Repose
Carpentry Puzzle Challenge
“From waste to craft—
Repose reimagines pallets into durable, sustainable furniture.”
Repose—a play on repurpose and the French word for relax—is a project where I challenged myself to explore how discarded materials could become functional design. Working with reclaimed pallets, I tested my skills in precision joinery and assembly, developing a puzzle-like system that interlocks each piece without nails or screws.
This process pushed me to consider how form, structure, and material limitations interact—how careful shaping can create strength and durability from something often overlooked. Repose became an exploration of transformation, sustainability, and craftsmanship, showing how thoughtful design can breathe new life into discarded resources while celebrating the construction itself.
Dimensions: 800 x 550 x 780 mm
Sustainable Design
Craftsmanship
Interlocking Assembly
Reclaimed Pallets
Material Transformation
Working with Constraints
Uneven, treated, and never meant for furniture—transforming pallets required precision, patience, and constant adaptation
Before construction, each pallet was dismantled—nails removed, wood checked for harmful chemical treatments, then planed and sanded. The material posed immediate challenges: planks varied in size, thickness, and straightness, never intended for furniture.
Working with warped wood and exposed interlocking joints required constant adaptation. These constraints shaped the process, forcing more deliberate design decisions at every stage.
The workshop relied mainly on hand tools, requiring intensive manual labour throughout. The build took two weeks, much of it spent measuring, planning, and finding the most efficient way to work with the pallets.
Process photos captured throughout the build.