Introduction: Elegant Pallet Wood Dining Chairs

About: I am a Makerspace/Technology Teacher on the International School of Aruba. I teach STEAM lessons in our Makerspace with kids from grade 4 till grade 12. I love tinkering, discovering and making, so I made it m…

Every time I look on the net for neat pallet wood chairs, I happen to find them usually a little bulky. For the outside dining table I needed to make new chairs. They needed to be sturdy, but light to move and made of pallet wood. (because cheap)
I think I found a way! So here we go!

Supplies

Materials needed:

  • Pallets for harvesting wood (you need two pallets for 1 chair)
  • Screws
  • wood glue
  • stain (optional)


Tools:

  • hammer
  • belt sander machine
  • drill/driver set
  • saw
  • pocket hole jig


Step 1: Saw, Saw and Saw.

Actually, Step 1 should be to disassemble the pallets, but there have been written tons of instructables to do so. Normally I pull apart some pallets when I am bored. That way I'll always have a pile of useful wood laying around. So I will skip this part. We'll go straight to te sawing part.

I wanted to use all the wood from the pallets, so I took the stringers and started to cut them as shown on the pictures above. Important to know is that a comfortable height for the seating is around 44 cm or 17 inch. so take the thicker part of the stringers where you will make the connections. (see next step)

Step 2: Building the Frame

With the pocket hole jig I drilled connection holes for the screws on the blind side of the wood.
Then I connected the sides first. (as seen on the second photo)
The pieces I used in between were 38 cm long. So that the total seating was 45 cm/17,2 inch deep.

When the two sides of the chair were done, I connected them with just one piece of stringer. Making the whole seating 45cm by 45cm . Between every connection I put woodglue, that when everything is set, the chairs will be light but sturdy.

The frame is done!

Step 3: Saw & Attach the Planks!

The chair is starting to get to its final stage.
We're going to add the planks. Make sure you measure after each plank, so that the result is super straight. Is used the belt sander to correct some little dents after assembling.

To attach each plank I used a small screw and woodglue. But next time I would use a nail to do so. After the woodglue is set, the screw is basically not needed anymore and nails are less visible. But that for next time.

Step 4: Finishing Touches! (or Not)

I finished my whole set, by staining it in dark brown. I live close to the sea, so I wanted to protect the wood better. But if you like the natural color of it, you could leave it as is. Or stain it in different colors. I also decided to stain the dining table with it. I also added a picture of the whole set together. I forgot to make pictures of the construction of the table, but that's okay. Because there are a lot of instructables about those too! But you can easily fit the chairs with other tables too.

I hope you guys like it, and if you decide to make one too post a picture of it!

Reuse Contest

Participated in the
Reuse Contest