Before I begin, let me just preface this by saying my husband and I (but mostly him) are amateur DIYers. We wing it most of the time, with a lot of help from YouTube and Pinterest. I'm the idea person, and he helps me bring those ideas to life. He's basically the Chip to my Joanna. Except he doesn't love doing projects...but he does them. Because he's awesome like that. And he has lots of tools.
But on to today's topic. Board and batten. I'm sure you've been seeing it everywhere lately. I feel like it's the new shiplap. Except not really, because shiplap is still pretty popular. We'll say it's a tie.
Anyway, I decided I wanted to try board and batten in our dining room about a year ago. And I finally convinced my husband to give it a go. After showing him aaaalllll the pins and a few quick youtube videos, we headed to Home Depot to get what we needed.
But first, here's a "before" of your dining room...
It's not that it was bad at all. I just wanted some contrast and to add some interest with an accent wall.
So, back to Home Depot. We ended up buying these long flat wall boards. I don't know what they are called, but they are about 1/8 in thick, brown, and slick on one side. They come in 4x8 ft pieces, and we had them cut down to 2x8's. We ended up with 6 pieces after they were cut. Our ceilings are 11 ft., so the 8ft length was perfect as I wanted the board and batten to cover about 3/4 of our wall. Then we chose some primed 2x3in. trim pieces, and a couple of 1x2 inch trim pieces to trim the top of the wall.
When we got home we laid out all the flat wall boards in the garage for easy painting. They took about 3 coats of primer. And then when the last coat was just about dry, our dog may or may not have let himself into the garage and pooped on 2 of the boards and then walked on ALL of them. Good times. But that's a story for another time. Here are the boards, post-poop clean up and repainted.
Once they were completely dry, we brought everything in to get started on our wall. Here you can see what our trim pieces look like.
We measured it all out again to make sure our measurements were right the first time. Then we put Liquid Nails glue on each of the flat boards and I held them up while my husband nailed them in place with the nail gun. Honestly, we probably didn't need the glue, but it doesn't hurt to have a little extra adhesive.
We left a 2 inch space between each of the flat panels, where our trim pieces would be. These we did not glue, we just nailed them in each of the 2 inch spaces.
Then we added the same sized trim pieces along the top of the wall. We needed 2 pieces, which we cut at a 45 angle to minimize the seam line. Then we nailed the 1x2 in pieces at the very top to make a little "shelf".
Oh and we also added a horizontal piece between all the vertical pieces, as you can see in the photo above.
And this is what it looked like when everything was up...
I debated about leaving it white. Because I love white. But my whole purpose in doing this wall was to have a feature wall, and add contrast. So I originally thought about painting it black. But I wasn't ready to go that bold yet. So I opted for a dark charcoal color called Antique Tin by Behr. I love it! I still may paint that upper part of the wall with a stencil or do wallpaper or something. I'm still deciding.
When it was all dry, we put everything back in its place and I love the way the sign and buffet pop against the dark wall. Overall, this was a fairly easy project. Just a little time-consuming, but not hard. And I absolutely love our dining room now! It's the perfect backdrop for some of our favorite decor pieces. This tiered tray decor really pops against the gray color. And this arch tray/charcuterie board looks perfect here (see photos below).
Leave us a comment or reach out if you have any questions!
13 comments
I love everything about this wall. Where did you purchase the hanging lamps?
Do you know what your wall color is called (the tan on all other walls)?
Hi! What paint colors did you use?!! Beautiful
Hi There,
We are going to attempt this project for our living room and our bedroom. I’m am just wondering if your trim pieces that lie horizontal are slightly thinner than your vertical ones? And the one that is on the top for a little ledge… is it thinner as well? I was unsure from your instructions. Thank you!
Thanks!
How did you install the scones? Are they hardwired or corded?