How to make an outdoor sofa from pallets. DIY sofa made from pallets
Surely many of you have seen photos of furniture made from wooden pallets, the so-called pallets, which are designed for transporting building materials. Such designs can be purchased at a very symbolic price. Thanks to this, furniture, for example, a sofa made from pallets or other furniture, is relatively inexpensive, and their main advantage is that each element is individual, made exclusively according to your order and fits into even the most extravagant design.
With your own hands you can make not only furniture for your dacha, but also interior items that will decorate your city apartment. So, if you are inspired, let's take a closer look at how to make a sofa from pallets with your own hands step by step.
How to decorate a sofa?
You need to choose the style and design of the sofa, as well as materials for it, based on the style of the room in which it will stand, taking into account the color scheme. By choosing the right colors and fabric, you can make truly exclusive furniture that will harmonize with and complement all interior items.
Exclusive furniture made from wooden pallets
Usually, just wooden sofas made from pallets are left only if they are to be used on a garden plot in a gazebo. This is the best option, because located on the street, they will be exposed to environmental factors and will quickly become unusable if they have soft upholstery. To install a pallet sofa outdoors, simply paint it.
DIY sofa made from pallets
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But in the room, especially if the sofa will be used as a sleeping place, you cannot do without soft pillows . You can make them yourself or buy a ready-made mattress and cover it with the fabric of your choice.
Furniture from pallets in the country
Sofas made from pallets, despite their apparent simplicity, can really turn out to be very beautiful and decorate a room. Moreover, they can be functional, and there is nothing to say about their low cost. So, with a little effort, you can furnish your home with very cheap, but at the same time practical and beautiful furniture.
Beautiful, stylish design and an atmosphere of comfort and warmth are important for everyone. After all, you want to feel as comfortable as possible at home. Contrary to popular belief, to create such an interior it is not at all necessary to have a large budget. Every year, designers are increasingly focusing on pieces of furniture that are made with their own hands. You can use wooden pallets for this. They are designed for transportation, but are increasingly being chosen to create a wide variety of furniture for the home.
Front of work
- First of all, you need to imagine what your new sofa will look like (it is advisable to sketch out a diagram). What will be its size and shape, color and texture of finishing fabric. Perhaps it will be a corner sofa. Do you know what a modular sofa is? This one is easily transformed, thanks to individual elements, and can be adapted to any situation. This option is preferable if you plan to equip a large recreation area on the terrace of a country house.
The preliminary stage is very important; it largely determines your future activities. The final result depends on how carefully you think through all the points.
- The next stage is preparing materials. You will need:
- suitable pallets. It is necessary that they are made of high-quality material (no cracks or mold) and are stable, otherwise your new furniture will very soon become unusable;
- Sander. If you don’t find one, sandpaper, which is used for processing wooden or metal surfaces, is also suitable; hacksaw;
- to connect the parts you need self-tapping screws and a screwdriver;
- for decoration - pillows, mattresses, blankets, etc. They can be purchased ready-made or, if you have certain skills, you can make them yourself.
If you are interested in making a sofa out of pallets for your dacha with your own hands, then in this article we will tell you everything you need to know before taking on this interesting and responsible task. First, let's figure out what you'll need.
Preparing for work
You need to place upholstery fabric and filling on the working surface of the sofa to make the pallet sofa soft.
To make a full-fledged sofa from pallets, you will need at least 6 of them, and to strengthen the structure, everyone can subsequently increase the number at their own discretion. It wouldn’t hurt to stock up on 1-2 more for spare parts so that, if necessary, you can use boards from them for fastenings.
Two pallets are laid upside down on the floor, aligning the ends and connecting them using corners or boards fixed on the inside. The remaining one is sawn exactly in half lengthwise; it will act as a backrest. But you can make a sofa without it. The surfaces are cleaned with sandpaper, then primed or covered with stain, paint, varnish - depending on the intended appearance. Layers of varnish and paint must be allowed to dry to form a dense coating. Chips and crevices are covered with putty, which makes the surface smoother.
