We were in your same situation and we ended up using three pallets. The shipping cost was about the same as for half a container, but the cost to have three pallets released from customs and brought to your home was considerably less (we undid the pallet once it was released, so that we just had regular boxes to put in the van and bring home).
Of course, this meant shipping no furniture (we sold the few ikea items we had), but we were able to bring our dishwasher and a desk (disassembled). We shipped from Genoa and in two weeks our stuff was here.
