DIYer Upcycles Old Wood Pallets Into A Charming Coffee Table With Hidden Storage

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Antsy to work on your next homemade build? Wooden pallets present a blank "slate" for a range of DIY projects, from small storage boxes to larger home furnishings and beyond. Instagram creator beardedpalletworks takes this idea to the next level, literally leveraging his design to create a coffee table with a floating top. Hydraulic hinges help the lift-up top stay level and secure from a range of heights, while the inside offers ample opportunity for hidden storage.

To recreate this DIY, you'll need wood, a rotary sander, a power drill, screws, and hydraulic lift hinges for the floating top, like this 2pcs Lift Up Top Coffee Table Mechanism from Walmart. If you're sourcing free wooden pallets, look for the heat-treated (HT) stamp, which indicates the wood was sterilized with heat instead of chemical fumigation. Avoid using pallets marked MB, as these were treated with methyl bromide, a toxic pesticide that's not safe for DIY projects. You can pick up new wood pallet panels from your local hardware store. If you'd like to sustainably reuse discarded material, you can recycle leftover wood from past projects, browse secondhand marketplaces like Craigslist, or check if your local hardware store might be tossing any.

To build a DIY floating-top coffee table, beardedpalletworks recommends first deciding on the dimensions of the coffee table, including the depth of the cavity that will rest below the floating surface (depending on your design, the shape of the bottom portion will somewhat resemble a lidless shoebox). Then, cut, sand, and screw wood pieces together to form the open box shape for the bottom. For the lid, cut a thinner piece of wood that matches the length and width of the table. To support the hydraulic lift-off hinges, screw separate planks of wood to the interior of the box, then screw the bottom of the hinges to the planks and the top of the hinges to the underside of the tabletop.

Finally, top your table off with paint or your wood finish of choice. Since it's coffee table, it's wise to make it extra durable and water-resistant by doing your first layer with a glossy water-based polyurethane and an additional coat of matte water-based polyurethane to finish it off.

Once you've got your basic coffee table design down, you can customize it by adding drawers, shelving, casters for mobility, or whatever other practical features suit your lifestyle. For the interior, you can add storage boxes or built-in dividers to keep things organized, or you can add a luxe velvet lining or printed liners to match your decor. Have a second pallet? You can upcycle old wood pallets into a backyard coffee table for an outdoor version of this fun DIY.