Wood Pallets as Wall Covering

What do I do with the ugly drywall in the garage?  The yellowed drywall was full of holes and littered with hasty patches and piles of mud.

The Challenge

I'm terrible at finishing drywall.  It takes me twice as long as it should.  I make twice the mess and it only ends up half as good as someone who knows what they are doing.  So, I had no desire to repair and finish all the drywall in the garage.  I had a better idea.

The Pallets

It seems like pallets are everywhere.  Companies are always looking to get rid of old skids.  This allowed me to do my project practically for free. (I only had to buy nails for the nail gun).  And, the old pallet boards had tons of character.  However, none were straight or square which became quite the challenge.  If you want to do a project like this, get about twice as many pallets as you think you will need.  You will likely have a lot of boards that are in too bad of shape to use.  Also, stay away from companies that use lots of chemicals because they could have soaked into the wood.  You don't want that stuff off-gassing into your house.

The Work

I really didn't have a plan or design in mind when I started out.  I was holding up some boards trying to figure out where to start.  Elliot told me not to put them straight and make it more interesting.  So, I went with 45 degree angles.  (You can also see the shape of the drywall I was trying to cover).  I started on the backsplash area behind my workbench.

The boards didn't reach from one edge to the other so I had to start getting creative.  I trimmed out the top and bottom and around the window with the rails of the pallets.  Then the thin pallet boards became the wall covering.

I decided to add some receptacles while I was at it  since the workbench didn't have any.

As it started to come together, I worked my way around the room updating the electric as I went.

The 2x4 rails were use to trim out the edges of the door frames and the thinner pallet boards were nailed up using an air gun.  A lot of busted and twisted boards became firewood.

The last wall to finish was the back wall of the garage that you see as soon as the overhead door opens.  By this time, I was pretty comfortable in piecing these board together and wanted to do something creative.  The space was far too big to not take advantage of this focal point.  I started out with some of the longest boards I had.

I quickly found out how hard it is to build something with symmetry when every board was different.  But, it started coming together nicely.

With the last board in place, the job was done!

I still have a few projects to finish in the garage, but the ugly, busted, yellow drywall was now covered and the place kinda feels like a cabin.  It was a time consuming project that had the garage full of old boards and sawdust for a couple weeks.  It was probably still quicker and cleaner than me finishing drywall.  And best of all, it was FREE!

If you like the rustic look and can handle a miter saw and nail gun, give it a shot.  There is something rewarding about salvaging scrap wood and turning it into something useful.

As we continue our journey of turning our home into a suburban homestead, we will look for more opportunities to salvage and recycle items in a unique way.  I will continue to share our progress so stay tuned!