thriftymomsdiy

As you may know from my recent post, Wood Pallet Headboards, I am in love with wood pallets! They are cheap, easily sourced wood (meaning I can find them just about anywhere) and they hold up to the elements extremely well! Because of this feature I decided to use them for planter boxes. Now remember, I am not a carpenter nor am I a professional, these are just projects we’ve done around the house that we wanted to share.

First, I had two spots on my front porch that I knew would fit planter boxes very well. However, when I went to look to buy two, they were $45+ for one! That wasn’t going to cut it. So I had material left over from my headboard project and I decided to use it to make my own planter boxes.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Wood Pallets – either one you found or bought. You could also used shiplap too!
Skill saw & a miter saw with a wood cutting blade
Wood stakes – 2×2 (they come in 6 packs at your local big box store)
Cordless drill with appropriate bit
Screws (any kind will do but they need to be at least 1 1/2 to 2 inches long)
1. A nail gun would work but at the time I did this project I didn’t have one
A flat surface to put everything together
A plastic planter box – you pick the size you want as they sell tons at the big box stores. I used two different kids. The first one was a black plastic window box that measured roughly 23 inches by 8 inches and another that measured 14 by 14.
Then whatever materials you want to place inside. I choose potting soil and potato vine plants

If you don’t own the items needed to make this wood pallet planter box, there are links in the content below showing where you can purchase them.

Step One: Preparing Your Wood Pallet

Before you start any wood pallet project, I highly suggest cleaning them with either plain water to get the mud and muck off. I also suggest to use a disinfectant, especially if they have been sitting outside in the elements for a while. Any type of bleach will do or mold or mildew remover. If they are new and clean, you probably don’t need to do this.

After you’ve cleaned off your wood pallets and let them dry, you’ll need to use a skill saw to deconstruct the wood pallets. I’ve tried in the past to pull the nails out or to use a crow bar/pry bar to get them apart in one piece but honestly, the effort it takes and the damage that is done isn’t worth it so I just cut the wood pallets apart with a skill saw.

**NOTE: PLEASE BE CAREFUL DURING THIS STEP OF CUTTING**

Below is a image showing roughly where I cut between the support pieces. Sorry it’s wonky, I can’t get it to load in the right direction! Ugh, the internets.

Step Two: Cutting Your Wood

Once you have your wood pallet cut down into manageable pieces, you then need to cut them to fit your plastic planter boxes. As mentioned, I have two. The first one is a square one that measures roughly 14 inches by 14 inches wide (about 8-10 inches deep). I know that I will have my wood stakes inside the planter box for support so I need to keep that in mind when I’m putting everything together. So to my dimensions I add one more inch on each side for the stakes and for the planter boxes to be able to all fit. I choose to make these planters roughly 24 inches tall which turned out to be about 6-7 wood pallet pieces on each side, depending on the size of each piece. I then cut each wood pallet piece down to 15 inches long with my miter saw. I also cut my wood stakes to match the 24 inch height.

**NOTE: PLEASE BE CAREFUL DURING THIS STEP OF CUTTING**

I then created a level surface with saw horses and a piece of plywood that I had laying around. Once I had a flat surface, I started from the bottom up. To create the structure I used an “inside/outside” pattern. I don’t know if that’s the technical term but it works for me! This means that I ran the pieces to where they would be on the inside edge of the stake at one side and going over the stake at the other side. That way all pieces would fit together and I didn’t have to cut one side smaller than another side. I wasn’t going to try and cut 45 degree angles and make it look fancy either! But you could if you wanted. I just didn’t have the time or the patience for all that jazz.

Below is an image of things coming together by using my power drill and screws. I ended up using two screws for each wood pallet slat. One on the right end and one on the left. You could use a nail gun as well to get a cleaner look. Also, it looks like the planter is upside down in the image but it’s actually not. I use the end tips of the wood stakes to give me more room to place my planter boxes and it gives me a little gap to remove them if needed.

As you can see, the pieces don’t all match up. That’s because you’re using a free wood pallet! If you want to go to the big box store and get actual slats, they would all line up. But I love how each piece has a different texture, color and grain. I specifically selected non-matching ones during the process to get that look.

Step Three: Finishing Your Wood Pallet Planter

You’re almost done! Once you’ve screwed (or nailed) everything together you can go ahead and place your planter box inside. I added my soil and potato vines before hand and I think it came out pretty good! (I can’t remember what the other plant is but the potato vine killed it anyway so…it’s a moot point lol)

As you can see in the image below, I also made a rectangular one! The plastic planter box dimensions are roughly 23 inches long by 8 inches wide and about 6 inches deep. So since I cut my wood pallet up into more manageable sizes I had to use a row of two on the front. The front pieces were 13 inches long each and the side pieces were 9 inches each (like before I added one each to the length and width). I again made it about 24 inches tall which called for 12-14 pieces for the front and another 12-14 pieces for the back. The sides then needed 6-7 pieces for each side. Like before I used the “inside/outside” pattern so everything would line up. I had to use one more wood stake for the middle part of the front and the back too but otherwise it went together in a similar fashion as the first one with one screw being screwed into the wood stake on each end.

This was a really fun project to make and I hope you all enjoy it too! I think all in all it cost me about $30ish to make because I got the wood pallets for free. What cost me was the plastic planter boxes, the soil and the plants. If you had those items already it would be even cheaper!

Pro Tip: I use these all year round! In the fall I swap out the annual plants for very colorful fall looking fake ferns that I bought on clearance from a home decor store. Or you could use perennials that would last longer too!

Leave a comment or a question and let me know what you think!!

