Board and Batten Tutorial

Wow, it has been a long day. I have been working on finishing up this project allll weekend. The finishing part took a lot of time, but it was so worth it in the end. I think I always say that about my projects. My husband took the little ones to a party today so I could stay at home and finish the board and batten and clean up around here... isn't he precious {you probably can't hear the sarcasm in my typing, but it's there}? Actually since summer hit the kids are going a little bit stir crazy so it was nice not to have to worry about them for a few hours while I worked. Needless to say it is now done, and it looks amazing. Even my husband "swooned" over it... well that might be a slight exaggeration, but he likes it... a lot.

The first thing we did before we did ANYTHING was take our measurements. We also needed to decide the desired height of the board and batten. I love the look like of a lot of height and I since I was compromising on this by not doing the pallet wall, I wanted ours pretty high. We ended up going 4.5 ft high, I think if it would have been our bedroom I would have went higher. The taller height adds a little more sophistication. I have seen the high B & B around the blog-o-sphere and I lurve it. Check out this board and batten from The Yellow Cape Cod. Board and batten is a great way to add charm and character to an otherwise boring room.

In addition to deciding how high we wanted it to go, we also needed to decide how many feet were going to be in between the the vertical battens. Many people use MDF or bead board in between or underneath their battens. I did not see the point and wanted to keep this budget friendly so we did not use either of those for the twins room, we instead chose to paint the walls the same color or the trim. If you do want to use the MDF or other materials you will have to measure for that as well.

Before you set out for the fun part {the shopping} measure, measure and remeasure. I think we measured three times and I still had to go back to the store for a few more more pine boards.

My supplies for this project were:
Brad nailer {This is the first time I have used a brad nailer. If you do not have one yet, researching before you buy is very important}
Table saw {We have one on hand so that's what we used, but I think a miter saw would work as well}
Caulk {lots of caulk}
1 x 3 inch pine boards (for batten- trim on bottom, vertical battens every 2 - 3 feet, and top trim}
1 x 2 inch pine {for top ledge}
Primer
White paint

After you measure {and measure and measure and measure again}, and purchase all your goodies, you will need to remove your existing baseboards. Unless your current base boards will accommodate your batten, but most trim is too thin to allow the batten to sit on top.

Next patch any damage caused by removing the old trim, we had a lot of issues with this.

Now attach your bottom batten pieces {the 1 x 3} all the way around the room with your brad nailer. Now here is where you need PAY ATTENTION- I highly recommend you purchase pre primed pieces of wood OR paint before you install. We did not and it was a HUGE pain in the butt. My reasoning was I was in a big ole' hurry and overly anxious to get started I was going to have to paint again after we nailed the boards so why do it twice. If nothing else prime and and paint the bottom trim batten. My husband took care of nailing the base boards, but he measured all the pieces and cut them with his table saw so he had everything ready instead of running up and down the stairs 200 times. He used the studs as markers to place the brad nails.

Map out {you should have had a rough idea already} the spacing and distance of the battens. Once again, we used our studs as our guide here {I like to let my studs guide- hee hee- bad joke... I know}. Pre cut your pieces with your saw and install them.

After you have all your vertical pieces installed its time to mount your top horizontal batten piece that will go all the way across the room. We left lots of space in between our vertical pieces, it depends on your taste and how much board you want to buy.

After this is all done lay your ledge pieces {1 x 2} flat on top of previously mounted horizontal pieces. Use your brad nailers to mount these as well by nailing into the top of the ledge. You can use a wider sized ledge to be able to store bigger things. 1 x 2 is perfect for framed artwork or smaller decorative pieces.

Now caulk, patch any holes, and get ready to paint!!

Gotta love little helpers!

LCD Tips for this project:

* As I said previously, I highly recommend painting and priming the boards before you mount. This is what I had to do to prevent paint from getting on the carpet... and I still managed to get paint on the carpet.

* Also, plan to use lots of caulk to fill in gaps and seal the trim. I also used it after I painted to fill in any smaller holes.

* Look into a decorative moulding piece to put under the ledge piece. I did not do it, but I have seen it done and it adds a lot of charm.

* Use good primer if you purchase the raw wood {the wood seems porous and sucks it right up} and use a glossier paint on the batten and the walls in between for easy clean up. I typically use an eggshell or satin paint, but since this is for the twins' room I want to be able to wipe away any smudges or potential crayon incidents.

* Invest in a good paint brush and have the smaller rollers on hand to roll over your brush strokes.

* Spend time with swatches in the room to find the perfect color of paint to make your new board and batten pop! We loooove the color we chose. It is prefect with the B & B and is the perfect gray to compliment the nautical them.

The kids love it, the hubs loves it, and I love it. What do you guys think?

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