Rustic Pallet Bar Stools

Making these Rustic Pallet Bar Stools isn't a hard project. Once you learn how to do the first one, the rest are easy! If you have a pallet and five hours, you can make some too! It took me about 3 hours to build my first bar stool. It took me around two hours for the next one.

FYI: I took apart my pallets and pre-planed the wood so that my stock was ready to go. I didn't include that prep time in the assembly time for these stools. Safety note: Be sure to thoroughly check your boards before using any planers (hand or powered), as the metal can damage or shatter your blades!

Here's how I built my Rustic Pallet Bar Stools:

1. I drew the general plans and wrote down dimensions that my customer (wife) wanted :)
2. I cut the seat boards all from the same pallet, so wood was matching color and grain.
3. I cut and screwed in blocks under the seat to anchor the seat boards and to attach legs to under the seat.
4. I cut legs out of pallet stringers (NOTE: You need to use caution when cutting these as they have nails in them - I cut my pallets apart with a reciprocating saw, leaving the nails in the stringers, but removing them from the deck boards).
5. I attached legs with back legs having a 9-degree slant away from the seat.
6. I cut and attached foot rests on both front and back of legs 9 3/4" from the bottom of legs.
7. I finish sanded everything, including rounding over the corners for comfort and to give it that worn, rustic look.
8. My "customer" painted the legs white and hand-rubbed a gray wash on the seats.

Design Changes to the Rustic Pallet Bar Stools and Why:

Note: I made a design change after assembling my first stool. At first, I attached all of the legs straight (90 degrees) from the seat. However, after assembly, we noticed that when moving around a bit on the stool it felt unstable as if it'd tip over or rock. So I re-cut the 2 "rear" legs of the stool with opposing 9-degree slants to give just a little bit of added stability - worked perfectly and added to the look of the stool as well.

My "customer" is pleased with her set of new Rustic Pallet Bar Stools, and it actually matches the updated farmhouse-style decor of our kitchen.

Read Rustic Pallet Bar Stools by Briancoons on 1001 Pallets!