If you’ve been around a minute then you will remember that last year we bought our first house. This is the first place we’ve lived that we could decorate and make our own. And honestly that was super overwhelming. When we moved in we had barely any furniture and no design direction. Now that we’ve been here almost a year I’m finding my way and slowly chipping away at little projects to upgrade our new build home. The first room I wanted to start with was our master bedroom. Over the first six months in our home we replaced our mis matched college dressers to nice clean white dressers and night stands and upgraded from a metal bed frame to a beautiful upholstered bed. From there I knew I wanted to add moulding or create some kind of interesting feature in our space before I finished the room with decor.
Planning:
That when I went to Pinterest, I searched high and low for a simple wall treatment for beginners and settled on creating a board and batten grid wall. After loosely reading tutorials from Angela Rose Home and Young House Love I was ready to get started.
First up measuring the wall and determining the size of the squares. For us since the wall behind our bed is not very big we didn’t want to have too many squares and create a busy design. To start I drew out two options. Option one had four vertical columns and three horizontal rows and option two had five vertical columns and four horizontal rows. I measured and drew our the plans for both on a sheet of paper. We then mapped out the size of the squares using painters tape. This was such a great visual for us and helped us choose option one. Not only was option one the ascetic we were hoping for but it seemed like a slightly easier design for these newbies to handle. Now that we settled on design it was time to gather materials and tools.
Tools and Supplies:
- 3 1/2 inch primed mdf trim
- tape measure
- level
- miter saw
- brad nailer w/ 18 gauge nails
- wood filler
- putty knife
- caulk
- caulking gun
- sandpaper
- paint (we used Benjamin Moore Cloud White)
- paint brush, roller, tray
- drop cloth
- optional: palm sander
Once the design is complete and the materials were gathered it was time to get started on the wall/ We split this project up into three steps.
Step 1: Install Board and Batten
For our design we decided to keep our existing trim on the wall, add a piece of trim flush to the left and right corner and one to where the top of the wall where it meets the ceiling. Then add the vertical trim and then fill in the horizontal rows. To us this seemed most logical, but any order would work.
We used our miter saw to make our cuts and attached the trim to the wall using the brad nailer. We chose not to use liquid nails for this since the MDF is light. I figured between the nails and caulking it to the wall it would be plenty secure (it defiantly is). Since we didn’t use liquid nails if we ever decide to remove it there should be less damage on the wall to deal with.
My husband and I tag teamed the install of the board and batten in and evening after work. We were quite surprised how easy and fast it was. Considering neither of us had used a miter saw or nail gun this project was super painless and I can’t wait to see how easy our next project like this will be.
Step 2: Fill and Caulk
The next morning I tackled filling and caulking the wall. From here on out I worked solo and learned I am extremely skilled at filling holes, who knew!
I started out by filling all the nail holes and joints with wood filler. My biggest time for patching landfilling holes is to use more then you think you need and don’t rush the drying time.
Once the wood filler was dry I sanded. I started with the palm sander and switched to regular old sand paper once the putty was mostly gone. After I finished sanding I went over any holes that weren’t 100% flat and smooth with more wood filler. Once dry I sanded again, this time just with sand paper. Once all the holes were filled and sanded it was time to caulk. I applied caulk anywhere the trim touched the wall, so the inside of each square and the corners/ceiling. I let that fully dry before moving on.
Step 3: Sand and Paint
Now came the easy part PAINT! I taped off the ceiling, side walls and outlets and got to painting the wall and trim. We chose to use the same white paint as our existing trim for this wall since we wanted the transition from wall to baseboards to be seamless. I used a paint brush to cut in a mini roller for the trim work and a regular roller for the inside of the squares. After two coats the wall was done and it was time to remove the tape and re attach the outlet covers.
Results:
I am obsessed with how the wall turned out. The bright white paint helps to make out bed pop in the room and the moulding add so much interest and really elevates the room to another level. This project also gave us a lot of confidence to take on other small cosmetic projects around the house (shiplap stairwell anyone?) which is fantastic as new home owners.
Now that this project is complete it’s time for me to decorate the space!! I’m so excited to hand art and wedding photos on the walls, buy cute but functional design pieces and maybe even hand some killed sconces by the bed! Oh the possibilities.
I hope this post inspired any of you beginner DIYer’s to tackle board and batten project in your home!
Danielle xo
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