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Legs are installed on the bottom pair of pallets, since their presence makes it easier to move furniture. These can be ready-made legs for sofas, armchairs and bedside tables, selected according to the weight of the sofa from pallets. If finding suitable ones is problematic, you can use durable timber sawn into equal pieces instead of factory legs.
The bonded pairs of pallets are then stacked on top of each other, either by turning one or both of them over. If you plan to make a sofa with several small drawers or do without them altogether, then all 4 pallets are placed on the legs, one fastened pair is placed on the second. And if large drawers are planned, then the bottom pair is left upside down, and the top pair is placed on it, thus obtaining a large free space in the middle.
What you need to make a sofa from pallets
Relatively speaking, a sofa can be divided into a bottom (the main part made of pallets) and a top (mattresses, pillows, textiles). It is very important to decide in advance what you will put on top of the base. After all, the size of the base that you need to make from pallets will depend on the size of the mattresses that you have at your disposal.
If you make the base first, you risk finding yourself in a situation where you won't be able to find soft elements of the right size. And without them, sitting on your sofa will not be comfortable at all!
Now that you know the shape, size and number of mattresses you can use, you can think about the shape of the sofa itself. Will it be straight, angular or U-shaped?
Or maybe you are planning to make your own, original form? It all depends on the space in which you plan to place the sofa, on the materials available to you and on your imagination.
What kind of furniture can be made
DIY furniture made from pallets, created step by step, can be presented in numerous forms. It can be used outdoors or indoors. The most popular designs are:
- sofas or armchairs, as well as other products designed for comfortable relaxation, and they can be hard or equipped with a soft seat;
- tables, both dining and coffee tables, with different shapes, heights and other parameters;
- shelves or racks, as well as full-fledged cabinets designed for storing a variety of small items;
- decorative elements that do not have any functionality, therefore they usually act exclusively as decoration of the territory or room.
Thus, wooden pallets can be used to create a variety of items. They have many differences, but in any case they are simple to create, so all actions can be easily done with your own hands.
Making the base of a sofa from pallets
To make the main part of the sofa you will need pallets, fasteners and some tools. As well as finishing materials of your choice to give the product a finished look.
First of all, you need to make sure that the pallets you are working with are intact, not loose, and do not have sharp edges or nails sticking out. All surfaces should then be sanded to avoid the risk of splinters. Using a sander this can be done very quickly and efficiently. If you don't have a machine at hand, the same can be done by hand using sandpaper, although it takes much longer.
After sanding, you can start cutting to size. For this you will need a hacksaw. It must be well sharpened so that the cuts are smooth and neat - you should not use for this task that hacksaw that your grandfather “sharpened 30 years ago, and it still cuts!” Otherwise, the result may disappoint you.
When you have all the elements ready to assemble the frame, it's time to start finishing the wooden pallets. Then, when you finally assemble the structure, it can be very difficult to reach many places with a brush or roller.
Now you can take a good break from working, because the paint must dry thoroughly before you can continue working with the pallets.
When the paint has dried, you can begin the final assembly of the base. At this stage, your pallet sofa begins to take its shape.
It is best to fasten pallets with self-tapping screws.
If you use nails, your sofa can quickly become loose and begin to creak.
To avoid splitting the boards, you should first drill holes for the screws with a drill. The diameter of the hole should be less than the diameter of the screw. For example, if you are using self-tapping screws with a diameter of 4 mm, then you can drill holes for them with a 2 mm drill bit.
The back of the sofa can be made either straight or inclined. The second option is somewhat more complicated. It is worth thinking about additionally strengthening the backrest, because they will rest on it.
Now your base is assembled and finished, you can move on to finishing the “top.”
Personalize your pallet sofa
With the help of decorative pillows, throws and mattress covers, you can give your pallet sofa an attractive appearance and create a cozy atmosphere in the relaxation area.
Cushions can dramatically transform the look of your new sofa and help it fit into almost any style.
Regardless of whether you want to place a sofa made of pallets in the yard at the dacha or right in your living room, choose textiles for it responsibly. For an outdoor sofa, the cushions should be light enough that they can be easily removed during inclement weather. For a sofa in a gazebo or on a terrace, you can make larger and more comfortable pillows.
