The Pallet Chair

Well, I know I have done several other projects before this one, but I have had increasing interest in how I completed my pallet chair that I thought I would start with it :) 
 

This chair and the table beside it was a project I decided to do from a video I saw on, you guessed it, pinterest! You can view the video here. We were working in our flowerbeds and already had a good pallet from Lowes at the house, so I scrounged around work and found a stack of pallets to choose from...so I found a few to bring home. 

To begin with, I will break down the cost of the project:
Pallets                                free :)
Black paint                       $40 a gallon 
[I used a satin finish, which is not too glossy and not too flat and got the Valspar duramax, which costs a bit more but holds up better. I can definitely attest to that since it down-poured just 2 days after I finished painting it and had not put polyurethane on it yet and it did not fade or run.]
Box of 4'' wood screws  $8.00 for a box of about 50
4x4 posts                           $7.19 for an 8 foot piece of treated lumber 
[I got it at Home Depot (Lowes saw was broken). I got them to cut me 4 18 inch pieces for my legs. I know that that adds up to 72 inches, but just a tid bit on lumber, it is never exactly the length and width it says, so I got a 8 foot piece instead of a 6 foot piece to have wiggle room]
Foam                                   $33.64 for a 48'' x 22'' x 3'' piece 
[I ordered this piece from cushionsXpress.com. I got a 3115 foam compression, the 34 stands for the firmness and the 15 stands for the density of the foam. It was their best selling foam and good for the project I did. You can watch their explaination of the foam types here.]
Fabirc                                 $89.35 1 yd of green, 3.5 yd of sunset coral, & 1 yd of flower print
[I also ordered other fabrics with this order and got a great discount from an online coupon that I used. They have great prices and fabric at fabric.com. I also ordered too much of the green and flower print. I got a yard of each and should have only gotten a half of a yard each. Needless to say, I have plenty for pillows!!]
Pillows                                $16 for 2 18'' x 18'' pillows
[ I wanted 12'' x 12'' pillows but Hobby Lobby was out. I am glad, because after I finished the 18'' x 18'' pillows, I wish I would have done the 20'' x 20''!]
Table                                   $12 for the basket and we $16 for the stones.
[We were going to use the stones for around the palm trees and decided not to. So, since I already had them I decided to re-purpose and when I found the basket at Michaels I went ahead and had it the table top. I painted the basket to match the chair and flipped it upside down and put it over the stones!]

I also purchased a hand-held electric saw and crow bar, but I do not completely attribute them to this project cost because I can use them over and over. 

With that said, my total cost for this chair and table is $222.18. It has definitely given me an appreciation for the cost of items like this. Especially since it took me about 5 and a half hours total to paint...and the back of the "back" pallet is not even painted! I figured no one could see it so it didn't matter! Anyway, think about someone taking that time to paint and the materials for a project like this...you could easily sell this item for $300 or more! 

Making the Chair

I began with my 2 pallets. I wanted to do as little cutting and screwing together as possible so I decided to not cut the pallet that I was using as my back piece and only cut out one area of the seat pallet. Once I made the cut out, I slid the back pallet in the hole and let it lean naturally. It also helps with support for the chair. The length of this part of the pallet will matter because it is what I used to get the length of my 4 leg posts. The first picture is my "back" pallet and the second is a picture of my "seat" pallet. I cut the ends of this piece and then used the crow bar to finish getting it up from the center. Remember not to break this piece, I used it later to finish off the front of the chair. I then cut the 2 piece in the cent of the "hole" to make a complete hole for "back" pallet. 

 

As you can see from the picture to the first picture below, I have the posts painted and the seat pallet painted. Remember to paint the tops of your posts, they will be seen through the slats in the seat pallet!



The picture above shows the hole and the posts attached. I used 4 inch screws to make sure they went through the pallet and that the posts would be held in place good. It was tough for me to get them all to go in completely. I used 3 screws for each leg. I think Scott will have to come behind me and finish screwing in some of them, but I got them in far enough that the legs are good and firm. Notice the front of the pallet is not finished, that is where that extra piece will go. I used 2 inch nails, 2 on each middle brace to nail that extra piece in place. Notice the finished product from the pictures below. You will also notice in the second picture that the screws are still sticking out a bit! Now, the height of the back of the chair is how I determined the height of the posts. 

      

Adding the pillows and foam seat

I bought the pillows from Hobby Lobby and the fabric from fabric.com. The pillows were very easy, just cut out your pieces, go slightly smaller than the size of your pillows; you want your pillow to be tight inside the fabric. Place the fabric outside to outside like the picture below. Then sew around 3 and a half of the sides. Next, turn your fabric right side out and  stuff the pillow into the case. 

Then, pin up the last bit of the case and either hand sew it, or be careful and mush the pillow and put that sucker on the machine to finish the job!

I will say one thing, remember to pay attention to your pattern if you have one. I didn't realize I started at the bottom of the pillow instead of the top and on one pillow I have my finished edge at the top instead of the bottom out of sight! You can see that above on my finished pillows. Khloe did a great job being my model for this chair! Below is a picture of her and on the chair with the pillows. At this point by foam was not in yet!

Lastly, I got my foam and did my sewing around it! I wanted to do as little work as possible, so I only had to sew 3 sides because I got fabric that was wide enough to accommodate my foam piece. I had to order my foam, but some places have store in town that can cut them for you, try that before ordering! Below is my finished piece. Wow, this picture makes my walls look blue!! They are not blue!

You can see to the right that the edge is very rough and hard. I got assistance from my friend and mushed that sucker as best as possible and put her on the machine until about the last 5 inches! I sewed that by hand! I didn't want to sew 22 inches by hand if I didn't have to. I did iron the material and have my friend help me put the material over the piece with the seams in the center as best we could. I measured the fabric pretty exact so there was not a lot of wiggle room. I think it turned out pretty good! And alas, we have the finished product of the pallet chair! If you have any questions from this post, please don't hesitate to ask! I had a blast doing it and will be making another one soon for the other side of my porch :) 

Happy sewing :)

April