A thrifty couple have built a stunning corner seating area for their garden using old pallets.
Ben Wright, 36, a multimedia designer, and his wife Roxanne Bianco, 37, a teaching assistant, spent under £300 on the project, using second-hand wood from Facebook Marketplace.
The idea came to the Torquay-based couple while they were stuck at home and looking for a way to spruce up their outside space.
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With four kids aged from nine to 18, Roxanne and Ben wanted chic and roomy garden hangout where they could all sit.
Painted a smoky grey-blue and accessorised with buys from B&Q and The Range, the final garden feature looks gorgeous.
Ben told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: "We decided that we wanted to build a nice seating area using pallets as my wife spends a lot of time trawling through Pinterest looking at ideas, and we had seen a few we liked the look of."
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Initially, the couple thought they would just "chuck the pallets on top of each other and sit on a cushion" but the project became bigger than they imagined.
"When we looked at them, not many could be used as there were broken slats and so on."
Aiming to "keep costs low", Ben spent many hours examining the wood, working out "how to cut it to get the very most from each piece".
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With extra pieces of wood sourced from a helpful friend, there was plenty of material to work with.
Ben started by levelling the floor and building the base.
"It was my first project like this so I was learning all the time. I built most of it with a handsaw and a hand screwdriver and it took ages!" he said.
The designer invested in a drill driver and borrowed a mitre saw from a neighbour, which was "a lifesaver".
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There's a handy table in the middle of the seating area and Ben had a brainwave to create tables on the corners of the benches, too.
"The bench structures are built from 2x4 timber and the seats and backs were created using those old pallets," explained Ben.
"I spent a lot of time lovingly restoring them as it seemed a shame to waste the slats that were good."
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Once Ben was finished building the structure, Roxanne set to work and painted the main decking with a slate decking stain and the furniture with a grey-blue garden stain.
The tabletops are finished with pretty Moroccan-inspired tiles from B&Q and accessories from The Range, along with items the couple already had at home.
"We got the fairy lights down from the loft while we wait for the festoon lights to be delivered from China. I also created a sign using some of the battered pieces of wood inspired by one of my wife's finds on Pinterest and popped a little solar powered fairy light string from Wilko."
Ben and Roxanne are delighted with the final corner seat and have some words of advice for anyone looking to achieve something similar.
"If you are approaching a project like this yourself, and you're working with pallets, be prepared to work hard!" Ben adds.
"I learnt the hard way that PPE is absolutely essential when it comes to DIY projects - I endured a string of easily, avoidable injuries including a nasty black eye!"
The couple say the pandemic has caused them to "really look at our home environment" and budget carefully.
"If we weren't on lockdown, this project would have never been done - we probably would've picked up a little furniture set up from somewhere and stuck it on the lawn," said Ben.
"We couldn't be happier with the results of our decking. We've spent every moment we can on there. We've posted it online and the response has been unreal! It's a real nice haven where we can all hang out together."
Topics: Home, DIY, Life, Garden, Interiors