Have some old wood lying around?

It seems these days we all have been collecting pallets or other wood with the desire to make something awesome. But deciding what to make can sometimes be difficult. My process to solve this problem is just stare!!! Stare at the wood until something comes to me. Sometimes this can feel like a waste of time, but I think of it as the creative journey. And then if nothing comes to me, I just start cutting and then the magic just happens. Or my inspiration comes out of need for my house or for someone else.

Tip: If you see pallets lying around business, please ask before taking. A lot of businesses get rebates for returning pallets to their distributors after deliveries. So, if you take without asking you are stealing.

With this table I started with the legs. They were these old 2x4's that were like scrap pieces of 2x4's that were pressed together. Sorry I don't know the technical term for that. But they had so much character that I knew that I wanted to use them. Then based on how many I had and their various sizes the dimensions of the table started to form.

I then cut the slats for the top and bottom shelves. I used several different pallets, some new some old. Then started arranging the slats to get my desired look. Use your imagination here. I think of it as building a puzzle. Sometimes it can be a challenge, because pallet wood isn't perfect. That is why it is always a good idea to dry fit the pieces before attaching them. You may have to use a table saw to resize some of the pieces if they aren't fitting properly or you can always adjust your spacing in between pieces to make it work.

Power tool time! I used my pneumatic (air) brad nailer to attach the slats to the frame. Scares the crap out of my dog, but I feel so cool using it. ha! Then I starting by attaching the two outside pieces and then worked my way in. I did it that way to help me keep the planned spacing between each slat.

Then to finish it off I sprayed several coats of an outdoor water based polyurethane. Water based, so down the road it doesn't start to yellow/orange like oil based poly does.

What do you think?