Introduction: Pallet Alternatives Garden Furniture Sets

By https://www.playwood.it/it/
About: We are an Italy-based company, who produces angular connectors, made by high-quality materials. Playwood is an innovative assembly system: As a constructions toy, you can easily create your own furntiure. The …

I was looking for a furniture set to spruce up my backyard. I love spending my spare time with my friends and chilling in the sun during summer days.

Still, anytime I tried to come up with a furniture for my garden there always was something wrong or some issue: too expensive, too cumbersome, too bright, too dark. Since I didn’t find anything in stores and shops, I decided to develop my own DIY project and to take care of the furnishing of my backyard by myself.

I developed a two pieces project: I built two benches with different shapes, one long and rectangular; the second with a more cubic shape. I wanted both an alternative to common pallets DIY projects and something functional: Not only a bench, but also a storage, a sort of rack, where I can put play, books, tools and other stuff to use outdoor.

Step 1: Why PlayWood?

In order to realize my project, I bought some OSB boards of a thickness between 16 and 19 mm (¾” and ⅞”) and joint the panels through an angle connectors system.

I personally use them produced by PlayWood: They are sustainable as completely made of high-performing recycled plastic materials, durable and reusable over time thanks to their screw system that allows you not to drill or nail the material for the assembling of your project. Otherwise you can also use common metallic angle, purchasable in basically any DIY store.

Step 2: What Do I Need?

For the assembly of this garden set, I used:

  • 36 PlayWood Connectors 90°
  • 8 OSB Boards 150 x 40 cm - 69,06” x 15,75”
  • 2 OSB Boards 80 x 60 cm - 31,50” x 23,62”
  • 2 OSB Boards 40 x 30 cm - 15,75” x 11,81”
  • 1 OSB Board 60 x 30 cm - 23,62” x 11,81”
  • Allen Key #5

Step 3: How Do I Build It?

Since I assembled a two pieces set, I decided to begin with the cubic one: As a basement I used the largest board I bought and I connected two small boards and consequently created the side walls of this cubic shape. Above them I put another wooden panel as a top. In order to assemble the structure, I joint all the wooden boards using PlayWood connectors 90° and tightened them by using a simple Allen Key #5.

Finished this first structure, I built the rectangular bench: I took 4 long wooden boards and joint them thanks to PlayWood connectors 90°. And repeated the tightening part as above.

Step 4: What Are You Waiting For?

It took me less than half an hour to assemble the entire set: That’s the beauty of the PlayWood assembly system, it’s fast, simple and allows you to be the designer for your personal project, improving your creativity and dexterity.

Step 5: Tutorial