Board and Batten

My living room was looking a little cave like. There was brown paint on the walls, a huge brown TV cabinet and brown leather furniture. I was tired of the dark. I wanted to go more toward the light and airy cottage feel.  And I am thrilled with how it turned out!



So I lightened things up. I got a new/old TV cabinet, (I couldn't part with the huge honking old one, it's now in my boys' room) a new/old end table, brought a bookcase down from the attic, made a few little crafty things and pillows, painted the walls a lighter shade and the biggest change of all....



Board and Batten! I am sooooo excited by this wall. And I did it ALL BY MYSELF! Woo hoo! I was inspired by these blogs: The Lettered Cottage and House of Smiths. They did this treatment to their walls and it looks great so I decided it give it a shot. Shamefully I didn't take any before or during pictures. I'll give a rundown of what I did though:

  • Using Kilz semi gloss white paint that I purchased at Walmart, I put 2 coats on the lower part of the wall before putting up any wood.
  • For the boards, I used pre-primed MDF from Lowes. I had them cut the 2 inch slats down from 8ft to 4 ft. So I only had to buy 1/2 as many.
  • I used 2 inch pieces of MDF for the vertical slats, 6 inch pieces for the horizontal ones and 4 inch pieces for the shelf. To install them, I used liquid nails on the back, taped the pieces in place (don't forget to use a level) then used a few finish nails to hold them while the glue dried. For the 6 inch pieces, I used liquid nails and screws. I pre drilled holes the size of the screw heads, so they would sink in and not be seen.
  • I didn't really know what I was doing so I used caulk to fill in all the holes and seams. This was a BAD idea because the caulk I used is not sandable. Bummer! So I went back and pulled some of the caulk off the seams where it was unseemly, hehe, and filled it in with the dry dex spackle stuff. It worked way better for the seems and the nail and screw holes. The caulk worked good to fill in the gaps between the wall and the boards.
  • I then painted everything- the wall and the wood with 2 more coats of the white semi gloss.
  • The cost: paint from Walmart $23, MDF- 2in x 8ft slats approximately $3 each (I used 9), 4in x 8 ft slats $4 each (I used 3) and 6in x 8 ft slats $6 each (I used 3), caulk and liquid nails $3 each. Total cost: Approximately $66. Not too bad.


I have a few more posts coming up showing the other projects I've done in the living room before revealing the entire room.

edited to add:  I took a break from blogging shortly after this post and didn't ever reveal the entire living room.  Sorry about that.  I did do a post on all the molding in our house here

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