Pallet Bo
Pallet BoPallet Bo
Pallet Board
ard ard
ard Coffee Table
Coffee Table Coffee Table
Coffee Table
Instructions Sheet
Instructions SheetInstructions Sheet
Instructions Sheet
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Below you will find a more detailed set of instructions than was found on the Pallet Board Coffee Table post.
• Determine the Dimensions: Given the size of my hanging daybed and the fact that I wanted all 4 of us to
be able to eat dinner on it, my coffee table has going to be on the bigger size. So I marked off the area
with blue painter’s tape…played around a bit given the dimensions of the pallet boards…and landed on a
table measuring about 3’x4’. This gave me a sense of how many boards I’d need to pull from my pallets.
In my case that was 11 boards. (TIP: I like using odd numbers for projects like this so that I can find the
center…and then just keep dividing sections in half.)
• Demo the Pallets & Prep the Boards: Essentially you do whatever it takes to man-handle the boards off
the pallets.
o With my circular saw I made a straight cut just inside the
pallet frame…perpendicular to and across all the pallet
boards…on both sides. This gave me greater leverage to pull
the boards from the center support without destroying them.
(TIP: Watch out for the errant nail or nail head where you
wouldn’t expect them…pallet boards are used and re-used, so
there may be a hidden nail here and there.)
o I then used a hammer and crowbar to jimmy all the boards loose.
o After choosing which boards were in the best condition, I used a wire brush to scrape off all the
nastiness from the 11 boards needed to make the table top.
• Cut the Pallet Boards: Knowing the dimensions of the table, I then cut the boards to size on my miter
saw. Because I had to dodge a few nails when cutting them off the pallet, neither side of the pallet boards
was straight…so I ended up cutting both sides of each board.
Pallet Bo
Pallet BoPallet Bo
Pallet Board
ard ard
ard Coffee Table
Coffee Table Coffee Table
Coffee Table
Instructions Sheet
Instructions SheetInstructions Sheet
Instructions Sheet
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• Treat the Pallet Boards: Because I wanted my coffee table to last as long as possible, I put a single coat of
polyurethane on all sides of the boards. Not wanting my pallet boards to look to slick, I used a satin finish
to give the impression that the boards had just been pulled off the pallet. (TIP: Don’t do that again
inside…polyurethane has some potent fumes!)
• Construct the Base:
o I started by cutting the 4x4’s the height I wanted my coffee table to stand. Because our daybed
hangs pretty high…that’s about 18”.
o From there I cut the 2x4’s that would make up the surround of the base:
I started with the 2 4’ segments that would form the long side of the base.
Because I didn’t want to worry about doing a 45° miter cut on my surround for the
base…but I still wanted the base to be about 3’ wide, when cutting the 2 short segments I
needed to take into account the ends of the long sides of the base. To do that, I simply
added 2 scrap pieces of 2x4 to the end of the 2x4 that would be one of the short
sides…and measured 3’ from there (hopefully that makes sense.) I then cut 2 pieces that
length…approximately 32”.
o Using 3” deck screws I connected the 2 shorter 2x4
segments to 2 of the 4x4 legs…each, flush with the top
of the legs and the side of the 4x4.
o Then I attached the 2 4’ segments (the long sides) to the
parts of the base I had just put together…flush with the
top of the legs and to the ends of the short 2x4s
segments. Now I had my legs attached to the
base/surround…measuring 3’x4’…and approximately 18’
high. (TIP: I actually did all of this with everything upside
down so that I could use the floor to keep everything on
the same plane.)
o Knowing that I needed to provide my pallet boards
some support, I simply marked my last segment of 2x4
so that it would fit just inside the frame long
ways…which would be perpendicular to the pallet
boards on top. I cut them….screwed them into the frame/surround…turned the frame over and I
was done!
• Paint:
o Originally I had planned on painting the entire table red. But after seeing how great the wood
looked, I thought it would be a shame to cover it up. Besides...painting the entire table red would
have been more like an explosion than a pop.
o With the polyurethane still drying on my pallet boards, I painted the entire base red…THREE
times!
o Yes…3 times. I realized with this project that red is a funny color…you can’t really tell what it’s
going to look like by looking at the little sample. The first red looked too rusty “national park-ish”
and the second red was too orange. I’m good with the third and final red…although it’s still not
exactly what I’m looking for, but I was DONE painting.
Pallet Bo
Pallet BoPallet Bo
Pallet Board
ard ard
ard Coffee Table
Coffee Table Coffee Table
Coffee Table
Instructions Sheet
Instructions SheetInstructions Sheet
Instructions Sheet
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• Add the Table Top:
o This was the easiest and most fun part of the project…I guess because it was the last step and I
got to use some power tools again.
o All I did was lay the boards on top of the painted (and dried) base so that there was an even lip all
around. Then I moved them around a bit to space them out evenly…generally, and to make up for
some of the variation in the boards (some turned slightly one way and others the other way).
o The last thing I did was pull out my power nailer and using 1” staples nailed everything into
place…machine gun style. Fun…and done!
I am very pleased with how it turned out…and am looking forward to spending more time in this space.
