Pallets for office furniture

A pallet that fits a desk

A desk, a credenza or a boxed task chair rarely lands on 48 by 40 inches. Furniture plants build a footprint for each product family and then use it for years. That is a custom pallet, drawn as a cutting list.

A typical request

1. Draw the loadLength, width and height of the packed product.
2. Name the weightOf one loaded pallet.
3. Pick the buildSkid for a one-time crate, stringer for repeat.
4. Say newFurniture is surface-sensitive; used decks can mark packaging.

The cutting-list tool turns that into a parts list. The custom pallets page covers the buying side.

Where furniture sits on the map

Lakeshore Advantage lists furniture as a key industry in Ottawa and Allegan counties. See Zeeland and Holland for the towns, and Grand Rapids for the city.

End of life

Custom pallets are hard to resell because nobody else uses the size. When a model goes out of production, the leftover custom stock is a candidate for a recycler's dismantling line; see pallet cores.

Why a furniture pallet is rarely reused

Furniture ships once. The pallet often goes to a customer's dock, where it is thrown out, because a custom size does not suit anyone else's racks. Plants therefore buy the cheapest build that protects the product, and the cost of the pallet is part of the cost of the sale.

Long products need the deck boards to run the length of the pallet, with the stringers spaced to carry the packaged piece. A builder reading a cutting list can see this at once.

What a cutting list for a desk pallet looks like

Say the packed desk is 72 by 36 inches. A footprint of 76 by 40 gives two inches of margin on every side. The stringers run the 76-inch length, three of them, with deck boards across. The tool's standard coverage gives seven top boards for a 48 inch pallet and twelve for a 76 inch one. A builder will count.

Showroom samples and prototypes

A furniture maker ships sample pieces to showrooms and to trade shows, in small lots, often on temporary skids. Those are the cheapest builds that protect the piece, and they are usually discarded after the show.

What furniture shippers need

Furniture shippers move bulky, light-to-medium loads, often in odd sizes, and protect finished surfaces with wrap and corner guards. Their pallets must be flat and free of nails or splinters that mark the product.

Grand Rapids has long been called Furniture City for its furniture manufacturing, which makes this a real market for custom and non-standard pallets. A request should give the packed dimensions and the weight.

Source: The Right Place, 2023 Manufacturing Report (read 11 November 2026).

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