DIY Board & Batten Wall – Liska Living
Hi, all!
Well, it’s been longer than I would have liked to have posted on here. Life has been busy to say the least! But part of that busyness has been working on projects at home! ??
Today I’m sharing my son’s board & batten wall that we DIY’ed. It was our first major DIY project involving power tools! I personally learned a lot on this one. I’ll be sharing some of the lessons we learned along the way, and what we would have avoided next time. So, this is your warning that it will be a lengthy post!
I started off by painting his whole room from a baby blue to one of my favorite greys – “Agreeable Grey” by Sherwin Williams. Then, I painted the bottom 2/3 of his wall in “Oakmoss” by Sherwin Williams. I sampled SO MANY greens and ultimately let my son pick from my top 4. He chose this one and I have to say, I love it. It fits his personality perfectly! Next, we rounded up all the supplies we needed to make this wall happen:
SUPPLIES USED
–1×3 pine boards (vertical boards)
–1×4 pine boards (horizontal)
–1×2 pine boards (topper)
–pine finger cove moulding (optional depending on trim)
–120 grit sand paper/sanding block
–polyfoam caulk backer (only if needed)
Some things to note: Our walls are not very textured, so we did not need any kind of hardboard as backing (which is totally optional depending on how much you care!). Also, we opted to keep our existing baseboards. Although I would prefer a more modern look, it would have required us to change out all the trim/moulding in the room and that would have added up quickly. Instead, we opted to use finger cove moulding and flip it on it’s end so that our boards could sit flush on it rather than overhanging and we didn’t have to cut them at a 45 degree angle. We also used unprimed pine boards. This was partly due to the fact that the primed boards at the hardware store were not in great condition — lots were chipped, some were warped, so we opted to do a little more work. MDF boards would also have been a cheaper option, and I would probably recommend this if you were planning on doing a full room of board and batten vs. just one wall.
To start, we measured the width of the wall and figured out our vertical board spacing. I knew I wanted them somewhere between 15-18 inches apart and I wanted them 48″ tall. This was mostly so that we could maximize the boards. The boards we bought were exactly 8ft long, so we could easily cut them in half. We ended up using 9 boards. Ideally, we would have put these all in studs. However, we wanted a board in each corner and there were no studs there, which then affected all the other boards. We probably could have used liquid nails and then nailed into the wall, but since they weren’t going to be taking any real weight, we opted not to. One tip when buying boards is to make sure they are STRAIGHT! If you take a board out and look at it from its end, you can often see it curve on one end. Another tip is once you get your boards, to bring them into your home to let them acclimate. We left ours in the garage and some of the boards ended up warping so we had to get more.
Next, we cut all our boards down to size using a miter saw. We weren’t ready to buy one of these yet, so we were lucky enough to have a friend that had one. You can also rent one for a day if need be from most major hardware stores. I think this is something we will definitely get in the future, and if we do, I like this one. I then proceeded to sand down all the boards using 120 grit sand paper and then I wiped them down before priming. I recommend using this primer.
We started off putting up the finger cove moulding first using our brad nailer and then worked our way up from there. I have seen some people put their horizontal board up first to make sure it is level and then put their vertical boards to fit, but we wanted to maximize the boards we had and we could make the top board level enough. Either way works! You want to make sure your boards are as straight as possible because otherwise they won’t sit flat on your wall. There is even the possibility that your walls aren’t level and therefore could be some gap as is (don’t worry, we’ll address that later). Finally, we nailed our 1×2 onto the 1×4 from the top. One thing we quickly figured out is that we needed a smaller nail for our 1×2 board because otherwise they weren’t going all the way into the board.
After this, I went back to do finishing work. As tedious as this part is, this is really what makes it look more professional! I used wood filler to fill all the nail holes and once that dried I went back over them with sand paper to smooth it down. Then, the most labor intensive part was all the caulking. I like this one, as it’s good for painting and dries quickly! Don’t forget to caulk ALL the seams (vertically and horizontally between the boards) as well as between the boards and the wall. We had a couple boards that were off the wall more than we would have liked and so we ended up using some polyfoam caulk saver to reduce the caulk falling into the seams. This was so helpful! I used the small diameter one, which worked well. In some areas I needed to cut it in half.
After this was all done, it was time to paint! I ended up using a brush for all of this, as I found my foam roller wasn’t putting much paint onto the boards. I used two coats for all the boards, as well as the bottom trim. I had a few areas of grey paint that needed to be touched up anyway, so I didn’t bother taping off until I was ready to touch up the grey parts. Then, in order to get a clean line, I taped off the green boards that touched grey and used a brush to seal the tape with green first, that way the grey paint wouldn’t seep under the tape. Then, once dry I touched up all the grey and it was done! Now time to decorate – my favorite!
Although this project was finished over the course of a few of months, it was totally worth it! It looks so great and I just can’t believe how much it has elevated this space. What do you think? Would you tackle this type of project?! Is there anything else you want to know about? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Speak soon, friends!
