MAKING A HASSOCK

For the last few months I have been eager to try my hand at making something from a pallet.  Just in case I might get hold of a pallet, I have been diligently wasting many, many hours frequenting Pinterest looking at them.  I don't want to miss a single thing, you know.  I even set about amassing a stash of lady size tools for the job.  I practiced my skills by building a few birdhouses and watching my "jack of all trades" husband use his tools.  He is very good with almost any tool and he is very territorial about his tools.  So now I was ready for a big project.  I just needed a specimen to work on.  Daughter Ginger called one day to find out if I wanted a half pallet.  You know I snapped that thing right up.  I had no idea what exactly a half pallet meant, but there had to be something we could make out of it. 

Since Ginger had hers and the one for me in her car, she said they were just the right size for a hassock.  That sounded like a dandy idea to me, so we set about gathering our ideas and supplies.  I was trying to keep my cost down, since in reality I didn't even really need a hassock or anything else to take up space in my house. 

I spent $58.00 for 8 industrial wheels for both pallets.  I just had to buy the wheels as soon as I saw them without even measuring or planning ahead of the purchase.  Of course, as I exited the store I spotted a MUCH cheaper alternative, but couldn't tell the hubby I had made a costly wrong choice.  So after determining that the wheels were just way too big for where I wanted to use my hassock, I did haul my 4 wheels back to the store and amuse all the men at the customer service counter as I tried to hoist them up on the counter.  They were big and heavy (the wheels, not the men).  I ended up buying a moving dolly, which had much smaller wheels and they were already mounted on a wooden frame that I thought might be easier to work with and already had the mounting bolts, nuts, washers and everything. 

The pallet.

The moving dolly.

So here is the final product.  It fits nicely under the coffee table in the living room so the grands can sit on it to play or sit on it to eat when we have the whole crew here for a meal.  Once they figure out how fast it will roll on my scored concrete floors, I may have a bit of disciplining to do.  I have even thought of scooting around on that thing myself.  It has two nice storage shelves where magazines fit perfectly.

It was great fun to make and I'm ready for a full size pallet now.