Building with Pallets

from atHome Magazine: Fall/Holiday 2022

Back Cover Holiday Shopping Guide

Building with Pallets Local Farmer’s Creations Go Far Beyond Pinterest

By Caroline Tremblay Photos by Kelly Fletcher

It’s hard to imagine that a 10-acre gravel pit dug right down to the ledge rock could, within decades, become a generous garden banked by fruit trees, rows of raspberry tangle, and beaming sunflowers. But Cheshire Garden, snuggled as it is on a back road in Winchester, New Hampshire, is proof that a piece of land can be brought back to life, not only through planting but also imagination. Cheshire Garden is home to the locally famous Tiny Farmstand, filled with chocolaty moon cakes, flavorful preserves, and Patti Pops, a frosty fruit treat treasured by summer lovers. While the farm also sells wholesale and online, a trip to the farmstand is an entirely different experience, as is a stroll around the property. Ralph Legrande, who owns the farm with his wife Patti Powers, is a self-described “serial builder,” as well as a fervent recycler and repurposer. A builder of many years, he learned his craft under the tutelage of “a couple really excellent, oldtime carpenters in Northfield,” he says. They did renovations, historical reconstructions, and massive barn raisings that required four people to push up a single truss. That background and a little nudge from the mother of invention — necessity — later stirred up a penchant for pallet-building in Legrande, and he has turned it into an art form. “I was standing around here with this ‘27 Model A that I didn’t want to get rusty,” he says.

Inset: Ralph Lagrande Above: Pallet ceiling in a shed built by Ralph Lagrande

And so he whipped together a shed constructed out of whole pallets, which he had many lying around. For years he’d picked them up a few at a time at the local hardware shop, saving them for projects to come. “The idea of using pallets for part of the wall sections came along with the idea of building these trusses,” he says. To create a 9-foot by 12-foot structure, he built a series of triangular trusses on the ground. “Then, just like raising a barn, you push one up and attach a pallet to it,” he says. “Once you’ve got a couple of them up, this thing ain’t going anywhere.” A lover of geometry, Legrande follows the motto: Keep it simple. So when he set out to build the first structure, he decided all the angles would be 45 or 90 degrees. “That totally made a huge difference,” he notes. The triangle shapes this method creates lock together with even the nails forming triangles, generating impressive strength. “Then it evolved to where I came upon the idea of using pallets up in the entire roof system,” he says. His second building was crafted using this approach, and standing inside, amongst farm tools and scrap wood, all around is a network of interlocked pallets. “They’re simple as hell, and you can make

them as fancy as you want,” he says of his >builds. While clapboards and elaborate trim could easily be added, he’s happiest incorporating

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elements like an upcycled slate roof or found objects decoratively repurposed around the door frame. But don’t be fooled; each structure looks as dapper as it does solid. “I use native shiplap pine for the skins on all of them. From the outside, you’d kind of never know what’s going on in there,” he says. “I love me some pine.” Legrande has gone on to build several of these sheds — a garage, a woodshed — along different parts of the property to suit different needs. Each has its own character, draped in grapevines or adorned with shaggy bird nests. Among them are additional spaces he’s made with materials other than pallets, including the Tiny Farmstand and a Slovakian bee house with specialized hives contained inside. “You can open up the back of these hives; they look like a cabinet door in your kitchen,” he says. The location of the hives protects them from intruders, like hungry bears, and the design allows the beekeeper to get at the honeycomb without ever getting near the bees. They instead hum happily in and out of exit slits on the side of the building. While not constructed with pallets, the bee house offers another sampling of Legrande’s simple, understated, eloquent and classic approach to the farm shed. “I love the old stuff … They’re supposed to look like New England’s supposed to look,” he says. He jokes that one day the sheds he’s built, which dot the landscape at unique angles, will be joined by one continuous covered bridge. “I think it’s the Swiss in me; I like little cabins and chalets,” he says. The bridge may have to wait for now, as he’s planning first to help a neighbor build a tiny house on wheels for a college-aged

PHOTOS, Right: Ralph Lagrange with Abbey inside a finished pallet structure at Cheshire Garden in Winchester, New Hampshire. Top: Ralph outside the pallet structure.

daughter. Though he will likely use the rough, sturdy and recycled materials he’s become known for; the finished product will no doubt illustrate Legrande’s thoughtful, country aesthetics. “With tidiness, you can really make something,” he says. His descriptions may make his builds seem effortless, and his materials list includes everything but the kitchen sink, but the intention and calculation behind his designs are unmistakable. “I always hesitated to have other people do this because you really have to pay attention to the geometry and the way things are nailed together,” he says. The weight of an entire structure literally hangs in the balance. “I’ve taught a few guys out there to do this, and they’re out there spreading the pallet word. If it gets too popular, I won’t be able to find pallets,” he says with a laugh. It doesn’t seem like a worry, as he and Powers have proven capable of making magic out of whatever is on hand, like growing goodness out of gravel. “My wife Patti is a farmer from the beginning of time. Even her old soul is a farmer. And she just insisted that we were gonna put in a little bit of this and a little bit of that and a little more. Then all of a sudden, it was just like all,” Legrande says. Together they’ve made a farm filled with story, one planting and one build at a time.