Shiplap Wall on a Budget!

6 Materials
I absolutley love shiplap walls. I love the old farm house feel. Now I have a home built in 2007 and since moving in last year I was determined to get my shiplap wall. I chose this wall in our formal dinning room.
Here's my wall before. It is 11ft x 8ft wide.
This is the layout I went with.
I've been wanting a nail gun so this was the perfect time to purchase one. Lord knows I wasn't going to nail this project in by hand! This 3 piece set is a Home Depot brand with a 18 gag, 16 gag and a staple gun. You'll need a air compressor for these. I purchased 2 inch 18 gag nails for this project. You want them long enough to go through your 1/4 inch PureBond plywood (29.00 a sheet at Home Depot) and your dry wall/sheetrock. If they aren't long eough they wont reach your studs.
Here are my 8ft x 6 inch planks that I had Home depot cut. Next time, I'm cutting them myself. He didn't cut 6 inch each time. I have many 5.5 inch to 6 inches.
Everything taken down & I'm ready to roll!
Paint your existing wall color as it will show through in your seams.
It doesn't have to perfect as your going to be covering a majority of it with the shiplap. Just get the paint on.
Use a stud finder and mark the entire length of them with chalk.
Start at the top because as you can see by the photo we need to cut the end stripe down to a 2 3/4 X 8ft.
We used quarters as spacers. We put all the long 6in X 8ft piece up first.
It was getting late so we stopped and next day filled in the smaller peices which are 6in X 3ft.
All done with installation. Note to others: Wear gloves. As this Purebond plywood splinters. The Purebond Plywood can be left like this, stained or painted.
Here it is painted (I chose a flat white to keep it authentic looking) and up close.
I paint furniture but this is my personal piece against the shiplap wall that screams "Don't paint me!"
A single wall done in Shiplap is a great focal wall. It can be added to any home...no matter the age.


Check out my work on fb: Rehab to fab. Click the link below.
Stephanie  Coon/Rehab to Fab
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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3 of 16 questions
  • Lynda Lynda on Nov 27, 2016
    My niece owns a dairy farm. Did you paint the picture ?
  • Kirsten Waltman Pirc Kirsten Waltman Pirc on Apr 20, 2017

    Did you plan your layout (stagger width) based on the studs so that the ends of each plywood sheet would be secured? Im trying to wrap my head around how the ends of some of the shorter pieces will lay flat, but Im sure Im not thinking this through correctly. Yours looks awesome.

  • John John on May 08, 2018

    What did you do with the plywood and why did you use plywood?

Comments
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2 of 228 comments
  • Maureen Maureen on Apr 06, 2020

    Great job 👍. Your wall looks awesome.

    Love your buffet too♥️

  • Barbara Barbara on Feb 07, 2022

    This is such a classy ‘farm house’ look. Great job. And I’m so happy you did not paint that beautiful buffet piece. I’d love to find it’s twin.

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