Board and Batten Tutorial

I tend to daydream a lot about our future forever home. You know the one I’m talking about. That home you have thought up in your mind that you’ll live in one day, and never want to leave. It’s perfect, it has so much character (ahem, original hardwood floors and crown molding), and it is everything you ever wanted. I cannot wait for that house.

It seems like a fairytale sometimes, but it doesn’t have to be. You can always make updates to your current home to get as near to that daydream as you can. Who knows, maybe when you are done you find that where you are living now is indeed where you want to stay. I love our house, but honestly I have no idea where we will end up later on. In the meantime, I have been making updates that are helping me love this house more and more everyday while we are still here.

Adding board and batten to our main living area has been on my to-do list for some time now. I think it is such a cheap and easy way to add character to any space. I’m going to show you how we did ours, but it is entirely customizable so you can tweak it to fit your space how you want it.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• Wood – We used Common Board from Home Depot
  • 1×2’s for the board sitting on top of our baseboard, and 1×4’s for the other vertical and horizontal boards
• Saw
• Tape Measure
• Level
• Liquid Nails
• Nail Gun/Nails
• Caulk/Caulk Gun
• Wood Filler and Putty Knife
• Sander
• Paint/Brushes/Roller

We decided to add the board and batten to our entryway, hallway, and one of the walls in our living room. Like I said, there are so many ways to customize how you want your board and batten to look, but I knew that I wanted ours to be pretty simple. Here are some before pictures of the space were working with.

DIRECTIONS:

• We didn’t want to rip up our current baseboards to do this project, and I also didn’t want the 1×4’s to stick out over them either. So we added a 1×2 right above all the baseboards so it looked a little bit more put together and would end up flush with the vertical boards.
• We used a miter saw to cut the angles and attached them with liquid nails on the backside, then used our nail gun as well to make sure they were secure.

• Next we lined up our 1×4 vertical boards where we wanted them (we had these cut in half from 8ft 1×4’s at Home Depot, so each vertical board measures 4ft), and figured out which spacing would look best. We spaced out each vertical board 15 inches apart, and used liquid nails on the back of each board and our nail gun again on the front to attach them. Make sure each board is flush to the horizontal 1×2 on the bottom, and use your level to make sure they are straight.
• Once you have all of the vertical 1×4’s complete, you can attached the top horizontal 1×4. We did have to a few gaps since all wood isn’t its exact measure, but I just filled that in with wood filler.

• After all the boards were attached, I used wood filler to fill in all the nail holes, and any gaps in where the wood meets each other. Once it was completely dry, I used a sander to sand it down.
• I  used paintable caulk on each space where the board met the wall so it would look flawless when I painted it.

• After everything was filled in and cleaned up, I taped off the board and batten and was ready to paint. I highly recommend using a regular paint brush to cut into all the corners, then use a small roller to fill in all the rest.

• I am pretty much in love with the KILZ Magnolia Paint right now, so I decided to use KILZ Magnolia Home True White in a Satin finish. Love this paint!

• Once your paint is all dry and finished, remove the tape and enjoy, because it really does make a world of a difference in your space!

This little update truly changed the look of this entire space and I am so so glad we finished it!

What do you think? Have you added something like this to your home? Or do you plan to? Let me know!

A huge thanks to the KILZ Brand for supplying me with the Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines™ Paint used for this post. Just remember, all opinions and reviews are 100% my own. As always.

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