I've got an event coming up this weekend that I wanted to have a stage for. I ended up Hacking this stage from wooden pallets. Most of the musicians will be 1 or 2 people performing at a time, but I left it big enough for 3 people to squeeze in there.

With enough pallets, you could make a stage of any size.

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

The day started off with me picking up a literal truck-load of pallets. Not the strangest thing I've done, but the whole ordeal definitely now holds a special place on my insides somewhere.

After Gathering so many different pallets, I took inventory of what I had to work with. The key here is to use pallets of the same height or "thickness."

The only tools I used for the construction was a hand held drill and a hammer.

Step 2: Frame It

The first step in the process was to frame out the stage. For this I've used 2 layers of pallets to make the stage almost a foot tall.

The first layer consisted of 2 pallets the same height. These support the second layer.

The second layer needs to be spread out to be outer dimensions you want the stage to be. For me, that's 4'x8'. It's important to now fasten your layers together. This prevents unwanted shifting, which would be bad for anyone standing on top. Securing frame to frame is preferred, but you can really just fasten it down to any piece that isn't falling off the pallet.

Step 3: Cover

Framing leaves a lot of holes in the top of the stage, so this leaves you with a few options. My route was to fill in as many gaps as I could with extra pallet slats, which afforded me the luxury to use a super thin piece of plywood to provide a level, flat, hole free surface that no feet/chair legs/ mic or guitar stands will fall through. The plywood will need to be secured down as well.

You could alternatively use 2 or 3 layers of plywood for less work and time, or you could deck the whole thing properly with pallet wood for less cost.

Step 4: Beautification

Nothing against plywood, but I've got some stuff against plywood. The last step was to take a 5'x8' area rug that normally sits there, and drape it over the stage. I didn't really like this rug before hand, but I must say that adding some shape to it has really made it pop and I can't imagine a more perfect rug.

Step 5: Wrap Up

This stage was a super simple morning project most people could do in an afternoon. The concept can be applied to other stages of different shape and size.

If I had extra time / Pallets, I would have put up a pallet-wall backer to the stage, which I think would have really sent it to the next level, but I settled for an dead simple crowd barrier instead, which came in handy to convert into a "thrust" stage for a drum set. Adding some simple lighting will really set it off too.

Altogether I spent around $10 in fuel, and and $13 for the sheet of plywood, but next time I'll get a thicker sheet of OSB for $9. A saw might also come in handy when fitting the pallet slats together.

Hope you enjoyed the Project, leave me a comment if you Liked it.

#Just another pallet hack

#Hand tools only

#Standing on a box