Hackspace: Pallet Furniture Factory #4

Look around you, they’re everywhere: once used to deliver goods, they’ve then become the cast-off, unsightly and unwanted scrap of our unsustainable consumer economy. Tatty and rained upon, they skulk about making your day uglier.

But wait! To those with a discerning eye….they’re treasure!

Think about it: what craftsperson wouldn’t want free, easily-accessible and largely pre-cut materials with which to build their next wooden masterpiece, while also doing a good turn for the environment? The only price being the effort to acquire, and the elbow grease to reveal those same materials.

Especially because, lurking beneath their rough exterior, some pallets that have arrived here from far shores are actually made of quite beautiful, exotic wood. It makes sense when you think about it. Because of globalization, every pallet has an unknown provenance and possibly holds secret exotic grains just waiting to be revealed and polished up by the lucky craftsperson.

So come along to this meet* to join other treasure-hunters and bounty-seekers in learning how to turn these woebegone wooden castoffs of international trade into lovingly-crafted bespoke furniture and gifts that will warm your home and your heart.

Bring along some ideas of what you want to learn to make, and we’ll look into what’s required and discuss our options to proceed as a group. We may also take build requests from the Hackspace or from other members–after all, the materials and accompanying satisfaction of a job well done are free! Great sources of ideas, and some glorious before-and-after photos can be found on Pinterest and also on YouTube–take a look at the links below and let us know what inspires you.

The only rule is that you must be ok with before and after photos being taken of our creations to promote the community.