Patio accent table, made from pallet boards

Even before I finished building my chair, I started thinking about building this side table. I struggled to find a design that I liked. It needed to be fairly short, and I wanted to match the simplicity of our Adirondack chairs. Most of the tables I found had tall, tapered legs, or elaborate tops & shelves. I finally found inspiration in this DIY modern outdoor patio collection. The key is in the way that the outer boards on the tabletop line up with the legs, making the plain, wide legs look deliberate.

I got a little bit impatient on this project and decided to see if I could do it without any screws or nails. Using only wood glue and clamps, it turned out to be very sturdy. (I wouldn’t recommend using it as an extra seat or a stepstool, but it’s plenty strong enough to hold a couple of drinks, a book, or a laptop.)

I finished it the same way I did the chairs & flowerboxes: one coat of primer, one coat of paint, one coat of polyurethane.