Packing down nearly as flat as they were before they were modified, six interlocking structures made of pallets unfold to reveal a variety of seating options with greenery poking out of the bench backs. Johannesburg artist r1 was asked to develop the public seating as part of a residence program in the city aiming to enliven public space and come up with innovative ways to contribute to the community.

All six units can be combined into one larger structure, grouped together in smaller configurations or used alone. Each one contains two fold-down benches that can be used back-to-back, side-to-side or on a diagonal.

Made of discarded pallets, each one is on wheels so it can be moved quickly and easily. In addition to providing comfortable places for locals to congregate, the seats bring a little greenery into the urban environment.

Other unconventional iterations of urban furniture have included UFO-inspired loungers, ‘stair squares’ and even seats that require strangers to interact with each other.

Four wheels fixed onto an ordinary wood pallet have transformed it into a skateboard of sorts that can slide down tram tracks in Bratislava, Slovakia. The rails in the city happen to be just the right width to fit a standard Europallet perfectly, turning the humble warehouse staple into a personal vehicle.

While the streetcar systems of many cities run on wider ‘broad gauge’ tracks, Bratislava is among those with a one-meter width. Other cities where the pallet tram hack would work include Antwerp, Basel, Belgrade, Bern, Frankfurt, Helsinki and Zurich. Watch it in action at Vimeo.

Slovakian artist Tomas Moravec says of his project, “A new transport vehicle brings change into the spatial perspective of a passenger in motion and generally changes the life of the city, through which the pallet can run, guided by a map of the city lines.”

Where pallets were once used just a couple times and then thrown away, now they’re reclaimed for all sorts of projects, often requiring very little modification. Check out 13 DIY pallet projects for porch swings, home theaters and garden trellises, as well as 19 more clever pallet creations.

Coffee lovers are getting a special treat at this year’s Melbourne Food and Wine Festival: an urban coffee farm installation made primarily of pallets, which functions as both a temporary coffee shop and a learning experience. Australian design firm HASSELL created the ‘festival hub’ for the two-week annual event, placing it on the red stairs at Queensbridge Square.

While the installation won’t be around long enough for Melbournians to drink coffee grown right there in the middle of the city, it does have more than 120 coffee plants, in pots set into the stacked wood pallets. HASSELL’s Shaun Schroter and Mary Papaioannou told Habitus Living that their aim was to connect coffee consumers to the laborious and resource-heavy processes required to produce the beverage.

Educational signs offer coffee facts, including info on various types of beans and where they’re grown. The temporary cafe was installed in an underutilized area of Melbourne’s South Bank, inviting residents to explore their city in a new way.

“Coffee has become one of those consumables that is linked to a lifestyle experience and very rarely connected to the places of harvest,” says Schroter. “Embedding this narrative into the conceptual story then becomes important because it is a holistic experience.”

Pallets have become all the rage as eco-friendliness, and DIY crafting are becoming the spearhead of a new movement that utilizes pallets as the building blocks for creative weekend projects. Social media sites like Pinterest make sharing off-the-wall ideas as easy as a click, so the mind boggling variety of uses for used pallets are out there for everyone to see.

Pallet Coffee Tables

(Images via palletfurniturecollection, craftynester, etsy)

Pallet coffee tables have a great advantage in that they’re designed to bear weight and stack, making it easy to form them into any shape you’d like. They also have natural gaps that make for an awesome storage space to hide the pile of coffee table stuff (remotes, magazines, etc.) that love to build up. The top left example easily rolls across the floor, and is topped with classy panes of glass to separate the storage space from the usable top of the table. Craftynester came up with an awesome design, and posted it along with step by step progress photos to show others how to copy them. They achieved the perfect coffee table height by using several pallets, and in the process they were able to create a cubby system for storage. Etsy seller GeckosHyde came up with this classy design that forgoes storage for a rustic look.

