Pallets are so versatile when it comes to decor. We’ve used them in several places in our home and we just keep coming up with more ideas. Our current (massive) project is our kitchen remodel and I knew we would want to incorporate pallets into this project somehow as well.

We are lucky enough to have the space for bar seating in our kitchen. We had the room in the kitchen beforehand and we knew that we wanted to keep this as a feature in the new space. I love serving my little ones lunch and breakfast at the bar. It’s so easy to chop their fruit or make a sandwich and hand it directly to them at the bar. Moms, as you know, kids have a million and one requests at any given meal time. I had a perfect loitering spot right in the corner of our L-shaped bar seating area that I’d stand at and chat with my kiddos and fulfill their food desires from across the bar. In the new kitchen, we’ve kept the same L-shape design, but instead, we’ve made that L-shape into an island. Same design, but with a walkway behind it. I have so much more room to move around and it is fantastic. I’m going to be able to have my same hang out spot in the corner and we’ve even been able to add a room for a couple additional bar stools.

One of the major issues in our last kitchen was cleanliness. We are parents to three lovely young ladies, all 8 and under. They’ve spent hundreds of mornings at that bar eating area, kicking white cabinets below and spilling everything under the sun. It didn’t take long for those freshly painted white cabinets to take a beating. Shoe scuff marks, smoothie spills, squished berries, milk, you name it. White cabinets where our kids ate were an absolute nightmare.

I’m still somewhat of a traditionalist when it comes to cabinets. I love a colored cabinet. In fact, we yellow distressed cabinets at our rental house, but for this house, white was what we’d always envisioned. We thought we could get away with white in the other parts of the kitchen, but the bar eating area was off limits. What were we going to do to maintain the style we wanted, but also create a functional space that I wouldn’t obsess about when my kids made a mess?

Pallet wall to the rescue! We’d recently covered our wet bar white wooden cabinets with pallet wood and we loved the look. We thought that we should repeat this look in the eating area. It would coordinate with the wet bar and it would be able to take the beating that three young ladies could dish out. Brown stained wood is the perfect mask for dirty shoes and nasty spills. Sign me up!

We are still waiting on countertops, appliances and running water, but we are working on as many projects in the mean time as we can. The bar seating pallet project is the latest one and we are so happy with the way it’s coming together. Slowly, but surely, our kitchen is coming together and we are thrilled.

We were able to source our pallets from a local recycling center for super cheap. This project took 8 pallets to complete. We cut the pallets down and laid them out for staining. It’s easy to knock out a bunch of planks in one sitting. We are partial to Minwax Special Walnut for our pallet projects. We just love that each plank turns out differently. The wood can look the same, but one quick coat of stain and all new shades come out and imperfections appear.

The way we’ve had best results is to apply Liquid Nails to the back of each piece and place them on the wall. We then firm them up with screws into the existing nail holes on the wood. We let the wood settle and cure for about a day and then we remove the screws and replace them with the original nails. We like the authentic rustic look of the original nails in our pallet walls.

I think my favorite spot is the corner where both sides of the wrap-around bar meet.We had every other piece go straight to the end, so that we have a pattern. When it all comes together, it turns into a beautifully rustic piece of artwork. I venture to guess that my kiddos are going to have a heck of a time trying to destroy this setup. It’s already perfectly imperfect, just the way they are and just the way we like our home to be.