DIY: Outdoor Pallet Sofa

Despite the drear weather lately, the deck decor is coming together!

We power washed, we prepped, we stained, we built…

…an outdoor pallet sofa!

It is heaven.  Take a look (or just come on over to enjoy…)

And guess what’s the best part?  It cost less than $5.

Thankfully pallets are readily available in our neck of the woods (for free).  I usually snag mine from the back of my local Lowe’s – thanks Lowe’s, you’re the best!

After staining the deck, I knew I wanted something nice and comfy to fill the space right outside of our dining room slider.  It used to look like this before…

But went to this with a little TLC…

Here’s how:

I got 4 pallets that were all about the same size (40″ x 30″) and made 2 “sofas”.  If you’re wanting to make something similar, then you can make yours as small or large as you desire.  If you’ve got a big patio or deck to fill, think about making a humungo sectional. How cool would that be?!

Using 4″x4″ posts from the fence we took out last year, we cut the legs using a compound miter saw (this is a favorite of mine <= affiliate link).

Determine the height of the legs:  A typical seat height is 18-20″, so we measured the height of the cushion we bought (4″ high) + the pallet thickness (5″ high), so the legs needed to be 10″.

To attach the legs, we used flat brackets (mending plate <= affiliate link) and braced them from the leg to the pallet edge.

To attach the back pallet, we used (3) 90 degree L-brackets (corner brace <= affiliate link)  for each “sofa”, so 6 in all.

Then it was complete.  That’s how easy these bad-boys are to make,  But I will warn you…  THEY ARE HEAVY.  So you will definitely need some muscles & braun to lift and move the pallet sofas.

Once they were in place, we were in love!

Check out my little guy chilaxin’…

Heaven.

One more step we could have taken, but haven’t (yet or maybe never) is to paint or stain the pallets.  They certainly don’t need to be left the raw wood, it just depends on the look you desire.

I’m sure you’re wondering about the cushions. Right?  Boy, they were difficult to find.  I found lots of cushions, but they were all too $$$.  The tricky part was the seat depth of the pallet sofa which is 30″.  It’s the perfect spot for lounging and napping (you’ll never want to get up), but finding a cushion to fit was rough.  In the end, I ended up finding these oversized seat-with-back-cushions at Lowes.  They were a bit pricey at $55/each, but they are mega thick and durable.  They’ve been left in the rain a few times and survived, thankfully.  With the cushy back, they fit just right for the 30″ depth.

With 3 cushions across, they were just the right size to allow for some extra room on the ends of the pallets to rest a drink & drink tray.

Even though it’s been practically raining every day, I have been totally loving our new deck space.  Many a days ahead will be spent snoozing lounging!  A more thorough deck tour to come – I promise!  Until then, you’ve gotta make this pallet sofa!