DIY How to Build Pallet Seating

So I’ve finally gotten ’round to building the DIY pallet seating that I’ve been planning since April! You wouldn’t believe how long I’ve had these pallets sat in the house, just waiting to be used!

I purchased them from someone local off eBay for just £1 a pallet (I bought 14) and the great thing about buying them in bulk is that you can usually ensure they’re all fairly consistent in size. The ones I have are half-sized pallets which were also perfect as it meant I could fit all 14 into my tiny Corsa!

I’m super proud of how well this DIY has turned out – probably my best and most favourite build so far! It wasn’t that expensive to do either and you can see the full breakdown of costs at the end! The main expense was just the wood treatment and decking stain.

Anyway, I’m beyond excited to share how I made this DIY pallet seating, so without further ado, here are 11 steps to guide you through building this yourself – let’s get stuck in!

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You Will Need:

• Pallets
• Exterior Treated Wood* (I’ve used 45mm x 70mm timber)
• Landscaping Fabric*
• Drill (I recommend this one*)
• Exterior Screws
• Wood Saw*
• Sander
• Wood Sealer
• Wood Stain/Paint*

Step 1 – Dismantle Pallets

Grab yourself some muscles and get dismantling! I kept most of the pallets still as whole pallets, but just removed the extra planks of wood that aren’t integral to its structure. These will handy for later on!

To remove the planks that aren’t integral to the structure of the pallet, we simply turned the pallets upside down and hit the planks off using a hammer against a large wedge of wood (the wedge of wood stops the actual planks getting damaged). It’s pretty easy to do and only takes a few hits for each plank of wood, but then you have the joyous task of de-nailing them all.

We also dismantled four pallets completely which took MUCH longer and requires lots of crow-bar-ing. The nails into the blocks are much longer and much harder to remove. I highly recommend using a lifting bar* if you want to dismantle pallets completely.

Step 2 – Treat the pallets

Pallets are usually designed for outdoor use anyway, but giving them a further treatment really isn’t a bad thing! I used a decking preserver first and then also a coloured decking stain* on top of that. The wood preserver is quite watery and can be a tedious process when you have so many pallets to coat, so if you have a paint sprayer, I highly recommend using it for this!

Step 3 – Arrange the Pallets and Secure Together

Decide where your pallet seating is going and lay some heavy-duty landscaping fabric* across the area. If you have any soil or cracks between paving slabs, then this will stop those pesky weeds growing up through the pallets. I 100% recommend the heavy-duty stuff because it’s far more durable and less prone to tearing.

Once the fabric has been laid, you’ll then want to secure the pallets together in stacks of three. To do this, I’ve simply added screws through the top pallet into the one beneath it – and repeated this for each pallet. When you’re done, you should be able to move each stack of pallets as one single object.

If you’re thinking my stack-building looks a little unaligned, it’s because all these pallets were ever-so-slightly different in measurements. If your pallets are also slightly off-size, make sure the front of the pallets are at least, aligned and flush with one another – as this is most important!

Step 4 – Affix back rest

This step of the DIY pallet seating is optional, but I really liked the idea of having a built-in backrest. So to build this, I attached three lengths of an exterior treated timber (approx 100cm tall) to the back of each stack of the pallets. I used lengthy strong screws for this and screwed them into the blocks of wood, which you can see on each pallet.

I then attached another length of timber across the top of those and then also two lengths through the middle to complete the frame.

Step 5 – Lay the planks

You can now go ahead and lay the planks you removed earlier in step 1 onto the top of your seating and also along the backrest too. You can see how I’m using the wood I added in the previous step to secure them! If your planks are slightly odd sizes (as ours were!), then you may need to cut them down. It’s also a good idea to leave a few mm gap between each plank, to allow for expansion.

Step 5 – Sand and Re-Paint!

You don’t want to be sitting down with the possibility of getting a nasty splinter on your bum – so I’ve made sure to sand these planks down real good. We don’t actually have a sander, so instead, I’ve used our Worx Sonicrafter* with its sanding attachment. It does a really good job actually and is much better than our old Black and Decker mouse sander.

Step 6 – Extend (if you want to!)

At this point, I then decided to extend the seating by an additional 30cm, where the L-shape produces at the side. Yes, I really am that finicky! However, those extra 30cm just make it the PERFECT length for putting your feet up on, ha!

To extend the pallet seating, I took apart a spare pallet and then re-built a mini version to the size I needed. I made three of these and then added them to the seating in the same way as the others!

Step 7 – Lay Planks along the front 

This step was pretty easy to do and is very much similar to step 5, however, this time we’ll be laying the planks horizontally rather than vertically! Screw the planks straight onto the stack of pallets, staggering them for a slightly more rustic look.

Step 8 – Build an Arm-Rest

Again, this is another optional extra, but I really liked the idea of having an armrest along the side too. I built this in the exact same way as the backrest, except it’s a shorter version (so I can still view the garden over the top!), which is around 70cm high.

I also made sure to build this part extra sturdy with thicker lengths of timber (45mmx95mm) as I can totally imagine people sitting on this part, so it needed to super structurally sound for more than just leaning upon.

Step 9 – Lay Planks on Both Sides

Again, fit more planks! I decided to lay these ones vertical to match the backrest rather than horizontal. Again, this was fairly straightforward and just involved screwing into the timber I added in the step above. The main tricky part of this job was having to fight the rosebush next door – ouch!

Step 10 – Add final touches

Finally, I laid more planks along the top of the backrest, armrest and anywhere else that was still showing the structural timber frame. I think this just finishes it off perfectly and keeps all the wood looking the same! Plus it makes an awesome ledge for putting drinks on!  

Step 11 – Sit Back and Relax

And there you have it – one super simple, inexpensive DIY pallet seating for you to enjoy! Add some cushions, wait for the some sun and pour yourself a gin and tonic (or beer, wine, tea, fruit juice – whatever’s your jam!).

I’m truly loving this space! And yep – apparently it’s also a great place for the dogs to spy on the neighbours… ah, pets eh? If you want to see how this spot looks now, check out this blog post for a tutorial on the DIY fire pit I build and also this on how we went about laying gravel.

I would love to know what you think of this pallet seating! Would you create something like this in your garden? If you recreate this project, feel free to send me a picture (you can find me on Instagram here) I would love to see!

Total Costs

(rounded to the nearest pound)

New Tools Purchased:
None

Materials Used:
Wood for backrest and armrest – £25
14 Pallets – £14
Wood screws (bulk packs with plenty of leftovers) – £15
Landscaping Fabric – free from previous projects
Decking Preserver – £17
Decking Stain – £20

Total: £91

*This post contains affiliate links where an asterisk (*) is used.