Hasn’t shipping pallet furniture just been all the rage on the internet the last couple of years? And it’s easy to see why! The raw wood can easily create so many different styles and is pretty easy to come by for free, which is how I got the pallets for the couch I made!
For this couch I probably spent around $180, not bad for a huge chunk of furniture! Of course I spent more on pillows to fill her up but you may decide that step isn’t necessary for you.
I will admit up front that I wish I had more pictures of the process. I made this couch about a year ago and in that time + a move in which I couldn’t take the couch with me :( I just don’t have as many as I wish I did. But I’ll try to be concise in the steps and of course, if there’s any confusion or questions please leave a comment or shoot me an email, I’d love to offer additional help!
- Shipping pallets //
- Foam //
- Fabric //
- Saw //
- L-brackets //
- Screws //
- Wood stain //
It’s hard to give exact numbers on the supplies because it will all depend on the size of couch you are looking to create. My living room at the time was a long rectangular shape so I left the base of my couch as full sized shipping pallets (42″ x 42″ x 5″) in order to fill up some of that extra, awkward space.
First thing to do is to come by some shipping pallets. I got mine from the bank I worked at, they got them often in shipments and were just going to throw them all away. There are very few businesses that don’t get shipping pallets so I would just call around and find out who’d be happy to have to take them off their hands. For my couch, I used 8 pallets.
I decided to stain my pallets rather than paint them or leave them raw. I wanted the uniqueness of each pallet to show some while also making them look somewhat uniform. I used approximately 3 quarts of English Chestnut Minwax stain. Each quart at Home Depot was about $8.
I did only one coat and I didn’t worry about covering the bottoms/underside of the tops perfectly as I knew they’d never get seen. After I stained one, I’d just put the next one on top of it and stain it without worrying about the bottom one fully drying first or drips since I wanted each pallet to remain rustic and unique looking anyway.
The long side of my couch rested against a wall so I used that for the back support but the short side didn’t. I think it would’ve looked good without a back too but because it would be used more, I decided it needed one. For that, I [had my dad help me] saw one pallet in half. We also cut another one in half for the corner of the couch. This was the layout:
So the back was two halves of a pallet, put on their sides. I attached these to the base pallets by using some L-brackets and screws.
You’ll need foam for filling up your couch. This was definitely the most expensive part. The best deal I found was foam pads at Home Depot, each $20. I didn’t think these pads were too terribly comfortable however, they were very firm, so I used another layer of softer foam on top. I was lucky enough to have my parents give me two twin-size foam mattresses (39″ x 75″ x 5″) that I cut the covering fabric off of. These mattresses were too soft to use on their own (you’d sink down to the wood) so the firm ones underneath were a perfect compliment.
I needed to cut my foam to fit into the various spaces of the couch. The best tool to use for this is an electric kitchen knife, like this:
It made the process really quick and easy! Just measure where you need to cut, draw a line on with marker and go slowly down it with the knife.
I cut two foam pads down by 10″ and used one of those plus another full size foam pad underneath one mattress on the long side of my couch. The diagram below shows. Of course all the edges were matched up in real life but this is just to illustrate:
For the remaining two squares, I cut the other mattress, one pad and the remaining 10″ piece from before in half width-wise. So I had two pieces that looked like this:
The back was made up of the remaining foam pads that I had cut 10″ from and one more pad that I cut down to 39″ width-wise and cut 10″ off lengthwise.
(The front square pad is upside down in these pics)
The foam would have fabric covering it and keeping the layers together but I still went around the edges in between the mattresses with hot glue just to give it a little extra stick and make them easier to deal with while covering them. The foam along the back was higher than the shipping pallets on the back. I liked the look this way even though it wasn’t a great head-rest.
Whew! You still with me!? :)
Now the more complicated part. We need to figure out how much fabric to buy! This will depend on what kind of fabric you’re using. Standard fabric widths are 36″ and 45″. Home decor or upholstery fabric (which I’d recommend using as it’ll be sturdier and handle much more use) is generally 54″ or 60″. I used an awesome microfiber home decor fabric that I found at Joann Crafts. They had it in many different colors and I went with burnt orange. This fabric came in 54″ width.
I used four cuts of fabric per pad. One cut covered the top and one side, one covered the bottom and opposite side and the other two covered the short sides. Here’s the cuts for the long base:
I added only a half inch seam allowance to each side, you may decide you want to add more or less.
Sew the 40″ side of the small pieces to the 48″ side of one of the long pieces right sides together, matching it up with the 76″ side as shown:
Then sew the other long piece to the edge of this piece right sides together:
Now sew the 9″ side to the loose 48″ side right sides together as shown by the black lines:
Finally, sew the loose 40″ sides to the remaining edges of the long piece:
Once this is all turned back right side out, you will have a slipcover shape, one long end is left open. Here are the cuts I used for the other cushions:
The two base square ones:
The two long back ones:
At this point, depending on the fabric you used, you may need to iron it and press seams. Then you can insert your foam pad. To finish the cushion, tuck the loose long side around the foam, fold the two 9″ sides and the 76″ side down to hide the edge of the fabric and enough so that it meets the edge of the cushion.
