DIY Easy & Inexpensive Board And Batten

$120
Easy
This is a great tutorial on how to do your own board and batten and totally transform how your room looks. And it's both easy and inexpensive, which is good, because my husband and I are retired and living on a fixed income now. Come see how we did this!
Our finished board and batten in our bedroom
This is our gorgeous bedroom. Doesn't it inspire you to try doing your own board and batten? Come see how this was done!
We bought furring strips and the total for both our entry and bedroom was less that $100
Before buying the wood, determine how high you want your board and batten to be. And determine how far apart you want them. To make it easy for us, we worked around all the outlets and light switches so that everything was a simple cut. To save some time, I painted the walls where the board and batten where going to be. I used Benjamin Moore White Dove in Semi-Gloss, which is what I use throughout our entire house.
We already had a shelf hung in our entry and we needed to work around it. Because of this, our board and batten wasn't as high up the wall. Make sure you have straight lines going across the walls. I used a yardstick and a level and lightly drew the line with a pencil. My husband cut all the wood and then used his brad nailer to get all the horizontal boards into place.
We decided to go 16 inches from batten to batten. My husband cut a 16 inch furring piece of wood that I used as my measuring tape and then lightly marked on the wood where it was going to go.
I used blue painters tape to indicate to my husband where these battens were going so he wouldn't have to strain his eyes and take time looking for my pencil marks.
Again, keeping everything simple and easy, we left our baseboards alone and worked with them. To do this, my husband used his miter saw and cut the bottoms at a 45 degree angle.
One everything was nailed on, it's time to caulk and use spackling, sand and paint.
Before and After in our bedroom
Before and after in our bedroom
Before and After in our entry
Before and after in our entry...I have lots more details for the tutorial on my blog. Come check it out.
Theredpaintedcottage
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
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  • Kim Fahrni Kim Fahrni on Jan 06, 2016
    I love how your bedroom turned out!! The pop of black from your headboard is a perfect touch. Where did you get it, if you don't mind me asking?
  • Chris J Chris J on Feb 26, 2016
    Where did you start your first batten? How far out from your door frame did you start? My door frame is 5 inches wide. How far from there should my first batten be? My battens are going to be 4 inches wide and 48 inches tall. Your project is beautifuly done.
  • Cheryl Cheryl on Aug 18, 2019

    I love the color of blue on the upper part of the walls. Especially with the crisp white! What color/type of paint did you have on the walls when you started?

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