This post is sponsored by Ace Hardware
It’s time for the DIY blog post on our beautiful accent wall! With the help of Ace Hardware, AJ and I were able to transform the dining area of our kitchen. I’m seriously so in love and don’t know why we didn’t do this sooner. The dining wall was so plain and boring before, and this change has made it much grander!
First, like any DIY…let’s see what we were working with. This first photo is going to show you my little wall collage that I put up right after we renovated the kitchen. The wall was such a big space that this was all I could come up with at that time.
This wall is so big for the space it’s actually in, so AJ and I wanted to get a bit creative with this area. Instead of trying to cover it up with decor, we decided on doing a full board & batten accent wall! The first step was deciding on a height of the wall, and with the help of AJ’s DeWalt Laser Level we were able to choose a height. Just like any other project we’ve had, the home wasn’t actually level so you have to adjust your measurements to make the wall look level. We decided to go with 5′ for the board & batten.
Then came the measuring on the wall and tracing the whole layout so we could see how it would look. I didn’t think this step was that important, but AJ convinced me to do it. And honestly I am SO happy we did this step. We were able to see if we were going to hit outlets (which we did) and see if our spacing was good.
This process took us several hours and we started by drawing out where the top boards would be, including the lip piece. We used our 4′ level to help us with sketching our lines out to ensure they were straight, as this would be our place marker later on. Once we had the top line all sketched out, we had to decide what spacing we would want for the vertical slats. These slats would be going directly onto the drywall, then we would paint them and the drywall to appear as one. We ended up going with 12″ spacing and it was perfect!
After we were done with the tracing, we prepared a materials list. In order to do this with trying to get only what we needed, we added up all the boards we needed, some extra painting tools, and tape. We decided to go with primed MDF boards, but you could also get wood if you prefer. The wood boards would more than likely require several coats, whereas the primed MDF only took two coats.
We got our paint from Ace Hardware and it was their Valspar Aspire Eggshell Pure White Acrylic Latex Paint and Primer Indoor. We ended up choosing a custom white color when we were in the store, and it was the perfect mix of being a bright and warm white!
Here’s a quick snapshot of all the items we needed outside of the paint:
Next steps we AJ cutting the boards down. While I didn’t get that captured on camera, it took a few hours because he cut down each board and rounded all of the edges. We then got the boards all up before bed just using a staple gun and some wood filler to cover the holes.
Excuse the mess of a work station, but there were a lot of tools we actually needed during this project. I’ll include a materials list below for the tools we ended up using.
The next morning came and it was time to ensure every little nail hole was filled and all edges were caulked. This was my part of the deal, and it is definitely meticulous. I’m going to have to do this in our new home, so I guess my poor little pinky finger had good practice for caulking. It took a couple hours in total to get that all done. Then once everything was dry, I had to sand the holes.
You can see above that the caulking creates one cohesive look between the board and the wall. Definitely an important step in the process. We chose to do it before painting so the caulking stays the same color as the paint. We also chose to get the white caulking. I’m not a fan of the clear as it yellows over time.
Next step…prep work for painting.
Prepping an area when you are painting is worth it EVERY TIME. It might be annoying at first but it helps when there are small mistakes along the way. I only had to tape the floor (adding brown paper with it) and the top lip area. Everything in-between was getting painted.
This is the part where my brain just forgot to take photos between the painting. I ended up doing two coats over all of the board & batten, but I used two different sizes of rollers and a 2″ brush to get into the nooks and crannies of each board. This would have been ten times easier with a sprayer, and for the future we will definitely be doing that option. It would have saved so much time and it always has a great finish.
We decided to go with an eggshell finish on the paint because it can hide flaws a little better and looks good when paint is rolled on. Like I said, we did two coats and that was mainly because of the tan paint underneath. The tan wasn’t a super dark color, but typically when painting anything white you need to plan on doing two coats.
The paint wasn’t even dry and I could tell it was already perfect! It made the dining part of our kitchen feel more grand and like its own space. The height was also exactly what I was wanting. Honestly, I knew I was going to love this from the very beginning because board & batten walls are just the best!
So…here is an array of some styled photos for you!
As promised, here is the list of tools we utilized in this project below. Keep in mind, you don’t have to use some of the tools we used, but AJ wanted to create an amazing finished look with each board by rounding over the edges.
- Drill or screw driver to remove any plating or light switches
- Miter saw
- Router with a round over bit
- Nail gun
- Air compressor
- Caulking gun
- Paint brush
- Paint tray
- Pencil
- Level
- Sander or sand paper
The Valspar Paint from Ace Hardware did wonders and this was our first time using it. I always get a little weary using a new product when we’ve used a different one for so long; however, it did excellent! It looks beautiful in daylight and is a very high-quality paint. Definitely would recommend you using this brand on your next painting project!
Overall the biggest thing we learned, invest in a hand paint sprayer. It would have helped SO much in a project like this, and saved so much time. I am glad we chose to do MDF, and doing the lats directly onto the drywall went well. In our new home we plan to change a few things when we do this wall again, but that will require just a little more research and will cover a larger space.
I hope you all enjoyed this blog post about our DIY Board & Batten Accent Wall! Hopefully it’s inspired you to feel more confident in doing this yourself, as it is an easier project to do. I would love to hear how your experiences have gone and maybe what you tried differently on your board & batten walls.