Turn Scrap Wood Pallets Into A Rustic Picnic Table For Your Backyard

Whether you're creating an outdoor kitchen in your backyard with a rustic theme or simply want a place for the entire family to be able to sit together on the deck on a beautiful summer night, adding a picnic table is a smart idea. Considering that commercially built wood picnic tables can cost several hundred dollars or more, you may want to save some money with a DIY project.

Saving a little bit of money with a DIY picnic table might not be enough to make a true difference in your budget, though. When choosing wood for a DIY project, you could still spend quite a bit at the hardware store, as the price of lumber can be volatile. To truly save some money, you could collect reclaimed wood yourself for free. Some businesses will give you wood pallets they no longer need.

Creating DIY furniture out of wood pallets is a popular option, as evidenced by many social media channels and posts dedicated to showing you how to do it. TikToker @asiftok has a channel focused on many different kinds of woodworking products featuring upcycled and reclaimed wood pallets. A recent video from this creator shows how to create a picnic table out of wood pallets. The project will save you some money compared to buying new lumber, but you may need some 2-by-4s for the support posts, as wood from pallets may be too thin.

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Because a common size for a wood pallet is 40-by-48 inches (almost a square shape), @asiftok started the project by cutting the pallet into a more rectangular shape. Although picnic tables can be almost any shape and size, rectangular designs are the most common, allowing closer face-to-face conversations across the table.

In the TikTok video, the woodworker then cut support legs. The standard height for picnic table tops for adults is 28 to 30 inches. (No precise measurements or dimensions were supplied as part of the video.) Cutting the legs at an angle and attaching them to the support boards under the top of the pallet creates an inverted V shape with a flat edge on the bottom of the board to deliver sturdy support. Then @asiftok added a straight board on the outside of the legs to provide additional support and to create an attachment point for the seating benches on both sides.

The woodworker then used the remaining section cut away from the original pallet to create the benches. A standard bench should be about 9 to 12 inches in width. By using the same pallet, the length of the benches matches the length of the picnic table top. Adding a support board at ground level connected the inverted V-shaped legs and provided necessary stability. Finally, @asiftok sanded the seating area and picnic table top to remove rough spots that could lead to splinters.

Even though you can probably find wood pallets for free, you may still have some expenses for creating a picnic table like @asiftok did in the TikTok video. You might have to purchase solid 2-by-4 boards to match the spans needed for support if you can't find long enough pieces of wood from the pallets. Many boards in a pallet are roughly 1/2-inch in thickness, meaning they won't be as sturdy as a 2-by-4 for support.

Wood pallets may have several types of nails and staples that need removal before you'll want to use the wood in a place where people will be sitting and eating. Loose nails or nails with ends sticking out of the bottom of the boards will need removal and replacement, meaning you'll have an expense for new nails or screws. You might want to choose deck screws for maximum rust resistance. While removing nails, watch the spacing of the boards across the picnic table top. Some pallets have larger gaps between the boards than others, meaning kids could drop toys or food through the gaps. In the video from @asiftok, the woodworker removed the nails from each board and adjusted the spacing  before reattaching them to make it work better as a picnic table top.

Sanding removes grime from the pallet wood and gives the project a professional feel. Adding paint or a protective finish to these boards is vital to make them smooth and to ensure they'll last. However, you'll have an expense for paint and sandpaper.