Pallet Wood Self-catering Heaven

I renovated part of our farm steading in the winter of 2012/13, and we now rent it out as a holiday cottage (The Cow Shed). It’s going really well. It inspired me to do another one (Cow Shed 2), and I decided I wanted to build it being as sustainable as possible. The local garden center provided me with over 100 pallets which would probably have ended up on the fire. After a drying, splitting, sanding, and more drying (this time in the house) process they ended up as cladding on the bedroom wall, cladding around the French Doors in the lounge, skirting boards, bathroom & bedroom mirrors, light fittings, the TV/HiFi stand, a bathroom sink unit, window recesses and the entire kitchen.
Everything but the kitchen units were oiled with Danish Oil and treated with a fireproofing spray. The kitchen was varnished twice with a clear satin varnish. I decided to sand each strip of wood, rather than plane, to retain the aged look which I think adds huge character to the finish. As an aside, I also built a clay rendered straw bale partition wall to split the remaining steading in two to create the second cottage and used hessian on the internal ceiling. The door facings and skirting boards in the lounge are all made from the old recycled tie beams that came out of the steading roof. Using pallet wood slowed up the build process but created a fantastic finish that was ultimately worth the extra hours. Next project – full straw bale holiday lodge in our field, internally finished with plenty of pallet wood of course!