15 Simple Ideas to Use Wooden Slabs

The best way to deal with waste starts with reducing the amount of waste that people create. After everything has been done to reduce the waste, then items should be reused. The last step is to recycle. While you may not be able to do anything about how much a large store uses its pallets, you can do something about making sure they get reused. Often times, stores have to pay to have their pallets taken away. These pallets are then burned or thrown away for safety reasons. Even if you aren't interested in reusing the wood from pallets, we at Cook Woods have 15 suggestions to help you use scrap wood from other projects.

Outdoor Furniture

Your patio or garden is a perfect place to reuse pallet wood. It is already weather resistant, and it can be made to look beautiful. A few strokes of paint and you can create the right mood for your outdoor areas. Some ideas include:

• Table—just stack 2 pallets and nail together.


• Farmhouse table


• Porch swing


• Patio chair or couch

Just be sure to add cushions to the latter 2 suggestions, and you will have a comfortable place for your guests to sit during barbeques or outdoor movie night. Remove the cushions during inclement weather and these pieces of furniture should last quite a while.

Indoor Furniture

Of course, you can build chairs and couches for indoors as well. A touch of paint makes all the difference, but there are other pieces of furniture you can build, too.

• Wood slab tables—paint in pastels for a beach effect


• Nightstand


• Kitchen island

Using slabs for counters or any other flat surface makes great sense.

Decorative Ideas

Repurposed wood can provide beautiful patterns. Depending on staining, paint, and cut, the wood can create a beautiful accent for any room or outdoor space

• Headboard for a bed


• Stove vent hood


• House number display


• Pallet clock

While having a beautiful home is nice, making things that are beautiful and useful is even better.

Decorative and Useful

There are many ways to use repurposed woods in a way that is also attractive.

• Wood slab doors


• Serving tray—great for breakfast in bed


• Coffee mug display rack


• Jewelry box or display rack

More Ideas

Of course, repurposing wood slabs is just a matter of using your imagination or finding the right ideas. There are a lot of great places to find those ideas on the Internet, and there are many tutorial videos. Your home isn't the only place that can use repurposed pallets. Small business owners can make some amazing racks to present merchandise. One archery store has created bow racks and target stands out of repurposed pallets. Of course, antique stores can use the repurposed wood to further accent the age of their products, and thrift shops can give an air of sophistication to their products. There is a coffee shop that scavenged wood slabs from all over Oregon and used them to line a wall, providing warmth to their place in a strip mall. Repurposed wood is often as good as using new wood boards for many projects, and sometimes it is better when it comes to creating a sense of age and connection.