Pallet Porch Console

I made something today that I am pretty excited about.

I have been wanting a table on our porch for many reasons. A drink station for the kids was the main motivation for this console. But I can use it for so much more - coffee or wine bar, garden cart, storage, snacks and for seasonal display.

It all started with these two pallets that I have been storing in our garage. I didn't go to the store for one thing today - I love uninterrupted projects (no store trips anyway).

I cut the sold pallet in half (with my hubbies help) and glued and screwed them together and just left one top piece of wood for the back panel. I used the other pallet for legs by cutting the two ends off along the 1x4's. Then cut those almost in half to make four legs.

I used an old 2x4 to make all the legs the same length and applied a center piece to keep the legs straight. (hopefully you can see in the pictures how I did it - I am not great at explaining every detail - that's why I give you lots of photos) The legs needed wood cris-cross beams from the pallet to keep them sturdy.

I mostly used my nail gun to put this together.

For a decorative detail I used a fence rail spindle cut in half centered on the front in two places (you can see the light arrows pointing to them in the right side picture above). Where the three black stars are I used 1x6 wood to sort of "clean up" the wood ends. (the dark piece of wood was from Ben's IKEA bed that I cut down - I never throw scrap wood away) The red star marks where I applied a flat fence post topper to the shelf center.

I used dark walnut stain on the front and top but in the hard to reach areas and "rough" wood spots I used black spray paint. When it dried I sanded it all to give it a worn look. Blended great.

Then for some other little details...

Brackets with an iron scroll tied to them with twine tops off the back panel. On one side I used my old coffee cup hanger for tools or coffee mugs and a hummingbird hook on the opposite side for something decorative.