DIY Pallet Footstool FREE from Recycled Pallet Wood

While out pallet wrangling I found this long one at a tractor lawn and garden store and it had some nice big pieces under it that would lend themselves nicely as bench and footstool legs.

I took my hand saw and tried not to nick the bigger pieces while cutting the slats of wood away.

The future legs all looked nice and straight and relatively free of too many discontinuities.

I knocked the remnants off with my hammer and pulled the nails out with my crowbar. It also had a few nice nails that I was able to salvage and eventually used as part of the project.

I tacked everything together using this battery powered craftsman brad nailer.

I cut some 45 degree angles in the corners for a better look and then tacked them together.

This is kind of a standard design I have been using for these types of furniture pallet projects. I start by making a box, either square or rectangular out of the pallet slats. It helps to find ones that are really close in thickness.

Now I cut to length the pallet slats that will make up the seat or top portion and place them down inside the box. I use various methods to provide strength to them. One of the methods is to at least tack them into place with the brad nailer. The other way is to use recycled pallet nails and nail the slats in from the side.

I stand the box up to make sure the slats are on track to be flush with the top.

Here I use a recycled and re-straightened pallet nail to nail the slats in from the side. You may not want that look but it's a good way to go if you don't mind seeing the nails in the side from the outside.

I cut and fit the pieces in one by one.

I occasionally get lucky and get all of the boards to fit just right. Most of the time this is not the case and I'll have to rip a board to fit the box.

Here's a look at the top.

Now for the legs. You can see the leg on the left has a big knot in the bottom. I favor the other side and try not to use this portion. I'll make good bonfire wood.

I cut each leg to 18 inches with a chop saw.

The nice and wide base of the legs make for a great base. I ended up putting felt pads under them so they didn't scratch the floor.

Here's a look at the four legs. I made sure they are all exactly the same length and had to do some minor trimming with the chop saw.

I set in the four legs. I used my brad nailer to tack them in then used screws to secure them.

To provide more strength to the top I installed a strip of wood along the underside.

I made sure to use smaller brad nails so as not to drive them all the way through the wood to the outside of the box.

I ran the sander on the top portion to smooth it out.

All done. I ended up staining it with walnut stain and then painting the trim as well.