Hand stitch or be lazy like me and just safety pin! I hid the pins by putting them on the bottom/back of every cushion. See, you can’t even tell!
Now fill her up with a hundred pillows {or not} and you’re done! One-of-a-kind, unique piece of furniture made just for you by you! And you know what else is great about this couch? Its super easy to move! Stairs, tiny hallways/doors, low ceilings-NO PROBLEM because it all comes apart in pieces.
I got a lot of my pillows from Ross (as well as those awesome foot rests/ottomans/poufs!), I made others and the rest came from places like Ikea, Target and Forever 21.
Thanks for sticking through this post! Remember to shoot me any questions/concerns. And if you conquer a shipping pallet furniture project yourself, we’d absolutely LOVE to see it! Send us an email or leave a link to your site in the comments.
Hello! I’m so happy to have found this tutorial as I’ve always known:
1) I’ve always wanted to build with pallets (seen some awesome outdoor furniture made w/pallets, vertical gardens made w/ pallets, etc.)
2) Know it’ll be awhile for my budget to allow me to buy the sofa(s) I’ve been saving up for,&my hand-me-down sofa, while still functional (i.e, it’s a place to sit at least) really is an icky brown rapidly reaching the point of needing to be put out for large item trash day.
Your sofa is reminiscent of sofas I’ve seen in Indian design. I love how they look,&I may just keep them as a sofa, if it looks as good as yours turned out!
I must ask: how comfortable did this sofa come out? Do you think it was comfortable enough to be modified to be made into a bed? I’m thinking in addition to making this sofa, I may make bed utilizing a modified version of your design & use it until I can afford a tempurpedic!
Thanks for putting up this great tutorial; you’ve given great step-by-step instructions to make the sofa so I don’t have to figure it out. Saving me tons, as I’m certain I’d have to try several times before I got it right! Your instructions are clear, precise &easy to follow! Your addition of lots o’ throw pillows really amp up the design! So many choices out there, or to make, they provide a way to really individualize the project.
P.S. I think the electric kitchen knife should be the official tool of foam pads! They’re the BEST tool to use for working with foam. Maybe someone could simply repackage &patent it for the purpose. Prob. make tons of $$s. Ha ha!
Hi Amy! Wow, thank you so much for the kind words! Pallets really are such an awesome medium for homemade furniture, etc!
To answer your questions as to the comfort I would have to say it kind of depends on what you like in a bed and also the foam that you end up using. Mine to be honest was a little harder than I prefer in a bed but I’ve slept on lots of beds at other people’s houses that were just as hard and they love it that way. If you only use the foam available from Home Depot, etc then I think it’ll be a lot harder than you’d like to sleep on but if you find a softer foam for the top layer like I did (or just softer for the whole thing) then you’ll be set! It won’t be your tempurpedic but I think you’ll get used to it and be fine with it!
I was actually going to end up using mine as a couch/bed in my own room as well but then I moved in with my now husband and he had a bed :)
Please let us know if you do attempt it and of course if you have any further questions about mine and/or the method!
I, too, am SO overjoyed that our site and this tutorial were not lost to you forever!! And I think you’re definitely on to something with that electric knife idea ;) there is just no other tool as great for working with foam!!
Thanks again Amy and good luck!
P.P.S. I’m so happy Totally Tutorials featured your sofa today. I’d seen your sofa posted somewhere else a few wks ago, but lost the hastily scribbled note I’d written on my lunch break of there to find you! (I was checkinga email onto my phone) I’ve been checking all my regular sites&googling pallet sofas (others, but not your came up)&until today, thanks to Totally Tutorials,I finally found you! I’m so happy! I’d been so bummed. Please excuse my wordiness, I’m overjoyed to have found you again,&I shall subcribe so I never lose you again. Awesome blog,&I look forward to more. You are such talented people, w/ wonderful budget-friendly design. Thanks for deciding to start a blog!=^_^*=
Wow! That looks amazing, I want one! The cushions really set it off, I love how you could dress it up in so many different ways depending on your taste and style…
Thank you Lola! (love your name btw)
You’re so right, this couch can fit into absolutely any style I think!
Hey I’m from Germany and found your blog with the help of google.
The quality and documentation of your instructions are gorgeous! After all those Christmas excitements and finding-a-present stress I should unquestionably try to figure out all this DIY stuff myself. Thanks a lot.
Especially for your German Readers I also have a hint concerning where to get the pallets you need. There’s a firm called PalettenSysteme Özdemir in Dettingen where you can order almost any pallet of your choice from. Give it a try before you get stuck in eBay. ;)
Cheers, Fabian
Thanks so much Fabian!
I appreciate that tip and I’m so glad you found us! I hope this tutorial helps you and if you give it a whirl, please let me know any questions you might have and how it turns out!
Hello and thank you for posting this tutorial as I have now found the inspiration for my pallet couch project next weekend. I do have a question, if you would be so kind. I was curious what it would take to add arms to the ends of the couch.
Thank you for any assistance.
Melissa
How many yards of fabric total did you need for this??
How many yards you need will depend on not only the size of your couch, but also the width of your fabric, as home decor fabrics come in a few different widths. Our fabric was 54″ wide and we ended up needing a length of 6.5 yards for our couch.