Reclaimed shipping pallets continue to be a material that inspires design-afficionados and diy-ers alike. Over the years we’ve posted many clever iterations of pallet sofas, beds, planters, wine racks, flat files (just type “shipping pallets” into our Search box)…As well as some serious research and info on the safety of pallets, what to look for, and what to avoid. But in all our navigating of the pallet world, we’ve never seen such a blow-by-blow, here-are-the-realities of actually making a nice piece of furniture out of found pallets, UNTIL we went to the website of one of our commenters, Santiago DIY, a new blog from Santiago, Chile (in Spanish and English).

There we found the real-life steps to making a platform bed out of shipping pallets, which is not nearly as simple as finding them, arranging and putting a mattress on top. Here they are:

Find your pallets (on the street, construction site, outside a store or buy them:

…trim the pallet to the size you need (that is, take it apart)

…nail or screw them back together in their custom size

…sand the hell out of them…then sand ’em again

…Paint, stain or seal…(the left one is sealed with polyeurothane, the right one is raw)

…et voila: a platform bed!

There are actually more considerations and steps than this. Check out the whole post at Santiago DIY for what Allen Ginsberg would call Reality Sandwiches.

Related posts: the scoop on safe shipping pallets (shipping pallets 101)
cubist, mondrian-esque painted shipping pallet bed
for stylish d-i-y shipping pallet furniture: paint it black!
led-illuminated shipping pallet bed
the secret of shipping pallet beds