How We Made a Pallet Coffee Table for $10

I have been trying to talk my husband into making a pallet coffee table for at least a year. I always tease him that he never lets me do what I want to do. I'm only partly joking. He's a hard sell sometimes.

I think the hardest thing about making anything out of pallets is first finding one that looks good and isn't either completely beaten up or painted with ridiculously bright colors. So when I do find one, I'm like a bulldog...I'm gonna get it.

This one was sitting in front of my neighbors' house ready to be taken away to the garbage. Naturally, I (sweetly) asked my husband to go and garbage-pick it for me. Sometimes (always) I like for him to do the dirty work. And pallets are heavy!!

I spent an afternoon sanding it down and then applying stain to it...we already had the stain because our deck needs to be stained, but since it's made of treated wood, and the treated wood has to cure for a couple of months before it will accept stain, the deck is still stain-less. But this pallet isn't.

We also had wood posts left over from making the deck that I wanted to use to make legs for the table. But then, once we (in other words, my husband) got the post cut down to size, the new legs looked all wonky.

ARG. There are few things as frustrating as getting into a project and then realizing you don't have what you need to finish it. But it turned out that we had a board left over from the deck as well...so we (in other words, my husband) cut the board down into 12 4-inch pieces, and then stacked 3 of the pieces together to make each leg.

Then the legs were stained and 3-inch casters attached to the bottom of the legs.

And I love it.

Time will tell if we decide to put a glass top on it. If we do, I'll be sure to let you know.

Cost breakdown:
Pallet: free
Stain: already had for another project
Legs: Scraps from another project
Casters: $6.48 each, but since we had a store credit, we're out $8 out-of-pocket
Also had to buy a pack of washers for $2