So where I work, we typically get half a dozen pallets a week from shipments, which inevitably get thrown out. I decided this would be a good opportunity for me to try my hand at carpentry and reduce waste at the same time.

Since I live in an apartment, I am limited by space, so it had to be something relatively small. Since winter is around the corner, and I will need a place to protect my little plants as they grow into big and strong plants, i decided a few small tables for infront of the windows would be perfect.

I picked three nice pallets from work and cut two of them into thirds, so each shelf was a full pallet long, and three boards deep (roughly 12″). I then stripped down the third pallet for legs and braces. I took the outside two-thirds of each pallet so I would have a flat ‘front’, and drilled a board onto the front of each, which made it look a little nicer, and added more support to prevent the shelves from sagging.

Then I drilled two legs to one side of the ‘top’ shelf at 12″ apart (assembling the table on its side since it only had two legs at this point). I then attached the bottom shelf at an arbitrary 20″ beneath the top shelf, keeping the leg spacing at 12″ to help keep it square, thinking this would give enough space for a larger plant on the bottom but still keep it well off the ground. I then attached the third leg, and moved it onto a flat surface before attaching the fourth leg (I was working outside).  My thought was, if I attached the fourth leg on a flat surface, I could make sure the table wouldn’t rock.

I was able to successfully make two tables with some scrap lumber, and I think it adds a nice rustic touch to the apartment . I’m thinking maybe to save it for a small stool on the balcony when I am working with my plants outside. One of the tables infront of the balcony door will work perfectly, but since the one in the den doesn’t allow any sunlight on the bottom shelf, I’ll probably just use that for storage.

Have you ever considered recycling pallets? They are basically free wood! What have you tried to make recycling pallets?