DIY Horizontal Board & Batten Wall – ORC Week 5

It’s week five of the One Room Challenge! If you missed the previous weeks, check them out to see my design plans, ikea hack dressers, painted bench, dresser makeover & decor.

 

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he DIY horizontal board and batten has made the biggest impact on our master bedroom makeover. I saw this inspiration photo on Pinterest a few months ago and knew it had to be somewhere in our home. When I was planning our One Room Challenge, the inspiration came back to me and I thought it was perfect!

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Originally I had planned more of a grid pattern, but with our barn door being a herringbone pattern and the diagonal pattern on the Ikea hack dressers, the horizontal lines are a lot less busy. I could of done shiplap like in our dining room and laundry room, but once again I wanted something a little different.

 

DIY HORIZONTAL BOARD AND BATTEN SUPPLIES:

• wood, I used 1x2x8
• stud finder
• level
• nail gun
• 1 1/2 inch nails
• jigsaw
• caulk
• paint, I used Valspar Ultra White

 

First I measured the size of my wall to see how much wood I would need and how far I wanted each board to be placed. My wall is 9′ feet high and I decided to space the boards about every 14 inches. I say about because when I got to the electrical outlets, I was going to have to cut around them, but since the bed and nightstand cover most of that area, I just raised the board up two inches. This saved me a lot of time and is hardly noticeable. I also measured six inches from the ceiling to install my first board, that way there wasn’t a huge gap at the top.

 

 

To give myself an idea of how it would look, I used tape again to layout the design. Using the stud finder, I found the studs along the wall and also marked those with tape. You can also use a pencil here, but with my dark colored walls tape was just easier for me.

 

 

 

Using the level, I held the board in place and attached it to the wall with my nail gun. I repeated the steps until the wall was completed. Making cuts with my jigsaw if needed. The wall is a little over 16 feet, so I needed two boards and had to add a few inches of another board to each end piece.

 

 

Then before painting, I used caulk to fill in the gaps between the boards and the wall. I also filled in the seams between each section of the separate boards to make it look like one big board across. I think this extra step gave it a more clean and professional look.

 

Even though my walls are textured, I didn’t worry about installing additional pieces of plywood boards to cover up the texture. Since, this isn’t a true board and batten wall and more of just an accent wall, I wasn’t too worried about it.

 

Now the fun part – painting! (insert eye roll here) I used Valspar Reserve that has primer and paint in one, so it only took two coats of Ultra White to cover up this dark wall. Ha, who am I kidding? It took like four, maybe five. I stopped counting. I kept going over it again and again because every time I walked into the room, I swore I could still see the dark color.

 

 

I loved our dark wall, but our room gets very little sunlight and the dark color just made it seem so dark and depressing. The white is such a bright and refreshing look! Without revealing too much – I can’t tell you how much it has changed this room and I can’t wait for the reveal next week! I have a few more things to complete – new curtains, a rug, and a few more décor accessories. Stay tuned!  🙂

 

Don’t forget to check to see how everyone else’s rooms are coming along in the One Room Challenge!