While we were researching Arlene Gottfried’s work, we stumbled on this photograph she took of a barbeque in a then-Puerto Rican neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. When we looked closely, we realized that shipping pallets had been cleverly employed, not only to help anchor the spit, but to provide seating for two kids hanging out while the…
Read MoreOver the years, we fed ours and reader’s passion for practical things made of shipping pallets, with examples of the very best, most stylish versions we could find of pallet beds, sofas, side tables, steps, even a version of Le Corbusier’s iconic club chair. Gradually, novel ideas for pallet began to drop off as the diy-universe reached a saturation point,…
Read MoreOf all the shipping pallet creations we’ve come across, this has to be one of the most stylish. It is curiously reminiscent of Le Corbusier’s famous chrome-and-black-leather Grand Confort chair. In pallet wood! It is one of the many brilliant hacks and revisions we’ve seen of the iconic, now-uibiquitous chair… …since we came across interior designer…
Read MoreArtist, designer, craftsman, longtime friend Jamison Sellers solves a bit of the ethical wood-sourcing dilemma by delving into the world of shipping pallets. He explores these familiar, reclaimed objects on a much finer scale than most by collecting bits and pieces of coveted woods (and even again recycling his own shop scraps from past projects) to create ornamental patterning inspired…
Read MoreLast weekend, we walked down to the Urban Garden Center to check out the pig roast they hold every Saturday in the summer in their rough-and-tumble party pavilion. The pavilion is made of all sorts of found and rustic materials, including mismatched chairs and junk store finds. We especially loved the huge table made of shipping pallets and concrete block, two of our favorite building materials. It could easily seat twelve AND weather the elements.
Read More(Video link HERE). Shipping pallet creations are among our most popular posts and we’ve featured A LOT of them over the years. Tomáš Moravec‘s re-purposing of the simple pallet may be the most inspired of all: “A new transport vehicle brings change into the spatial perspective of a passenger in motion and generally changes the life of…
Read MoreThis image of a charming plywood platform bed reminded us of the late Tobias Wong’s bed made of a mattress on top of a grouping of file cabinets. No need for an OFFICIAL bed, of the grand style seen on every home blog and magazine. A good mattress on a flat sturdy slab is a simple formula. And…
Read MoreArtists Donald Judd and Martin Kippenberger both liked sleeping on a low platform, unbounded in the room…the precursor to the popular pallet bed?
Read MorePlastic milk and soda crates are often used as design challenges for architecture students, who morph them into interesting useable structures. We’ve found uses closer to home.
Read MoreReclaimed 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,…
Read MoreArchitects SMLXL Studio seems to have a real THING for shipping pallets, which they’ve used all through a tiny two story apartment in Prague. In many cases, it seems they took they pallets apart and reconfigured their components: thick blocks and slats to custom make furniture the exact size they wanted. Pallet has clearly become…
Read MoreSpotted in a the cube room, a concept room created by designer Fabian Gatermann for a design hostel in Cologne, Germany: a fab shipping pallet bed painted like one of Piet Mondrian‘s famous “Compositions” from 20’s and 30’s. On close inspection, it appears that the bed was made to LOOK like it was made of pallets; it seems a bit too…
Read MoreWhen we wander around the city and see a discarded shipping pallet on the street, we mentally embrace its instant and deeply pleasurable design challenge: What could we make with this? Lately, we’ve seen them cleverly used as day beds, with minimal work on the pallet itself, unless you feel like finishing or painting them.…
Read MoreWe’ve been getting an increasing number of emails from readers their shipping pallet improvisations, as they push they realm of pallet invention. A recent favorite: this swell, stylish staircase by Natasha Figueroa and her husband Dan Husted who live in an up-and-coping gallery district in Copenhagen, Denmark. We have a private gallery/studio located in Kødbyen,…
Read MoreWhen we saw this image from Natural Style Outdoor Spaces on Style Files, we immediately thought: shipping pallets would make a perfect base. You’d hardly have to desconstruct them. Just clean them up (stack if desired) and place slip-covered foam cushions on them (here’s a how-to), for chic lounging pallets that would work inside or…
Read MoreWhile we were away, we got a very succinct, very cool email from reader Gorden Ammermann, with photos of the wonderful shipping pallet bed he made: hi, maybe i´ve something for your site. be free to post it: my new diy-pallet-bed 🙂 greetz gorden We not only love the white painted bed, but the deliciously…
Read MoreWe’ve gotten quite a few email submissions from our readers lately, along with a stead uptick in traffic. Yaye. Or should we say YUM, the beautiful fragment of type Maria Robledo’s daughter Isabel created. At bottom, a shipping pallet that’s been transformed into an artwork by Mexican artist and reader Mary Carmen. You can see…
Read MoreInnovative uses for shipping pallets continue: here a play on shipping pallet gardens, painted bright colors and hung on a wall. In a post we wrote about how-to transform a shipping pallet into a vertical, layered garden, some readers brought up the question of food-safe paints for pallets that will house herbs, greens, nasturtiums and…
Read More(Video link here.) D-i-y shipping pallet creations are among our most popular posts, largely we imagine because of all recyclable materials, pallets offer a cheap (or free) source of an entirely natural material: wood. We’ve done A LOT of posts about pallets – including how to tell a safe pallet from a possibly toxic one…
Read MoreWe’ve checked out A LOT of d-i-y shipping pallet furniture, and have been contemplating possibilities for plywood shelving with unfinished edges. Today we realized the simple key to keeping these recycled wood creations from bordering on “granola” and making them more stylish: paint them. White is always reliable (dig this white-painted coffee table), but black…
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