How to Make Furniture From a Palm Tree Trunk

Palm trees can be used to construct a simple coffee table.

A wooden piece of furniture made out of cedar, oak or pine isn't terribly special. Yet common furniture made from exotic types of wood add an eclectic flare to the interior of a room. While palm trees are prevalent enough to not necessarily be considered exotic, few pieces of furniture are made from their wooden trunks, making palm tree furniture a relatively rare commodity. Authentic, rustic furniture can be constructed quite easily and inexpensively from palm tree trunks with the right tools, materials and, of course, access to palm trees.

Things You'll Need

• Large Palm Tree Trunk
• Saw
• Hatchet
• Tape Measure
• Sandpaper
• Wood Stain
• 4-by-3-foot piece of 1-inch thick glass

Instructions

Palm Tree Coffee Table

1. Cut the truck of the palm tree into two equal sections using a saw. While these sections don't have to the same diameter, they must be the same height when they are sitting beside each other on a flat surface. Ideally they should stand 2 to 2 and 1/2 feet off the ground.

2. Shave the skin off the outside of the saw or a small hatchet. Remove all of the palm tree bark from the outside of each section and be sure not effect the equal height of these two sections.

3. Sand down each of these two sections of palm tree trunk with medium grit sandpaper at first and then fine grit sandpaper at the end. Smooth out the rough edges along the sides and the corners. Take each sanded section outside and stain it whatever color you would like.

4. Have a large 1-inch thick piece of glass cut and smoothed along the sides. You can do this yourself with a heavy duty glass cutting machine, large pieces of glass and a shop to do this in, or you can have it custom ordered and delivered.

5. Place each try stained, sanded section of coffee table trunk down in he place where you want to set up your new coffee table. Place your large piece of glass on top of these palm tree trunks and arrange it how you like.

Tips & Warnings

• You can adjust the height and length of this table design by making more palm tree trunk supports and using a longer piece of glass for the table top.

• The bark can be left on the outside of the palm tree sections for a more rustic look, but you will not be able to protect the wood as much.

• Have someone help you cut the palm tree trunk sections as the wood can be tough to saw.

• Have someone help you move, carry and place the glass table top as well.

References

• Homed It: Palm Tree Furniture