Quick and Easy Garden Tables From Old Pallets

I needed some side-table height tables for a garden party where guests will have buffet plates they can rest on their laps but will need a table nearby for drinks. I also wanted these tables to be (1) free; (2) usable after the event; and (3) from repurposed materials. I had been saving a couple of pallets from a delivery years ago, so I decided to work with them.

clamps, straight edge, skill saw, table saw, chop saw, screw driver, screws, carpenter square, sawhorses, hammer, and possibly a crowbar or other tool to remove nails

Pallets vary a bit in design, but they all pretty much consist of four joists roughly the size of 2x4s, with 2 joists forming the outside "walls" of the pallet and the other two spaced evenly to create three "bays" of roughly equal widths. On these joists are nailed the planks that flesh out the pallet. You are going to eliminate the center bay by sawing through the planks right at the outside edges of the center joists, then inspect the layout of the planks on each side of the pallet to assess how to form your little square-ish tables. You can figure out the specifics after you cut out the center bays if you like, but it's good just to get a sense of the whole project before you saw.

Clamp a straight edge onto your pallet so that the blade of your skill saw will cut through the course of planks just on the edge of one of the interior joists.

Clamp your straight edge and do the same cut, leaving you with an "empty" center bay on one side.

Once you repeat that process, you will have two long rectangles consisting of two joists and the original course of pallets. Save the sawn out pieces! They will form the legs of your table.

Turn one of your long rectangles on its side and clamp it to sawhorses or steady it otherwise. Assess the planks on each side to determine how you can saw through the 2x4 to end up with roughly the same sized tables. On my first pallet, the planks were staggered such that I could clamp a carpenter square to the 2x4 and saw through it adjacent to the center-most planks, similar to the earlier steps when cutting through the planks. Then I flipped it over, clamped it down, and sawed through the other 2x4.

With the second pallet, however, the planks were identical on each side, so I had to remove the center plank on each then follow the same process for sawing through the 2x4s.

Flip your square-ish pallet on its side, place one of the sawn pieces of pallet into place as a leg, and screw it down. In most cases, you will need only one screw, because you can push the leg snug up against other pallet pieces.

I found that the sawn planks as table legs provided the perfect height for a garden side-table. If you want something taller you can either add a thick table top of some kind or use other wood for the legs. You will end up with gaps in the table top. I solved this problem by dumpster diving at my local big box for broken pallets. (Most DIY centers contract to return used pallets, but if the pallets get damaged in some way they go into a dumpster to be hauled away as trash.) Once home with my dumpster treasures, I used my table saw to rip these planks to sizes that would fit neatly in the gaps.

You will end up with eight tables. How easy was that? And give yourself a pat on the back for keeping stuff out of the landfill!