Note: I am an Amazon Associates member which means I get a small commission off of any sales that take place from the Amazon links that are provided.

Check out our how-to video too!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had the desire to make something out of wood pallets for years. If you look in the right places, you can find them either free or very in expensive.

For me, I found my first set simply driving down the road. It was only a few months after we moved to Texas and I kept driving by two places that had stacks of wood pallets out front. I knew I wanted to do something with wood pallets but I didn’t know what at the time. I’m inherently a introvert so it took me some time to gather up my courage and inquire about the pallets and once I did, I wasn’t disappointed. One place was a home that was getting rid of them, so they were free! Another place was a co-op type place that sold feed and tools for farmers. They sold their wood pallets for $4 per pallet. Naturally, I went with the free ones. 🙂

What You Will Need

Wood pallets
2x4s
Miter saw & power drill
Screws
Paint (whatever color you want, I just used white I had laying around)

Here are the steps I took to make a wood pallet headboard. Please note, these headboards are intended to fit a twin size mattress. Wood pallets actually are the perfect size for a twin bed. However, I often have company over so I made two and put them together to make a king size wood pallet headboard.

Step One: Wash off and disinfect (if needed) your wood pallets

Here’s a picture of how they originally looked when my son and I picked them up. They were in pretty rough shape but we hosed them off and got all of the dirt and mud off of the wood pallets. We also sprayed them down with mold remover because there were a few places that had mold and bugs on them. Then we left them outside to dry.

Step 2: Cut legs to mount to the wood pallets

Next, I took some left over 2x4s that we had in the garage. I then measured them and cut them down to use as legs. To get the height I needed to use, I measured all of the other headboards we had in the house and took the average height. The average total height for our headboards was 55 inches. So for my wood pallets I cut the 2x4s down to 20 inches high using my miter saw and left 7 inches showing at the bottom to lift the wood pallet up enough to hit the 55 inches that I wanted.

Step Three: Mount the legs to the wood pallets

After I cut the 2x4s down to 20 inches I played with the positioning to make it to where I didn’t go over 55 inches total in height. I then just used some screws that we already had and a power drill with the needed bit. Since this was going to be mounted on the inside of the wood pallet, I wasn’t too concerned about the “look” that the screws would leave.

Note: the placement of the 2x4s in the below picture is not where I ended up putting them. For my measurements, I left 7 inches of the leg showing at the bottom to get a total of 55 inches in height after the wood pallet measurement. Not all wood pallets are the same size so you’ll need to adjust your measurements to fit what you want. The final height of 55 inches is just what I wanted and nothing specifically told me it had to be that tall.

Below is a picture of how they looked after they were mounted onto the wood pallet. I LOVED how the wood pallet was “beat up” already. Honestly, it was almost a little too beat up in some places but I had four pallets to choose from so I picked the less banged up one. I also removed and replaced a few pieces, where needed, but nothing major. If it was warped, or bent, it stayed warped and bent. I wasn’t too picky because I knew I’d be painting them in some fashion. I just made sure nothing sharp or dangerous was sticking out because our kids would be around them.

Step 4: Painting wood pallets

In regards to the color, I knew I didn’t want to leave the wood pallet in the condition that it was in but I wasn’t sure what color I wanted to paint them or what style to use. Thankfully, the wood pallets dictated everything that was going to happen to them anyway so I just listened. The reason why I say that is because when I tried to paint them, the wood pallet grain was so dominant that I would have needed to add coat after coat of paint which would take hours. Too many hours!

So I ended up using white paint because frankly, I had a gallon of white paint sitting around. It wasn’t anything special, just something I had left over from another project. So I used a regular 2 inch brush and started to paint. The moment I put the paint on the wood pallet, the pallet took over and showed me what it was going to accept. As you can see, I got a wonderful “white wash” finish without even trying. I just simply started with a little bit of paint and spread it out as far as I could make it go. I did this for two reasons. One I’m thrifty and don’t want to waste a lot of paint right of the bat and second, the less coats of paint the better because I have a job, two kids, a hubby and a dog…I don’t need to spend days and days painting something.

Step 5: Letting the wood pallet dry

After I painted all of the wood pallet (front, back and the legs) I set it out in the sun to fully dry. I wasn’t sure how much of the paint would absorb into the wood but I didn’t want to wait days to find that out either. It really didn’t take long at all because after a few hours it was fully dry.

Because the legs were 2x4s and not the same wood from the wood pallet they look a little different because they took the paint different but I honestly don’t care because they are going to be behind a bedframe.

Step 6: Installing the wood pallet frames

Next, we placed them into our kids play room. As mentioned before I made two because we typically have family come stay with us. We also have another twin bed that we have in storage so whenever our family come to visit we just get it out of storage and set it up as a king size mattress with a mattress converter that we bought. In the meantime it acts as a great day bed for the kids to hangout on when they play their video games. I did end up installing large stick-on felt pads (the ones you use for the bottoms of chairs or on cabinet doors so they don’t bang) so that when they rested on the wall they didn’t damage it. I also didn’t connect them to the bed frames because I knew we’d be using them in different configurations. I just simply leaned them up against the wall with enough of an angle that they wouldn’t fall forward but not too much to where they would stick out too far.

Also, notice the two wood pallet headboards don’t match? I wasn’t concerned with it because honestly, no two wood pallets are going to match and I don’t have enough time in the day to find a free set that are exact. It just is what it is and I LOVE the outcome. We’ve had them for several years now and they’ve never let us down.

I hope you enjoy making your wood pallet headboards as much as I did. I probably spent under $10 making these if you count the cost of the materials we had bought previously and used on this project. If you have any questions or comments, let me know!