Hey, hey my loves! So excited that you have joined me to hear a little bit more about shiplapping. In a world of Joanna Gaines, shiplapping has become incredibly popular. AJ and I have loved including this in our home, and now we have put it in my Aunt and Uncle’s home. Needless to say, they loved it!
Shiplapping can be a fun project, but it does take a bit of work. Now the type of shiplap you choose to use is completely up to you. There are so many different versions were you use panel board, plywood, wood shiplap or MDF shiplap. AJ and I have personally used two different types of materials for shiplap, and we definitely recommend one over the other.
Type 1: The cost efficient shiplap.
This shiplap is what we used on our first bathroom renovation, and it was good old hardy panel board. This was just a big thin board that was a panel of oak wood. The method with this option was to rip down the panel board into 6″ boards to use for the shiplap. After we got the individual boards all sized up we sanded them two different times with different grits. The first grit we always use about 100 or 120 grit, then to get it super smooth we use a 180-220 grit sand paper. After this, we wiped down each board with a wet rag to prep for paint.
When painting shiplap, AJ and I are always sure to use primer first. Most of these woods soak the paint right up, so it helps with your top paint coat. This time around AJ sprayed everything in the garage and then we cut to size. An extremely important tip with this, always measure (my number one tip always!). Our walls are definitely NOT level or square. So we had to cut some pieces smaller that were near the top versus the sizing at the bottom. Then between each board, we used the “nickel” method.
So the fun “nickel” method is where you simply put a nickel between the boards to create the shiplap spacing. Then in-between the spacing you paint the wall behind the boards the same color as the boards. Lastly, you have to fill in all of the nail holes with wood filler to give it an even look and dab on a little paint. To see more on this renovation you can go back to my first bathroom renovations here!
Type 2: The pre-made MDF shiplap.
Now this shiplap was easier in my mind, but that’s because I didn’t have to do all the cuts that AJ did (lol). I got his opinion and he said this is definitely a harder process than the panel board because he had to make custom lap joints to allow the shiplap to meet up properly. Now, this does require a router tool, so if you do not have one of these then I suggest purchasing or renting one. Since the shiplap was already primed, AJ also sprayed primer on the ends once we added it to the wall.
This entire process took us the whole day plus some more because we had one large wall, a short wall, and then the two small walls. One of the small walls we had to wait on because we decided to get a new door to the garage as well. Once that came in, that wall actually took us a few hours because of all the cuts AJ had to do.
As you can see in these few photos, the main reason we did shiplap was because of the wallpaper behind it. Originally we were only going to do the large wall with shiplap, but my aunt and uncle had a heck of a time getting the wallpaper off the other large wall, so we decided to do shiplap on the two smaller walls as well. This ended up being a great decision because the additional shiplap made the room feel huge.
Now I really want to show you all the before photos, but I’m going to save some of those for another reveal post. Today I wanted to focus on the shiplap options AJ and I have tried and our opinion on each. If you are in the market for some shiplap, both of us highly recommend going with the primed MDF pre-made shiplap. Not only did this save us the time of ripping down boards, but it looked WAY better. We also did this option in our second bathroom renovation, and it has held up with moisture extremely well.
I hope this little tid-bit helps you decide if one of these two options is right for you! I would love to answer any specific questions you have, and also would love to hear what you’ve tried! Stay tuned for the full room reveal!