Have you seen my Pallet Porch Swing? Well, today I’m going to share with you my tips for how to alter regular porch swing plans to make your very own, and super unique, porch swing.

I made mine a few years ago, but when I posted it, I was going through a rhyming phase and didn’t reeeeallly give you guys much information on how I actually put this puppy together.

It really wasn’t that difficult {cross-my-heart!} to alter it, and I’ve wanted to share my tips with you forever!

So, I’m finally taking a few minutes to do just that and give you a few details of how I took my inspiration swing:

Using these regular ole porch plans:   And altered them to make this:

 First, I’m assuming you can read and make something from plans like these, so I’m not going to go through how to do that.

Tip #1

You want to make your pattern.  I like to use this patter paper because it has these dots on a 1″ grid.

I found this at JoAnn’s, so you probably can too.  Or online, because the interwebs have everything…

Tip #2

Use Brown Craft Paper or Shipping Paper to make a pattern your desired changes.

Here is what I did…

Using the inspiration photo, I cut pieces of the brown craft paper the width of the pieces that I wanted to change.

That included, this bottom front piece:

And this top curved piece.

And this side apron which I just legthend and made the curve softer:

For everything else, I followed the plans exactly…

For the customizations, I folded the paper in half and then drew what I thought was close to the lines of the inspiration photo.

Then I cut the folded pattern out and opened it up. That way the design was symmetrical. Symmetry is good…

Check to make sure it looks right and do it again if it doesn’t. I had to do a couple of versions before I was happy.

Tip #3

For the back of the swing, go ahead and assemble it with just straight boards as in the photo above.

Then trace the pattern onto the boards. Finish putting the swing together according to the plans! And that is it!

Really… if you can follow the plans, you can easily alter them to make something truly special.

Bonus Tip

The pallets were fine and super cheap, but if I had it to do alllll over again, I’d invest in some wood.

The rustic look kinda bothers me now, but hey… it was cheap and my first attempt, so no-harm-no-foul.

I hope these tips help you!  Leave a comment below and let me know what you think. 🙂

Looking for more DIY’s gone bold?  Just click the image below!