. Of these, you can make a house for a pet or at least a couch. And also swings for the garden, benches, chairs, fences.

   PHOTO: homify.ru

The easiest pallet sofa: step by step photos

The simplest sofa without armrests for the garden can be made from just 4 pallets. An example of such a design was shown by the author of the Wood Designer YouTube channel:

Illustration	Action Description
	To assemble the base, you need to disassemble one of the pallets, leaving only the transverse bases from it
	These bases will become the supporting structures of the new sofa. You can push them wider to make the sofa not 1 meter, as the pallet allows, but wider
	To make the sofa comfortable, the seat must be raised off the ground, this will require another pallet
	The same parts from the pallet - pieces of timber will help raise the seat even higher. From it can be fixed like legs to the base with self-tapping screws
	So that the fixed legs do not loosen, it makes sense to connect them with a board
	To support the back of the sofa, you need to fix several support boards to the seat structure at an angle of 90 degrees
	The back of the sofa is also a pallet, from which the supporting base was removed and only the lattice was left. Please note that the backrest will be set at an angle. It is very convenient to simply step back one transverse board from the edge of the seat and fix the backrest in this position on the support boards
	The design is ready, it remains only to carry out preliminary processing and painting of the product, as well as to prepare soft pillows and a mattress for it

Such a sofa will perfectly fit into the landscape design of your garden or cottage interior, and assembly will take a couple of hours at most.

Pallet sofa bed: assembly algorithm

From construction pallets, you can make not just a sofa, but a folding bed, which may well perform its functions in a small apartment. Moreover, it is very simple to make it, and you can even do it without any special mechanisms, as the author of the YouTube channel showed. AlpaChina.

Illustration	Action Description
	The base assembly algorithm is the same as in the sofa described above - you will need several seat trays
	In this option, pieces of timber will also be required in order to raise the bed from the ground to the required height.
	The back or head of the bed is a lattice of pallets, only, unlike the previous version, it is set at an angle of 90 degrees
	You need to fix the backrest with several long self-tapping screws in the base of the timber in the seat
	To prevent the mattress and pillows from falling off the bed, you need to make low sides around the edges. They are easy to make from the same pallet boards. Simply cut to shape, process and secure with screws
	Two pallets are enough for a normal bed length. The author of this design reasoned so, using only one additional element
	The side part of the bed must be raised exactly to the same height as the main seat. This can be done with the help of additional legs from a bar.
	In the assembled state, the side part of the bed is simply installed behind the headboard. It is the same height as the headboard.
	The bed is quite simple and would look great in a loft-style interior. Choose appropriate textiles, soft pillows - and use it to your health

As you can see, there is nothing difficult in making a prefabricated structure. Of course, you can complicate it by adding a mechanism for unfolding, because in such a simple form it will take man's strength to unfold the bed.

How to make a corner sofa for a summer residence

Small sofas are very mobile, but there is always a need for a comfortable and large corner sofa that could accommodate a friendly company. Making it is also not as difficult as it seems. Here is a good example of such work:

Agree, it’s amazing how solidly and not at all cheap pallet sofas look, if you approach the matter with imagination. And the more interesting that the material is something completely junk. And what do you think? Maybe you also made such furniture? Share your experience and impressions in the comments!