As you can see, making furniture from pallets with your own hands is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. At the same time, it does not require any special special skills.
So if difficulties don’t frighten you, then you have the opportunity to make a truly unique thing that will become a favorite vacation spot for your entire family. If desired, anyone can make a sofa from pallets!
Original do-it-yourself sofa made from pallets. How to make a sofa from pallets step by step instructions: photos, videos. Various ideas, options for sofas: simple, corner, ladder.
Furniture made with your own hands from ordinary materials is very popular at the moment; interior designers can make exclusive things practically from garbage.
Original solutions for making furniture can be realized using ordinary wooden pallets, and you can even make a sofa from pallets with your own hands.
Let's first talk about pallets, they are also called pallets. Pallets are used for stacking and transporting various goods, often construction materials. These are a kind of platforms for piece goods, they are convenient to lift with a forklift, unload to a warehouse, etc.
There are square and rectangular pallets, so the dimensions may vary slightly, but if we talk about a standard pallet, its dimensions are 1200 x 800 x 145 mm.
Pallets are made of wood, which means they can be used to make household items, in particular furniture, for example beds, sofas, armchairs, tables, chests of drawers, etc.
Where to buy pallets? Pallets can be purchased at any construction supermarket; they are also often made and sold in carpentry shops. You can buy used pallets for almost pennies in warehouses; if you have friends who work in a warehouse, then getting several pallets is not a problem.
If you buy new pallets, then they are usually in perfect condition, but if they are used, then you will have to tinker with them, sand them with sandpaper, or preferably with a grinding machine.
Now that we have dealt with pallets, let’s look at how to make a sofa from pallets with your own hands step by step.
Materials and tools for making a sofa from pallets.
To make a sofa you will need several pallets, if it is a simple sofa, then 5 pieces will be enough. if corner 8 - 9 pcs. You will also need wood screws, sandpaper, corners and legs for furniture, pillows, fabric with filling or a mattress, paint or varnish.
Tools: saw, Phillips screwdriver or screwdriver, furniture stapler, paint brush, tape measure, pencil.
How to make a simple sofa from pallets.
To make the simplest sofa you will need 6 pallets.
We clean the pallets, sand them and immediately paint them.
We will make the base of the sofa from four pallets, lay the pallets and fasten them together. Bottom trays can be positioned with the front facing up or down. The base of the sofa is ready, now you need to make the back.
We take another pallet, saw it in half and attach it to the back of the base of the sofa; you can skip sawing the pallet and screw it entirely.
You can make armrests for a sofa from pallet boards.
Now our sofa needs to be painted or varnished again.
You can attach legs or wheels to the sofa; you can use bars as legs. The legs need to be installed not only on the sides, but also in the middle part of the base of the sofa.
The frame of the sofa from pallets is ready, but to make it comfortable to sit on the sofa, you need to put a mattress on the base and pillows on the back; all this can be purchased at a hardware store or made by yourself.
An original version of a baby sofa made of 3 pallets.
How to make a corner sofa from pallets.
You can also make a corner sofa from pallets; for making it you will need 8 - 9 pallets.
As in the previous version with a simple sofa, we prepare the pallets, sand them with sandpaper and paint them.
We lay 6 pallets at an angle and fasten them together with metal corners and self-tapping screws. We cut two pallets and make the back of the sofa out of them.
Place the mattress on the base and the pillows on the backs.
Sofa option with an inclined back.
How to beautifully decorate a sofa from pallets.
Making a sofa from pallets is not difficult, but you still need to make it comfortable and beautifully decorated, for this you can use pillows and a mattress. It is important here that the soft parts match the frame in color and texture.
For a sofa with a wood texture, country-style or dark, plain pillows are suitable.
If the base of the sofa is white, black or brightly colored, then it is better to use bright fabrics.
DIY sofas made from pallets photo.
Sofa ladder made of pallets.
Another option for making a sofa in the form of a ladder, this sofa is suitable for a large company. The design of the sofa is extremely simple, just fold the pallets in the form of a ladder.
