Create a patio day bed by stacking four wood pallets together and disguising them with wood facing. A simple and inexpensive outdoor seating project
Our patio is an area that we haven’t used very often, mainly because it’s only sunny for part of the day. It’s a lovely space though and it looks out over the garden and our chicken run. From it you can also see the Strawberry Pallet planter I built last month. Because of the way that the house is situated, there’s just one long bit against the north side that gets full sun. It’s a bit awkward to line chairs against so I had the idea to create a bench that could be used for sitting and lounging on.
The foundation of this patio day bed is four pallets of the exact same size. Double stacked and placed side by side they save on having to purchase additional wood for a bench and are also very solid. A handful of screws holds them in place and planks purchased from the local mill cover the front and one side. I didn’t bother attaching wood to the back or side that runs up against the wall since they’re not visible.
The most difficult part of this project was finding a suitable mattress topper that didn’t cost a fortune. You can buy thick custom cut foam but in inquiring online I found that it would have cost me over £50 if not closer to £100. My eureka moment came when I considered using the foam mattress from a folding guest bed. It would be the perfect size for a day bed and could easily be put back into its metal folding frame for storage when the weather turns wet and cold. It also didn’t cost me anything extra for this project.
The only issue with using the mattress is that its width was smaller than the width of the pallets. If you look in the above photo you’ll see my solution: I used a jigsaw to slice a full plank off the ends of all four of the pallets. The dirt mark on the floor shows how wide the pallets were originally. Using a wedge and mallet my husband and I were able to separate the thick supporting blocks from between the cut-off planks and we screwed them back in their new supporting positions.
Other than the cost of the screws, the only money I spent specifically for this project was for six planks that I used to create attractive facing – they cost about £10. The single mattress only stretched across part of the plank foundation and so my husband suggested using that extra space to build a table. Genius idea I think and it’s already doing its part in making the day bed a lovely yet functional piece of DIY patio furniture. Two coats of water-based fence paint and the wooden bench was complete.
And now a bit of pallet safety. If you’re considering using pallets to build furniture, for use inside or out, you need to be aware of what happens to a pallet before it ends up in your hands. Wooden pallets that make their way across borders are sprayed with methyl bromide, a type of pesticide. You don’t want it leaching into your soil or coming into contact with your family and little ones.
To avoid these treated pallets, look for the stamps that can be found on the sides of all wooden pallets. Avoid any pallet stamped with ‘MB’ or ‘DBMB’. The MB in both of those abbreviations means that the wood was sprayed with methyl bromide. If it says HT, it simply means that the pallet has been heat-treated to kill organisms, and is not sprayed with pesticides.
I love this design, so pretty. Perfect for what I’m looking for! You have given me so much ideas to have it in my patio. Thanks a lot!
last year when I start I am failed. now I am inspired by your awesome resource. I will start again by the following your resource, thank you, man.
Thank you for this pallet project. It’s straight forward. I think I can teach small children. That black animal, is that a rat?
LOL. That’s my cat!
Thanks for sharing the simple idea. This will be a great help to people like me who are searching for cheap things. Thanks again, Tanya.
That’s a great idea, Tanya. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Hope you will come up with more great ideas like this in future 🙂
Beautiful day bed. My wife will love this!
Sometimes simple things looks great because of presentation. Smart Job. Thanks!
Great simple idea and cheap to make. This is something even I might be able to do!!!
Hi there! Can you tell me the measurements so I know what I am looking for? 🙂
No measurements are needed Rachel – just find four pallets of the same size to work with.
It’s great to find your post and it’s so impressed your skill of woodworking. I must go forward to make one for my own patio. Of course you have spend many times to build this. Thank you for your suggestion.
That's beautiful and am so impressed with your woodworking skills! We have the perfect space for a pallet bed, you've set my mind working.
Try asking your local warehouse store or DIY Stores.Sometimes they chuck them away.I found my pallets outside a local warehouse.E-Bay sells Pallets but they can work out expensive.
Excellent Idea,I love it.I passed a local warehouse yesterday and noticed they had a lot of pallets outside.I asked the manager if I could have some and he said I could take as many as I want to.I arranged for a friend of mine to pick some up for me on his way home from work.I have the pallets standing in my garden at the moment.I will be doing this project in the next few day so I will have a nice seating area on my decking.Thanks for sharing this Idea.
Using pallets seems like unnecessary weight. That could all solidly be done with a lot less wood and to the correct size of any mattress you wanted. But with that said, its still creative.
Just wanted to let you know that I came across your blog last week and have been obsessed with this pallet project. You totally inspired me and I made my own this weekend! Thank you for your creativity and for sharing!
where does one find pallets? where can one buy pallets? no one ever mentions…
I love this idea! I'm going to make one for my patio. I wanted to give you an extra thanks for showing the difference between heat and chemically treated wood pallets. That is something that I never even considered before when using pallets. And it's very important!
Fantastic. There are so many amazing things that you can make, very inexpensively with pallets, as you've demonstrated. My pallet projects for this winter are a seating area similar to yours and a wall mounted, herb garden. Thanks for tip about the pallet treatment, I did not realise this either. Great site x
Fantastic. There are so many amazing things that you can make, very inexpensively with pallets, as you've demonstrated. My pallet projects for this winter are a seating area similar to yours and a wall mounted, herb garden. Thanks for tip about the pallet treatment, I did not realise this either. Great site x
What are the neasurements of the mattress/topper?
Love this project. Have the pallets….. Having a really hard time finding a cushion or mattress for it though.
love the look of this project…..good job!
bellissimo progetto!
Cheers 🙂
wow what a great project!
Thanks!
That's a really great piece of outdoor furniture, I am mightily impressed, you are a very handy woman! I have some odd pieces of wood in my garage waiting to be turned into a bench for the allotment, but I can't quite visualise how it will work at the moment. And I have a feeling it may turn out to be a death trap…
You underestimate your own creativity CJ!
Looks great Tanya….what will you come up with next???
😉
Very professional seating – I've loved seeing you Korat puss cats. Ours are a Burmese and a Tonkinese.
Love from Mum
xx
Yes yours are lovely too Mum! I didn't used to be a big fan of pedigree cats but they really have such unique little personalities 🙂
Your seating area looks great Tanya – that cat seems to appreciate it anyway.
She's just a little ham and needs to be in every photo 🙂
What a brilliant idea, hope you have many happy hours sitting on it.I love it when things are re-used, when they look so good at the end it makes it even better
Me too 🙂
I like it but of course I use pallets for just about everything. I am glad to learn the meaning of the codes on the pallets as I have been considering them all unsafe for contact purposes. Now I will be able to use some of them for other projects. The pop corn is still growing!
Mine too! And we have sun this summer so maybe they'll grow even more!
Sunnybrook, I don't think I've seen anyone use as many pallets as you do 🙂 Glad to help with the marking information.
Ingenious – and the cats obviously like it which is praise indeed.
They actually prefer the mattress WITHOUT the duvet cover on it. Actually it's two foam mattresses together and they love crawling between them. Kitty cat sandwiches 🙂
Very good comment about the safety of pallets. I saw one washed up on a beach (couldn't access it to get it home unfortunately). It had US on it but can't remember the other bit. Now I know and hopefully will remember. Love the way you use pallets.
Thanks very much Dc and glad to share the information on pallet pesticides!
What a great idea and it looks wonderful, really comfy too. I am now off to check the pallets that make up my compost bin as I didn't know that they are treated. Have a good Sunday xxx
I hope they're just heat treated Fran…most of the ones I come across haven't been sprayed with MB so you're probably fine 🙂