Entry Way Wall Makeover With Shiplap

9 Materials
$300
1 Day
Medium
Using shiplap for a smaller area in your home is a great way to see if you want to implement it elsewhere on a larger scale plus it is a good starting point if you have never done it before. We get a lot of compliments on this wall as it is the first thing our guests see when they enter our home.

We had this orange-ish wall that really needed revitalized into something other than "orange-ish! I was over it and knew that this was the perfect wall to shiplap.
Before you start your shiplap accent wall, you will need to measure your accent wall to see how many slabs of shiplap you need to purchase.  Decide how you want to cut your individual shiplap pieces of wood unless your wall is the exact size of the shiplap. Be sure to include the trim on both ends and the top and bottom of the wall when measuring. In our case, the accent wall was 9 feet wide and the shiplap was 8 feet long.  We decided to cut the shiplap pieces into 5 ft. and 2 ft. and 4 inches.  This allowed for the 2 -4″ trim pieces on each side.  The wall measured 7 ft 7 inches tall.  We calculated about 3 shiplap slabs per every 2 rows.
Remove the trim from the top and bottom of the accent wall with a pry bar.  Remove any light plates or electrical outlet plates, if applicable
 Dean decided to nail plywood to the accent wall instead of nailing the shiplap directly into the 2″ x 4″ beams in the wall.  The main reason he chose to do this is because when we put new counter tops in our kitchen a couple years ago he quickly found out that the builders had used steel to build the kitchen bar area.  Dean did not want to take a chance that there may be steel in this accent wall.  Plus, if Shiplap ever goes out of style, we can easily remove it without damaging the original wall.
 Nail the trim pieces in place. Dean replaced the prior trim that we had at the top and bottom of the wall with new trim. Starting at the bottom piece of trim, using your nail gun or hammer and nails, nail your first larger piece of shiplap into the wall or plywood.  Then, nail the smaller piece next to it.  We staggered the shorter and longer pieces of shiplap as we went up the wall. So, above the longer shiplap there was a shorter piece and above the shorter piece of shiplap was a longer piece. You keep repeating this process all the way to the top. We used small 1/4″ pieces of plywood for spacing in between the pieces of wood otherwise known as a nickel gap.  It gives it a shadow line or a reveal.  You do not have to do this with shiplap if you do not want to.  It was just a preference for us.
Dean also added a 4 inch trim to the side to finish it off.
 To give it a fresh clean look since the original shiplap had a gray tint to it, I painted the entire wall with Alabaster White.  After arranging our family photos and adding a distressed floating shelf, we are completely satisfied with our DIY shiplap accent wall and enjoy all the compliments we receive.
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Diane and Dean DIY
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  • JanisP JanisP on Jan 22, 2018

    How did you keep the electrical outlet from being recessed?

  • Nancy Flemming Nancy Flemming on Jan 22, 2018

    I love it, you must smile every time you walk by. One quick question, what was the reason for putting up a sheet of plywood, could you not have just put the shiplap on the existing wall?

  • Elizabeth Riceman Elizabeth Riceman on Aug 22, 2018

    what brand for the Alabaster Paint? I love your project .

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