Billie and James Hayman rescued a whole stack of pallets from a local junk store one day. That provided them with enough scrap wood for dozens of pretty and useful garden projects. They made birdhouses, bird feeders and charming child-sized chairs! Billie painted them in every bright color and decorated them with her stash of Flea Market ‘art supplies.’
Billie, from Greensburg Louisiana, says, “I put a shout out on my Facebook page as to where to get some. A friend of mine who owns a junking store said they burn them up all the time and I could have as many as I wanted. So excited! I’m afraid my honey is working on this more than me right now. He is taking them apart for me!”
It may seem difficult to find pallets worth saving and using to build things, but it may be easier than you think. Ask and you shall receive! Ask at independent hardware stores. Some pallets they reuse and some they can’t, simply because of the type they are. The ones they can’t use are perfectly good. Try it!
Billie says, “I had a little chair that I bought in Natchitoches, Louisiana and asked my husband, James to copy it…my vision his talent! He said they were about 15 inches square.
What’s great about anything you build is you can vary it any way you want. For instance, after the first chair, I told him to make the back taller for a vine to grow up and instead of pallet wood for the seat use plywood and make a hole for a plant to go in.”
“Here is one of our pallet chairs with the hole for the plant, painted my signature spring green!” Billie says.
“You need to learn how to cut up the pallet wood.” Billie advises We found a helpful video on the best way to cut them up. We had a sawsall which cuts through nails also and cut them up. Then you have to pull out the nails. It varies as to how many nails are in each pallet.”
“Then,” Billie says, “I looked in one of my craft books and found directions for the bird feeder. I found a picture of the birdhouse planter and my husband just built it how he saw fit. He has lot of tools I use and one is a grinder to get off the rough edges so you won’t get splinters. I find this is better than sanding. There are so many projects out there you can do!
“These few projects were made for a sale I’m holding at my farmhouse in May. in. I also have a garden Facebook page called Over the Rainbow Gardens.”
“The pallet trays are 24 inches long. For the rest of the projects, he just made from a pic and adjusted according to the wood he had.” This tray could also be used to bring in produce from the vegetable garden.
Billie says, “We are also making snowflakes out of pallet wood. I just love them. We are going to make four different styles!”
Billie and her husband turned a load of pallets into loads of fun and creativity. Projects for pennies!
Leola F LeVack says, “I re-purposed a half pallet, stained it gray, attached some of my tin decorations, and I now have a trellis for my climbing rose.”
“A weekend project. My new pallet garden,” TammyJo Dallas says, “…now my mother in law wants one. I guess I know what I am doing next weekend.”
Cathy Cadd says, ” This is from my moms yard. An old pallet that she painted, She slipped in a board and filled it with dirt and planted some flowers. Double duty,…it hides the garbage can in back!”
Pallets marked “MB” should never be used for gardening or fuel, while those with the letters “HT” (shown below) were heat treated or kiln dried and are safe to reuse.
Using ordinary pallets in a fantastic garden
Sherry’s perfect pallet chairs
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