Pallet Potting Bench

Creating objects from pallets has been a craze over the past few years.  I got caught up in it too, and who could blame me?  How fun to have part of your item already cut and assembled for you?  The first pallets we bought were ones we found on Craigs List.  The price was good at $5 each so hubby and I took off north to them out.  When we got there, we saw that they weren’t made of wood but thin layers of wood – I don’t even know what you call that material.  The man didn’t ask  IF we wanted any but  HOW MANY  we wanted. We weren’t about to say we didn’t want ANY as they were not at all what we expected especially since we were in the middle of nowhere on private property.  So, we bought THREE.  The pallets were SO heavy that the man had to load them into the back of the truck with a tractor.

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When we got them home, we could barely carry them from the truck to the backyard where we dropped them with a thud under the deck.  Obviously, I couldn’t use THOSE for a potting beach!  I mean, what type of screws would I have to use?  Bolts, that’s what I’d need.  So, off to find more pallets. The search was short as there is a pallet ‘factory’ just down the road about 1/2 mile with loads to choose from. Odd that I’d never noticed that before. I picked up two pallets and brought them home.

The first step was to give each pallet a light sanding with my orbital sander then cover them with two coats of stain to help protect them from the weather. I found two posts at Habitat for the back legs and used two 2″ x 4″ for each of the front ones which I painted with some left over teal paint then ‘antiqued’ them with watered down black paint.  For this project, I did need hubby’s assistance to hold the pallets in place while I screwed the legs on. I used my battery powered drill for the 3″ brass screws.  I used my small skill saw to cut a few of the slats from the top pallet for the sink which was also bought at Habitat.  When I use the sink, I just place a bucket below it for the water to drain into and then pour that water on the plants in the garden.

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Once the base of the potting bench was finished, hubby and I carried it t the backyard and set it on the little patio I had created to give it a nice, solid, level surface.  The shelving was created from a shelf I found at St Vincent DePauls (St Vinnies).  I painted it to match the legs of the bench.  After we had the bench sitting on the patio, I was able to attach the shelving to the top of the bench at the back with a couple of strips of 1×1 wood pieces. I then screwed them into the back of the shelf and then into the top pallet. I did end up having to use a couple of clamps to stabilize the shelf because the wood strips were not beefy enough to provide the support needed.

This project didn’t take very long, with the exception of waiting for stain and paint to dry, that is.  Simple and fun to do!  

Here’s the finished bench before being loaded with all the gardening supplies

For building supplies, check out this post

For painting supplies, check out this post

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