5 Alternative Uses For Wooden Pallets
16 Jun 2021
People have been using used wooden pallets in a variety of DIY projects for a long time now. Pallets are a great resource for those who want to partake in amateur woodworking projects, because they are practically ready made for it. In a single wooden pallet, you will usually upwards of 10 or 12 boards, all of which are already pre-cut to a size that is suitable for a wide variety of different kinds of projects, and which can be easily removed from the body of the pallet.
It’s also the cheap alternative to buying all of the wood that you would need for your projects. Pallets are so widely used, basically everything that has to be transported from food to furniture to clothes will have pallets involved in the process on some level.
They’re not hard to come by either if you are smart about where you look. If you seek out small businesses and independently-owned stores near you, they will probably have pallets lying around that are just taking up space and that they’ll be more than happy to part with.
At this stage, everyone is aware of some of the more obvious projects involving pallets such as bookshelves, benches and wooden chests, so let’s take a look at some interesting uses which are a bit less obvious:
1. Photo Frames
While most of us do have family photos hanging around the house, we all also have many different pictures which we would like to hand up but we just haven’t quite got around to putting them all up yet. That’s partially because we have to find the time to do it and also make sure we know where we want to hang them, but it’s also because of the lack of frames. An ornate, well-designed frame is nice, but if you have one for every picture then it will start to add up.
This is why it’s nice to get a little bit creative. Making a picture frame out of some leftover pallet wood is a small and simple project, and you will only need to use a little bit of the wood from a single pallet, meaning you can have a lot left over for another project or two. All you need is three cuts from the planks, and then a few smaller strips of wood you can attach to the top and bottom at the back of the boards to hold them in place. Then using a photo transfer gel, you can fix a picture to the wood.
2. Matchbox Guitar
Even for those of us who are not particularly musically inclined, a matchbox guitar, or a cigar box guitar, as they are also sometimes called, is just a really cool and interesting thing to have in your house. It does look like a complicated project that has a lot of different component parts, but it’s actually not too difficult to put together the wooden frame of the guitar itself and it’s not going to cost you much wood.
The inside of the guitar will be hollow, which means that all you are really making is a box, which you can then attach the neck of the guitar too and that’s just a single strip of cut wood. It can be any size or shape you want too so you don’t need to be specific. Shaping the top of the neck into the head can be a bit tricky, but again, the shape doesn’t matter. Then it’s a matter of adding the machine heads and the strings and with a matchbox guitar, that’s really more for design than anything else.
3. Headboard
Somewhat contrary to the previous project, the wooden pallet headboard looks like a simple project, but there actually is a little bit more difficulty than is apparent. You can’t really just place the pallet at the top of the bed and be done with it. Well I guess technically you could, but it’s not going to be very stable, it probably won’t have quite the rustic-farmhouse look that you’re going for, and I’d say you’d be liable to wake up with a few splinters.
You will also need to cater the size to your specific bed so there will be a bit of planning involved. I would suggest a method like this, which uses four different pallets which you will sand down, cut to length for the frame which you can screw together, and then paint to your liking. This project does involve a lot of cutting using a table or a miter saw and so if you’re not used to that it’s important that you research and practice some proper table saw safety.
4. Wooden Path
Moving from inside the house to outside now, having a path through the grass or the flowerbeds will add a lot to your garden. It can allow for you to have a bit of a scenic stroll without having to tread through mud, and it also adds a bit of a design flair.
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