Finally getting around to writing this post! Life had gotten a tad stressful and crazy in November and December outside of blogger world, so I had to put these posts on hold. I love the world of blogging, but I still love my day job a lot and really focus on that and my home life most of the time. Home life includes everything from preparing dinner for AJ and I, taking care of my little boy Abu (my dog), and getting into the gym to make sure I keep those muscles growing. The important things in life 🙂
Anywho…this post is going to be a bit more about the difference in this wall from my last board and batten post that can be found here, and also a mistake I made that could have changed a few things. I’ll also include the materials and tools I used for you to utilize if you choose to do this style of board and batten wall!
So first things first, how was this wall different from the last? Well honestly it was a heck of a lot easier and A LOT cheaper due to the wood used and the size of the wall. This part of our wall is about 10′ wide, so I did have to still buy some 12′ boards for the base trim and the top trim pieces. Every other board I bought were 8′ long since our ceilings are only that tall, which you then have to take into account the taller trim at the bottom and top trim pieces that’ll make those board be able to be smaller. So the 8′ boards allowed for minimal waste.
Materials used were:
- Base trim board: 1 – 1x4x12
- Top trim board: 1 – 1x2x12
- Skinny boards: 9 – 1x2x8
- White paint
- Caulk (White)
- Roll of brown paper
As you can see this project didn’t take a lot from the materials side and cost us under $50 total. The paint we had in this room was light, so I only had to do two coats of paint. If you have a darker wall you might want to consider priming the wall first.
Tools used were:
- Paint brush to get into the corners
- Caulking gun
- Paint rollers to use on the wall and faces of the boards
- Laser tape measurer (Which helped SO incredibly much. Here is the one we use for all our projects including accents walls and trim.)
- Frog tape (Our new favorite)
- Dewalt Nail Guns
Now the mistake I made…I started the measurements from the left side of the wall instead of from the middle of the window. The reason why this is a mistake? Because then the boards will be centered on the window that we had on this wall instead of being uneven. If you don’t have any windows on your wall then you are fine, but things to keep in mind are light switches and outlets. They can be a pain when you run your boards into them and you then have added work for yourself.
Here is an overall look at the steps I took:
- Take measurements and sketch out where the boards will be so I know what materials I need to buy
- Remove the old trim board
- Tape off the two side walls place some brown paper on the floor
- Paint the whole wall white (two coats)
- Measure, cut, and nail the top and bottom trim boards in
- Tape the ceiling and floor areas, with using the brown paper on the floor to help with paint splatter (I didn’t do this before since the trim pieces were going to cover these areas.)
- Use the laser tape measurer to get the exact lengths for all of the vertical boards
- Cut all remaining boards and nail them onto the wall
- Caulk around the edges of all boards (Where the board meets the wall. I use my pinky finger to smooth this all out.) then let it dry
- Paint all of the boards and due any touch ups that are necessary
Then you’ve got yourself a new accent wall! Our wall was in pretty good shape, so I could paint directly onto the wall instead of having to use a backer board. If your wall is in bad condition or it has a texture like stucco, you may want to consider purchasing a backer board. Painting directly on the drywall saves quite a bit of money, so if you can do this I highly recommend it. It looks like there is a backer there anyway!
I hope you’ve enjoy this post and please feel free to share your experiences or any questions you have below!