DIY bin store: Upcycling pallet wood or leftover timber
Paul McCaig
Sep 29, 2021
I am part of Valpak’s Environmental Champion and SPEAR (which stands for sustainable, purpose, engaging, action, relevant) teams and consequently I’ve been inspired to start looking for new ways to achieve sustainable goals at home. Over several weekends gardening, I frequently noted that my wheelie bins could be a bit of an eyesore… so, I decided to make the most of some old pallets and spare bits of decking and create a makeshift bin store. Materials that I would normally take to a Household Waste Recycling Centre now serves a new purpose.
If you’re spending more time in the garden and need a project to work on, here’s an easy DIY project that you can complete over a weekend. If you’re anything like me, you probably already have all the materials you need lying around on your wood pile, or perhaps you’ve got a pallet stowed behind the shed? Here’s how to turn that old timber into something useful…
Here is my step-by-step guide to create the bin store below. This provides handy hints and tips on how it’s made, and how you could create this with ease, using any spare wood you already have in the garden. It really doesn’t matter if the wood varies in colour or is messy, as you’ve probably got some shed or fence varnish stored away that you could use to create a clean and tidy finish.
What you will need
- Spare Pallets / excess decking / old timber
- Wood screws
- Saw
- Hammer
- Sandpaper
- Drill with screwdriver
- Metal brackets and handles
- Spare shed /fence varnish or paint
Safety equipment
- Protective Gloves
- Protective eyewear
Guides
1. Garden Geek
2. How to build a bin store
3. Addis
Hints and tips
- Any old pallets will do the trick; however, please be careful and watch out for old nails or screws. Excess decking boards will also come in handy!
- When measuring the area/size of my bin store, I calculated how many wooden slats would be required to meet the necessary heights and widths. This allowed me to carefully dismantle my spare pallets to utilise nearly all the spare wood – smaller sections of the pallet were used to help create the doors!
- Local DIY stores are perfect places to find the brackets and handles you will require to complete the bin store.
- Don’t worry if you run out of spare shed paint – as you can see on the right, using multiple colours adds to the look of your very own bin store.
Looking for inspiration?
If you want more wheelie bins store ideas, check out this Pinterest board.
