Tips on Gathering the Pallets
We kept our eyes peeled for quality pallets, picking them up here and there. About 50% of the wood and nails were saved for this project. (For our potting bench we only used the pallet wood that wasn’t heavily split, gouged or splintered). We even saved the wood that we didn’t use for our potting bench and kept it for our fire pit that we love to enjoy on cooler summer and fall evenings. (see this Clever Firewood Storage Idea – How to keep Firewood Dry)
The nails that we didn’t use went to the metal recycler, so we feel really great about not wasting anything!
Here’s a look at some of the raw materials we set aside for the project.
The wood pallets we used:
The nails we kept and used:
We had talked about making a potting bench for our ground level patio at the back of our home and my hubby created this amazing original design which includes:
- a working sink with a faucet and running water
- drainage for the sink water
- holes in the counter and a container to catch excess potting soil when potting up plants (so that the soil doesn’t end up creating a mess all over our stone patio)
- a pegboard gardening tool organizer
- upper and lower shelves for storing pots, gardening tools and bags of soil
- and a mounted hose reel with a gardening hose connected to running water to water our plants!
Amazing right????? I have to tip my hat off to my hubby for thinking of all of these awesome features and bells-and-whistles!
I’m going to show you how he came up with the design and the construction techniques he used so you can adapt his design for your own space! (You can make this DIY potting bench shorter or longer if required.)
First hubby measured the space where we wanted to locate the potting bench. Here’s a look at the space we wanted to locate our potting bench, our walkout basement and stone patio. Note the hose faucet and garden hose on the wall in the corner. We’ll come back to that later!
There wasn’t much storage here for gardening tools – just one little hook rack!
Before:
The design and dimensions for the potting bench came straight from hubby’s imagination and creativity…. and he used the ‘old school’ method of creating a design plan with pencil and paper! Sorry, we don’t have any fancy drafting or furniture plan software!
The potting bench was modeled from the dimensions (width and height) of a kitchen counter. Hubby used a natural standing work height of 36 inches and a depth of 24 inches to give us ample and comfortable room to pot our plants. The potting bench length of 60 inches fit this space perfectly. A rear height of 70 inches allowed us to mount shelves and pegboard for storing supplies and hanging gardening tools.
Here’s the DIY Potting Bench Supply List:
Heather Luckhurst is the publisher and owner of the Design and Lifestyle website 
Debrashoppeno5 says
October 26, 2015 at 9:34 amYour potting bench is fabulous.
heather says
October 26, 2015 at 12:28 pmThank you so much!!! We just LOVE it beyond words!! I’ll pass on your compliments to my hubby – he designed all the features himself! 🙂
Vineta @ The Handyman's Daughter says
November 2, 2015 at 3:16 pmWow, your potting bench is amazing! There are so many smart features that make it so useful. I’ve never been so excited to try to find some old pallets!
heather says
November 5, 2015 at 5:55 pmThanks Vineta – there sure are tons of fabulous features! Have fun making it – I know you’ll love it!
McKenzie says
November 6, 2015 at 5:35 pmThis looks like a really fun project! You did an amazing job Heather!
heather says
November 22, 2015 at 10:48 pmThanks so much McKenzi! So glad you like our potting bench – we used it so much this summer! 🙂
Debbie says
November 6, 2015 at 7:25 pmYour husband is a genius! I’m so coveting it. Especially the sink with running water. Great job!
heather says
November 22, 2015 at 10:45 pmHe sure is a genius Debbie!!! I agree! 🙂 I’ll pass that on to him – he’ll be thrilled to hear that! So glad you like our potting bench and his beautiful design!
Vicky says
May 29, 2016 at 7:00 amWow! Your hubby is amazing! He has thought of every brilliant feature you could ever want on a potting bench! Congratulations to you both on a fantastic project! I’m definitely going to give this a go. Thanks for sharing 🙂
heather says
May 31, 2016 at 1:36 pmHi Vicky! You’re right – my hubby is really amazing!! I’ll pass on your comments – he’ll be tickled to hear that! We are so glad you like this project and have fun making it! 🙂
Adrienne says
June 18, 2016 at 7:41 amWe’ve been trying to build this and having troubling finding a hose reel we like. Could you tell us where you got yours? Thanks!
heather says
July 19, 2016 at 6:10 pmWe bought ours at a local hardware store but you can have a look at this affiliate link – it’s a similar style! http://amzn.to/2a8ZcaN
Jennifer Dawn says
July 1, 2016 at 10:11 amI’m in need of a good potting bench, and I’ve been considering making my own. Yours is beautiful! We’d love to have you share this at our weekly link party. http://www.thelifeofjenniferdawn.com/2016/06/farmers-market-meals-and-little-bird.html Hope to see you there!
JT says
March 14, 2018 at 9:07 pmhow did you attach the top shelf with the decorative brackets to the pegboard? thank you!
heather says
March 18, 2018 at 7:03 pmMy husband attached the brackets with wood screws and screwed them in from the back of the potting bench! Your welcome!
Kathy says
June 8, 2018 at 8:23 amI am getting ready to build mine today! I am so ready to have this done, I have lots to do!
Thank you,
Kathy
heather says
June 11, 2018 at 4:50 pmYay! I’m so thrilled to hear that!!! I hope you enjoy your potting bench – we just love ours! xo Heather
Debora says
March 8, 2019 at 12:52 pmYou say you “picked up a few pallets.” Where do you find them? Grocery stores or big box lumber yards or along the road? I don’t know where to find them. Please give me some ideas on how to connect with some. I have a fabulous cast iron sink that I want to incorporate into an outdoor sink/potting bench. Thank you for your assistance.
heather says
March 11, 2019 at 10:37 amHi Debora – We found our pallets by the side of the road when companies were putting them out for garbage day. Hope that helps! 🙂