Two brothers save £2,000 on parquet flooring for their mum's living room by using wooden pallets

Many of us dream of having stunning parquet flooring in our homes. Two brothers have just made it a reality for their mum, with pallets and some serious carpentry skills.

The pair sourced the pallets online and spent a week on the project. Pallets are brilliant materials for all kinds of DIY and decorating projects, but compared to  garden seating, this wooden pallet parquet flooring project takes things up a level.

Before

Brothers Harry and Charlie were renovating their mum's living space. But, unfortunately the flooring they had bought suffered some water damage. It would have cost around £2,000 to replace.

'We wanted to create a classic herringbone parquet, so we had to think outside the box,' Harry tells Latest Deals. They used around 50 pallets that they nabbed for free from Facebook Marketplace.

As you'd imagine, the process of turning wooden pallets into something worth putting on the floor was very labour-intensive. 'We first had to process an enormous amount of pallets, using a planer thicknesser to get them to the correct thickness,' says Harry.

'Then, we used a pass through the table saw to get the width, and finally each block was cut to the exact length using a chop saw.' Once Charlie and Harry had their blocks cut to size, they laid them using adhesive and a nail gun.

Harry says the most expensive part was the finish. They used Tung oil, available to bulk buy on eBay, and spent around £100 in total on the flooring.

'My biggest tip for anyone attempting this is to make sure that all of your blocks are cut as accurately as possible,' Harry shares. 'Use sharp tools and get some knee pads - I didn’t use any and regretted it!'

After

This luxury flooring option, first seen in France in the 17th century, is admired for its quality and craftsmanship. Parquet is a subtle and classic way to incorporate geometric pattern into your living room ideas - particularly if bold prints aren't usually your thing.

What an amazing result! The wooden pallet parquet flooring looks like it could belong in a chic Parisian apartment.

If you don't fancy taking on such a huge project, there are plenty of other lovely living room flooring ideas whatever your budget. Have you been inspired to do an upcycling project?