Once we got the panels home, they were in four strips of 2’x8’ and a very red color. We actually kind of liked that color independently, but worried that with our blue cabinets and white walls it’d look a little too Independence Day, so we painted them all white.

They were absolute sponges and took a coat of primer and then four coats of white paint before they stopped being splotchy. In hindsight I should’ve done two coats of primer to start with, but you live and you learn.

Even though the panels themselves feel very hardy and thick, we were able to install them with just a nail gun ( here’s one we just purchased and LOVE) and 1 ¼ inch nails.

Once the panels were up, I caulked the seams and gave it the final fourth coat of paint and finally was able to see the vision of the room start to come together.

Don't mind the missing countertops and half-painted cabinets - this room is still a work in progress.

Next step was adding the brackets and shelves.

The wall is exactly 8 feet wide, so we’ll able to use two whole 2×12 pieces. I wanted a stain that wasn’t too yellow or too dark, but I had a hard time really describing the look I wanted. I tested the wood stains we already had, but none of them worked right, and we bought a new color called Weathered Oak, but it didn’t have a big enough of an impact aside from greying down the wood a little bit.