Pallet Porch Swings

(Images via homedit, pargasjunkyard, woodenpalletfurniture)

Swinging seats are a lot of fun, and the perfect way to hang out on a gorgeous Spring day. The top left chair is definitely unique – as a one-seater was created by cannibalizing the boards from a full pallet and carefully attaching them with rope. The second example maintains the original form of two pallets and creates a comfortable looking two seater using some stain, paint, and really soft cushions. The final example is more like an adventurer’s hammock, utilizing the pallet structure to allow for the perfect outside nap.

DIY Home Theater

(Images via inspirationgreen)

The site Inspiration Green has some excellent pallet inspiration images, including these two that display an incredibly unique and comfortable way to set up a home theater. Imagine the cost of six leather armchairs, versus three tiers of stadium seating made out of pallet stacks.

Pallet Outdoor Furniture

(Images via brightnest, sassy-sparrow, shelterness)

The top image depicts one of the most natural pallet transformations out there, as an entire pallet was placed on top of four table legs to create the perfect rustic seating area. The rugged wood matches perfectly with the decor and keeps it looking super trendy. Sassy Sparrow has a fantastic step by step guide to creating the perfect patio furniture set out of pallets. You can see it here, and the final result is displayed above. Notice the versatility of the pallets, as they can be used in different ways to craft every type of furniture. Last but not least, Shelterness shows these two super easy to make pallet lounge chairs. It might be good to add some cushions to the design, but they certainly look amazing.

Home Garden

(Images via apartmenttherapy, brightnest)

Don’t have much room on the porch, but want a full garden? This is by far the easiest pallet project. Simply secure a pallet against the wall, and use its natural shape to house a variety of flowers and herbs into a mini vertical garden. It’s possible to line up a bunch of these in a row if vegetables are on the menu year round.

What are pallets? And why should anyone care? Is a good question being asked a lot since Pinterest came into popularity. Pallets are used and abused wooden platforms used in conjunction with machines to move heavy loads around warehouses and stores. A surging DIY movement is bringing these pieces of equipment out of obscurity and into people’s homes as popular do it yourself foundations.

(Images via homedit, homedit, decoist)

A classy wood dining table can add a simple, rustic look to decor. A nice indie bird backdrop only accentuates the mood. Everyone loves kitchen islands, and huge (EXPENSIVE) granit counter tops. Why not create a pallet island, skip the granite, and have an awesome conversation starter that costs almost nothing? Pallets are durable. This means they can easily be kept outside on a patio without worry of them falling apart, just like the beautiful patio table pictured above.

(Images via mommyapolis, homedit, arninglaws)

Now these are coffee tables! It doesn’t take an incredible amount of skill to put together a gorgeous pallet table, since the pallets themselves are already put together. Then again, there’s always a way to make something easy… way more difficult. Adding a drawer will create a more unique and complex table with some storage space. If you’d like to stick to the easy road, just stack two pallets and add some pre-made wheels.

(Images via shadesoflight, homedit)

The Victorian style of having library walls covered in rich, old growth forest wood, polished to a sheen and carved into intricate designs is just not that practical any more. Enter the pallet walls pictured above; two walls appointed with the naturally aged and personality-filled wooden slats torn from retired wooden pallets.

(Images via homedit, domesticdoozie, wilsonandpugs)

A little creativity can turn a pallet into the perfect addition to a kitchen. The appeal of real wood is universal. Using wooden slats, one can form a beautiful shelf to hold anything from magazines, to plants, to a fine wine collection.

(Images via brainstorm, homivo, muttonhead)

When green thumbs find themselves with limited space, they have to get creative. With only the slightest modifications, retired pallets can become the perfect vertical greenhouses, as their slats turn into tiered shelving ideal for crawling plants or vegetables.

(Images via inhabitat, iarchive, beyondthepicketfence, recraftmagazine, poetichome)

The possibilities of pallet furniture are endless. A modern atmosphere can be accentuated with a carefully manicured pallet couch, and an outdoor space with an informal air can be made more unique with a simple chair. Making pallet stools is surprisingly easy (and colorful), and a TV stand comes as no surprise for the pallet aficcionado. Even an elegant dresser can be formed out of one of the most mundane products of our “better in bulk” culture. Pallet reuse is definitely great for the environment, and great for home design.