This is a trend I think we're all going to look back on five years from now with a frothy mixture of horror and amusement, like those colorful baggy pants from the eighties.

sorry, but isn't it spelled pallet? unless you are talking about color pallettes?

Pallet.

Yes, annieh, I immediately thought - oh - what a nice gray pallatte! And LolaDanger, I think you are spot on, but nevertheless I find myself attracted to the piles of pallets next to my work's dumpster.

My pad has several *pallettes*, but no *pallets* since college days. Don't miss my cable spool tables either!

Even if pallets weren't nasty dirty (I do freight receiving at my job. Pallets are filthy). Even if the wood wasn't usually rough, broken down (90% of the pallets I see at work are broken in some way). Even if the wood wasn't normally chemically treated for bugs. Even then, I can't get behind the pallet as furniture thing. Stylistically it's uglier than the milk crates.

Also, those pallets, just like milk crates, are used again. They are not just thrown away, but usually recycled. For use as pallets. Our pallets are picked up by our freight company to be used again. If someone were to take them, even though they just look discarded, that would be theft.

"For those that are privy to coming across palettes, often by the dozens each and every day are a lucky, lucky bunch."

Whatever this means.

I agree with RoseCampion. They just seem icky to me.

Make me a pallette on your flooooooor...

Wood pallets are commonly treated with chemicals that contain arsenic, formaldehyde and other toxic substances. Treated wood should not be used for firewood, home remodeling projects, landscaping or animal bedding because it may release the chemicals into the air or ground.

i'm a daily reader of your blog!
i'm very surprised and proud to be cited here,
thanks a lot for the link,
have a good evening!
sophie *

Ach. Me no like and wrong on so many levels. Like RoseCampion wrote, pallets are generally busted, dirty and meant to be reused by whses and truckers. I see work when I look at this, not functional pieces of furniture.

Don't forget the slivers!

I like the first two a lot actually...

Gross. There's tons of formaldehyde and other preservatives in the cheap wood that comprises pallets. It is not good for your health to have them around you and especially indoors where the toxins bleed into your living spaces.

don't understand this trend, but these are better than the effing pallet BABY CRIB posted last month.

Not only are they dirty and possibly treated nasty chemicals, they are used for storing and transporting stuff like haz chemicals and oil in drums. You really want that crap in your home? I'd limit the use of these to outside furniture, if at all.

Really good point about the chemicals.... I can also imagine getting a bunch of splinters while trying to work with this material.

the chemicals are a problem... ive heard of folks sanding the boards down, but im not sure that is a really going to get rid of the chemicals. pallets are made from cheap wood...have you ever stained a cheap wood? if you have you might have noticed that stain seeps into the wood pretty deep as such i imagine the chemicals do as well as they are met to destroy wood burrowing bugs... food for thought.

Thank you RoseCampion for voicing my horror with the pallet trend. I work in a grocery store. Pallets are disgusting. I don't even touch them without gloves because my hands and arms invariably end up itching like crazy from the exposure. It's honestly astonishing to me that people would voluntarily steal pallets and bring them into their homes, much less use them in furniture for children or around food preparation.

If you've ever worked with pallets, you know how disgusting they are. Even assuming they aren't completely falling apart by the time they are discarded by whoever is using them for shipping (which is unwise to assume), they are incredibly dirty, like, turn-your-hands-and-clothes-black dirty, and extremely rough, like, so rough sanding them is not an option unless you want to sand them into nothing.

Maybe these are pallets that were never used or were specially made by whoever is using them, but if so, why?

My dad made me a little playhouse out of pallets when I was little. Pallets can do so many things.

Thank you, everyone, for commenting about chemicals in pallets. I just don't get why this is such a trend! I think I've seen furniture in kids' rooms, an outdoor planter for herbs, and various other things on AT/Ohdeedoh/etc. Or is there a place where you can get fake pallets that are just made of untreated wood?

There are lots of uses for pallets.
I once kept two small ones in a tent, to keep luggage & a bookcase off the ground whilst camping for a month one summer, & my brother cuts up the busted ones & burns 'em in his fireplace in the winter, but there is no way on earth I'd let one into the living quarters of my house. Painted or not.

I think the answer to why we keep seeing pallets posted on AT and friends has to do with page views. We all keep saying what a bad idea it is to sleep on chemical dipped wood, but the posts keep coming. They must be looking at site analytics and seeing "wow those pallets sure attract a lot of clicks and comments" when it's a ton of people like us. If we start ignoring the pallet posts maybe they'll go away...
on the other hand, I am always curious what people do with the pallets. It's so horrible I can't look away!!!

I just made a daybed out of a pallet that I purchased for a whopping $4 & I love it. Not all pallets are treated with chemicals. I love AT but man the readers (well more specifically the commenters) can be so judgmental. Geez. If you don't like pallet furniture, then don't make it. I think it's a great way to recycle something that has a huge disposal problem.

http://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/2009/06/29/diy-pallet-reading-bed-for-the-nursery/

This was, wait for it...., used in a nursery. Gasp. It's freakin' adorable & I'm sure that this mother did her research to ensure that her baby wasn't going to be harmed by any chemicals.

The "OMG CHEMICALS!!!!1!" reaction is getting old. As others have said over and over on previous pallet threads, not all pallets are treated with chemicals. Some are heat treated, and you can tell by looking on the pallet which method has been used. Sheesh.

Sorry, outraged hipsters who think I'm being judgmental, but UGLY.

It's so much a "look at us we're in college now and don't have to abide by our parents' decorating tastes and we can use GARBAGE to sleep on if we want to and let's just leave the beer bottles lying around because we're sticking it to the MAN" mindset.

Never mind the filth and potential chemicals. Ugh.

Chemicals... well I take it none of you have paint on your walls, have dirt floors and no roof. Let alone no pipes in your walls and no wood or concrete beds. Lets not forget about your food that is ALL organic rite? If not you have no idea just how many chemicals are in your house. If you treat it correctly these can be used in a home. Granted I would not eat the wood, but I wouldn't eat carpet either.