How to make a sofa from pallets video.
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We have long had a desire to develop an empty corner on the site. Since our house does not have any veranda, we planned to install a table and chairs or benches. In general, create a place where the whole family can relax while drinking tea. However, it was not possible to purchase all this.
While looking through photos of other people's sites on the Internet, I came across several ideas with pallets (or pallets). I really liked the idea and inspired me to look for used pallets. I managed to purchase 25 pallets of them: 10 euros (this is with gaps between adjacent boards) and 15 solid ones (without gaps) for 2100 rubles.
Euro pallets made the base for a corner sofa, and solid pallets made a great floor for our deck.
Pallets: how to choose and prepare correctly before use
For our sofa, the simplest pallets are suitable, which are used for transportation as packaging material. They come in different sizes, but most often these are standard, so-called “euro” pallets. By the way, it is on such pallets that there are markings on the corners, which will serve as a kind of decoration for your furniture. In addition, for the manufacture of such pallets, wood is used that can withstand loads of up to 1000 kg. Therefore, you can be sure that such a sofa is almost impossible to break.
Before starting work, we recommend that you carry out preliminary preparation of the pallets. First, clean them of dirt and dust. This is especially important for those pallets that were previously used for their intended purpose. A simple brush or broom is suitable for this. But if the stains are persistent, you can safely rinse them with running water. After this, you need to leave the pallets outside until completely dry.
The next stage is surface treatment to eliminate roughness and unevenness. A grinding machine is best suited for this purpose. But, if you don’t have such a tool in your arsenal, you can use sandpaper. Of course, this method will take much more time, but the surface must be smooth. Also remember that you must follow safety rules while working, so use a protective mask.
If you plan to use furniture made from pallets for your garden or vegetable garden, then it must be protected from moisture. To do this, apply a primer with water-repellent properties to the entire surface. Otherwise, wooden structures will quickly turn gray and begin to rot.
Stage 1: Materials and Tools
10 euro pallets
“Solid” pallets
List of materials
- 25 pallets (pallets): 10 euros and 15 others, without cracks (gaps) between adjacent boards. Please note that they turned out to be different sizes. As you can see, the euro pallets are very used, which is why they were so cheap, but for our purpose they were quite suitable
- varnishes, paints, antiseptics (your choice here) to protect wood and give an aesthetic appearance
- fastener
Tool list
- Cordless screwdriver
- Grinding wheel
- Brush or spray gun (spray)
- Level
- Cable
- Gardening tools: shovel, rake, ... (depending on where you will build)
Mattress models for pallets
Companies that manufacture mattresses for pallets (as a rule, made to order in individual sizes) usually offer foam rubber (polyurethane foam) as a filler - crushed or solid sheet, or multi-layer options.
Crushed foam rubber
Mattresses filled with crushed foam rubber (foam rubber crumbs) are stitched through and through. Their cover is not removable. Externally they look like voluminous Japanese futons.
Mattresses with foam crumbs belong to a series of inexpensive ones. To improve the characteristics of the product and to extend its service life, manufacturers use a mixture of several brands of foam rubber.
Sheet foam rubber
Models with sheet foam filling have a simple, rectangular shape and a removable cover with a zipper.
The hardness of the mattress directly depends on the brand of foam used. Latex foam provides the highest degree of comfort.
Stage 2: Landscaping
Before
- Place the pallets in place to see what the terrace will look like.
- Rearranges pallets to obtain the required shape and fit them together.
- When you find a pallet installation scheme that suits you
- Make a mark on the ground along the outer edge of the pallets. We used a shovel that we stuck into the turf.
- remember the location of each pallet, you can number them. We took pictures to remember.
- Remove the pallets and remove all turf from the marked area.
- Using a shovel, rake and maybe a hoe, level the surface and compact it. Use the level to control.
- Laying out the pallets
- We lay out the pallets one by one, carefully leveling them in height
- we twist the pallets together
- It's better to do this with an assistant
- We use a grinding wheel to clean the resulting surface. To check, you can walk barefoot, of course, if you are sure that you have cleaned everything thoroughly and will not get a splinter
