The Pallet Book

The Pallet Book is a handy DIY manual with projects that look really good and don't seem to shout out that they were recycled from reclaimed pallet wood.
Author Chris Peterson teamed up with Voyageur Press to produce this 144 page softbound book, published 2 January, 2018.

The book includes multiple methods of deconstructing pallets and smoothing out the resultant wood in order to reclaim as much material as possible.  There are also good tips for arranging the reclaimed wood into similar widths and qualities to make selecting project materials easy and painless.  I really liked the safety minded tutorials on reclamation and deconstruction.  There were a lot of good tips on sourcing pallets also, along with good and sensible advice on being responsible (don't steal, ask permission, etc).

The book is arranged in thematic chapters, starting with an introduction on sourcing and deconstruction, availability and safety.

The second chapter includes some simple but useful and attractive yard and garden projects.  Each of the chapters starts with an introductory sidebar with a table of contents (there's also a master table of contents at the beginning of the book).  The yard and garden projects include planters, a bird house, a doghouse, a workbench and others.  They're not all small and simple projects.  There are some more challenging and larger projects including an adirondack chair (pictured on the cover), porch swing, hammock chair and chaise lounge.

Third chapter includes storage and organizational projects.  There's a bookshelf (cover pic), wine rack, coat rack, and others.

Fourth chapter includes many furniture and decor items.  I really love several of these and have started sourcing materials.  I like the idea of reclaiming and upcycling materials.  There's something very satisfying about making something useful and beautiful out of something potentially landfill-worthy.  

I'd like to comment on the general superlative quality of these projects.  They emphatically do NOT look like reclaimed pallet wood. They look really good; well made and professional.  There are 50 projects in all, including several in each chapter which are grouped into three quick projects.


The photography is top notch.  Quarto/Voyageur books have great photography along with clear and easy to follow tutorials.  They've become one of my top go-to choices for woodworking, cooking and other DIY.  They produce consistently high quality usable books.

While I did receive an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher, I'll be buying my own physical copy of this book for my workshop.  

Five stars