We wanted to start grilling on the deck, so we needed a table for our wood-burning grill. We came up with all sorts of elaborate designs but never quite got around to building any of them. Then, yesterday, I was walking by a stack of shipping pallets we'd collected for a gardening project and realized that one of them had clean slats spaced close together; it already looked like a table top.
We rummaged through our scrap wood pile and came up with 4x4s and railing left over from the deck that would work as legs. Bill went to the hardware store to buy brackets to attach the legs, and I went to work sawing off the ends of the slats. While Bill cut the 4x4s and leg supports, I sanded and stained the top. We attached the legs and...viola...less than two hours after we'd started, we had ourselves a table that doubles as a bench when the grill's not out.
It fits perfectly beside the old shipping crate we converted into a wood box and grill storage. Now, if it ever stops raining, we'll get some burgers cooking on the deck just steps away from the kitchen.
Click on the pictures below for more details.