Last Updated on September 13, 2024 by teamobn
Pallet furniture is a chic DIY trend that anyone can get into over a weekend. Using the pallets as a starting point, you can create countless projects for the home.
You can stain, stack, paint, and finish them any way you want. It’s a cheap alternative to buying new furniture. Of course, the special bonus is that it will give your home more character.
Now, this is not your ordinary, everyday piece of pallet furniture! If you have access to a couple of single-use pallets and want a seriously comfortable swinging chair, this paracord-laced hanging chair is definitely the project for you.
This pallet hanging chair is a simple furniture item you can add to your outdoor area. It’s strong and solid but conforms to your body as well, making it very comfortable to sit on.
It’s also very easy to make! The only difficult part of this DIY project, as with any pallet project, is disassembling pallet slats. The rest of the process is as easy as tying a shoelace. 🙂
Do you need relaxing outdoor furniture for your backyard?
Read on the quick and easy tutorial from
Materials:
- Pallet (quantity would depend on usable slats you can take from each pallet)
- Paracord
- Protective Mask and Gloves
Tools:
- Drill
- Saw
- Lighter
- Sawzall
Steps:
How to make a paracord-laced hanging pallet chair?
There are many different ways to take apart pallets to use the wood for something else. I have found that prying them apart causes a lot of damage to the wood and is a lot more work than is necessary.
So, my preferred method is to cut the pieces apart using a Sawzall. (If you want to know more about pallets and learn how to disassemble them properly, here’s a comprehensive article you can read.)
All you have to do is cut through the nails that are holding it together and you are good to go (with minimal damage to the wood). If you want you can pop the remaining parts of the nails out of the wood.
Just take the Sawzall and cut right between the piece you would like to save (the top piece) and the thick frame. Try to cut just the nails and not too much of the wood. Once you get the hang of it it will go fast.
Now here is where you need to decide how wide you would like your chair. I guess you should base the size on the hiney that will be sitting in it. With the pallet that I had, I was able to just cut the boards right down the middle (20″). Butt the size is up to you 🙂
The amount of board is also up to you. I ended up using 16 boards for my chair. (Warning: Make sure you look out for leftover bits of nails in the wood as you are cutting.)
Now what you want to do is take one of the boards and mark where you want to put the laces.
I put my laces 1/2″ in from the edge of the board and put them 2″ apart.
Depending on how you would like yours to look you can make the laces further apart or closer together. As long as they are in far enough from the edge so that the board does not break once it weights it.
Keep in mind also that if the laces are spaced further apart, the boards will tend to pull away from each other more, making a gap where things might get pinched (fingers, “cheeks”, etc.)
Now that you have your holes marked you can start drilling. I used a drill press but a regular drill will work just fine. I started by drilling all the holes in my first board and then I used that board as a jig to do the rest.
You will want a drill bit that is a little bigger than your paracord so that the cord fits easily through the holes.
Now comes the fun part. Start by placing two of your boards next to one another. Now lace the paracord through them just as you would a pair of shoes. Once you reach the end cut the paracord, making sure you leave enough slack to tie a strong knot at the end.
Now you can pull the paracord out and use it to measure the rest of the pieces you will need. When you cut the rest make sure you leave a little room for error. It’s better to have too much than to have too little and have to start over.
Once you have cut your paracord to size it is a good idea to melt the ends so that it is easy to get the cord through the holes. Now you can start lacing boards together.
Things to watch as you’re lacing:
- Make sure you are paying attention to what side of the board is up and what side is down so that you end up with all the good-looking sides facing up.
- It looks best to have all the knots on the bottom.
- Once you have finished a lace go back and pull each “X” to get the slack out
Now all you have to do is hang the chair from whatever structure you have available. I used some 2×4’s between the trees in my backyard (not the prettiest but it works).
Just drill a couple of holes in each of the four corners you would like to hang the chair from and thread the paracord through them. I put the front cords back on board from the end so that it would be more comfortable on the back of my legs.
For a somewhat laid-back chair attach the front and back cords further apart from each other with the back cords low, for more of an upright chair, like mine, put them closer together with the back cords high. The whole thing is completely adjustable to your liking, so tweak it till it’s comfortable for you.
Note: I used two strands of paracord per corner, which is strong enough to hold me, but you might want to braid more together for added strength.
See other people’s versions! Getting into the chair can be a little tricky (kind of like getting into a hammock) but once you do relax and enjoy it.
I think I would stain the boards next time, this would look nicer and make the paracord stand out more.
Thanks to
