Pallet Table - How to Easily Create an Outside Table for your Garden

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We love our pallet table and it gets used all the time in our garden. Our pallet table came into being during the lockdown of 2020 when we couldn’t get hold of garden furniture.

As everyone was confined to their homes, they were making the most of their gardens and we really struggled to find a decent garden coffee table to go with our sofa. They were either all sold out or cost the same as a diamond-encrusted hot tub filled to the brim with champagne.

We had resorted to taking out a coffee table every time we wanted to sit outside. Unfortunately, we left our coffee table outside one too many times and it became damaged by water so we had to think up another way to create a garden coffee table.

We had leftover pallets from when we had our gravel delivered for our last garden revamp, so we decided to make our own DIY pallet table.

They were a perfect size and made for outdoor use. I had seen many other bloggers and Instagrammers create wonderful pieces of garden furniture out of pallets so I decided to give it a go.

Some of the genius pallet wood furniture creations I have seen include garden sofas, pallet tables, benches, bars, shelves for your plants, or even a pallet swing. The nature of the pallet means they are extremely hardy, perfect for outdoor use, and extremely adaptable so anything goes.

garden sofa made out of pallets — A glorious corner of a garden with pallet sofas. Image credit: @vikkis_vintage_life

garden sofa made from pallets with cushions and a tasseled parasol — A hand-painted pallet coffee table with sofas made out of scaffolding boards. Image credit: @theresa_gromski

pallet bar in the garden painted in anthracite grey — A bar made out of pallets! Image credit: @littleavonhouse

garden planter made of pallets — Another wonderful creation using pallets by @theresa_gromski

pallet swing on a blossom tree with an orange sunset — And possibly my favorite creation, this swing using pallets! Just look at that sky. Image credit: @pandora.maxton

You can buy pallet sets online to make in your garden, although I would discourage this as pallets are so easy to find and most of the time, free! Check your local Facebook Marketplace to start with. Or even your local garden center or DIY Store.

In our last garden, the revamp was inspired by my love of Ibiza (and the fact that we couldn’t go there, so decided to bring the Med to Sussex) so I wanted to stick to a blue and white theme.

our med inspired garden with white gravel, eucalyptus trees, blue painted fence, festoon lights and lanterns

It is so quick and easy to do, I never really thought to write a DIY pallet table blog about it. However, I get so many questions about how I created the pallet table every time I put it on my Instagram feed, I thought I would write a quick how-to.

DIY Pallet Table Instructions

You really won’t need many materials or equipment to make it. I guess it depends on what you want it to look like. This is how we did it…

our pallet table in the garden — Our pallet table fits in perfectly in our new garden

What You Will Need

A Pallet! Originally, we had two pallets stacked on top of each other but as I wanted to keep the table relatively low, we used just one pallet once the wheels were added.

gravel master gravel on the drive — My daughter modeling the gravel! And the pallet it came on

Paint
Sandpaper
Castor wheels
Drill
Gorilla glue
Tiles

How to Create a Pallet Table

First, prepare your pallet by making sure there are no nails sticking out or sharp items by removing them. Then roughly sand down your pallet to give it a smoother finish.

bare pallet being painted blue — Pallet ready to be painted

Decide whether you want to keep your pallet in its natural state or paint it. We wanted the table to be the same color as our fence, so we painted it Cuprinol Iris.

There are so many fabulous outdoor wood paints to choose from now, you could paint it any color of the rainbow!

cuprinol iris paint — Painting the pallet Cuprinol Iris

I only painted around the edges and down the sides as we fixed tiles to the centre so there was little point in painting the whole pallet. The paint also helps to protect the wood.

Once the paint was dry, I then fixed castor wheels to the bottom of the pallet. Again, there are plenty of castor wheels to choose from, and depending on how high you want your pallet, you can go from 25mm up to 250mm.

caster wheels for the pallet table — Castor wheels from castors-online.co.uk

We went with 200mm castor wheels from castors-online.co.uk. They are extremely easy to fix, just screw the top plate into the corners of the pallet.

You can then move your pallet table around the garden easily, just make sure you get castors with brakes on or you may find your pallet moving around of its own accord!

drilling the caster wheels into the pallet

screwing the caster wheels onto the pallet

It’s up to you whether you put something on top of your pallet once it’s done. To begin with, we weren’t going to put anything on top and just use trays to place food and drinks on top of the pallet.

However, we found that we played a lot of card games with the kids outside and were forever losing our Uno cards down the gap, so this is when the idea came to put tiles on top! Tiles are the perfect choice for outside.

A bit like pallet wood, they are extremely hardy and can withstand any weather situation, so I started looking for blue mosaic-style tiles to place on top. We ended up going with the Melia tiles in blue from Wickes as they matched the Iris paint perfectly and tied in with our Mediterranean theme.

victorian tiles from Wickes — Melia tile in blue – Wickes

The Melia tiles come in a pack of 25 and they fitted perfectly on top of the pallet as if they were meant to be. For the first 6 months, we didn’t even glue them onto the pallet. They are so heavy that they very rarely moved, so we didn’t feel the need to.

However, just before we moved, I decided it was best to glue them down to the pallet so that we didn’t lose or break any. I’ve used Gorilla glue to stick them to the pallet and they have lasted well, through a stormy winter and heavy rain.

Even if one does come loose (they haven’t yet) it is quite easy to re-glue them back onto the pallet.

using gorilla glue to stick tiles down — I put the glue directly onto the pallet

sticking the tiles onto the pallet — You need to hold the tile down for around 30 seconds so it takes hold.

That’s how simple a DIY pallet table is!

It cost me £80 in total, £60 for the caster wheels and £20 for the tiles. The pallet came free with the gravel and the paint was leftover from the fence. I love this pallet table. It is still one of my favourite things in the garden and we get a lot of use out of it!

pallet table with caster wheels and tiles in the garden — Our finished pallet

pallet table with caster wheels and tiles in the garden at night with fairy lights

There is so much inspiration online now when it comes to using pallets to make furniture or accessories for your home, there’s something for everyone!

There are also plenty of DIY tutorials on YouTube and books you can buy (including the one below by Nikkita Palmer), find your nearest free pallets through Facebook Marketplace and get DIYing!