Board and Batten Accent Wall

9 Materials
$75
1 Week
Medium

I knew even before we moved into this house I wanted a board and batten accent wall in this nursery.

This room, which was supposed to be my nursery, quickly became a "catch-all" for all things baby and all things miscellaneous.


As I saw my due date getting closer, and closer, and closer.


All of the other projects kept running over schedule and pushing my nursery project farther, and farther, and farther.


I started to panic...


So I decided to execute my board and batten accent wall dreams all by myself, because I'm a strong independent woman.


...With a tiny bit of help from my husband, Tyler, because I'm also very pregnant.

PLAN BOARD AND BATTEN ACCENT WALL:


This was by far the hardest part for me. I changed my mind no less than 1468465 times. I wish I was joking.


FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS ON WHAT THICKNESS OF BOARDS I DECIDED TO USE, CHECK OUT MY FULL BLOG POST

Okay, a quick note on the backer board.


Totally not necessary.


Unless...

Your walls are textured and you're going for a smooth all over look on your wall. OR, you live in a house that used to be a rental and someone previously cut a hole in the drywall to use as a dog door.


Yep, you read that right.


I can't finish drywall (read: "I have yet to attempt to finish drywall YET), and didn't feel like waiting on Tyler to fix this crappy drywall patch left my a previous resident.


So, I decided to use hard board as a backer for my board and batten accent wall. It's cheap and a quick fix to cover a big mess. Go to Home Depot with your measurements ready and they will cut it for you, this will save you a ton of headache, trust me.


If you don't have either of these issues, save the extra money, and time, and skip it.

BE ADORABLE, THIS IS FOR A NURSERY AFTER ALL:


Since this was going to be covered with the backer board, I decided to leave a cute little note behind my board and batten accent wall.


Obviously optional, but highly encouraged.

HANG BACKER BOARD


Be sure to mark your studs before attaching with your nail gun, also spread liquid nails on the back and all the edges of your hard board to ensure a snug fit to the wall.


If you don't have a nail gun, don't worry... a regular old hammer and nails will work, it's just going to be more labor intensive.


If you're considering purchasing a nail gun, I LOVE MY CORDLESS AIR NAILER. It was a birthday present from Tyler, and seriously, so much fun!

Before hanging the hard board, we measured where the outlet hole would need to be and Tyler cut it out with his rotozip drywall cut-out tool. Another option is to cut it out with a jigsaw prior to hanging.


He insisted this was easier and I agreed so I could go take a nap.

PRIME AND PAINT:


The hard board MUST be primed.


If you want your paint to stick and not peel, this is not optional.

I also went ahead and painted one coat on the backer board, as well as all of the trim pieces with my final color.


My thought was this would be easier than painting everything with two coats once it was on the wall, but honestly I don't know. Do whatever makes the most sense to you.

CUT AND HANG BOARD AND BATTEN PIECES:


Starting at the bottom and working my way up, I placed my baseboard pieces, then the vertical side pieces, then the top pieces.


Each batten will need to be measured and cut individually. Walls/floors are usually not exactly square, therefore each batten needs to be measured and individually cut to fit between the top and bottom.


This house is ESPECIALLY not square, it's just a little off always.


But, aren't we all. 

WOOD FILL, SAND, AND CAULK


Using wood filler, I filled each of the joints and any nail holes. Then using a sanding block, sanded everything completely smooth.


I caulked all of the seams and made sure everything was buttoned up and ready for it's final coat of paint.

Cinderella over here gave everything a good scrub to make sure there was no dust leftover to get into our final coat of paint.

FINALLY, FINISH OFF WITH A COAT OF PAINT


It actually ended up taking two coats to fully cover the wood filler patches. Maybe I should have hit them with a coat of primer first, maybe I should have waited until the end and just did two final coats instead of pre-painting. The world may never know.


Painting soothes my soul, it didn't bother me either way.

For more information on materials/tools used, or to read about the major oops we had during this project...


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL POST ON MY BLOG

& check out some of the other projects that I'm always working on!

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Sydney Dawson
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Ter Ter on Oct 27, 2021

    What a beautiful child!!! and room but the child steals the show!!!!

  • AndradeTea AndradeTea on Oct 28, 2021

    I like the backer board idea so the surface is smooth. The final outcome looks great and bravo for painting the outlet socket and cover. Makes a difference!

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