My husband and I just DIYed a board and batten wall in our bedroom, so I’m sharing a guide on exactly how we did it. This was our second major wall project, and I’m pleased with how it turned out. So if you’re curious on how to make a board and batten wall, I’m here to help you!
In this post, I’m breaking down a few essentials, including:
- Planning procedures
- Materials to buy
- Step-by-step process
In total, this project took us about two weeks (but it could be finished in a matter of a few days if you have a lot of time)!
What is a board and batten wall?
A board and batten wall is a specific wall treatment with paneling that has wide boards and thinner boards (called the battens) to create a grid or linear-type pattern. Now, I am under the impression that the thinner boards are sometimes placed on top of wider boards to cover the seams, but we took a different approach, which I will explain below. It’s a great way to add an accent wall to a space, and it makes the room look even taller thanks to the vertical lines.
How to map out your wall for a board and batten design
I used Pinterest to get a good idea of what we wanted it to look like. You could make the squares all even in size, but we wanted to add some art to the center of the wall once we have our new bed set up, so we made the center into larges rectangles.
If you aren’t sure what you’d like, use painter’s tape to map it out. It doesn’t have to be straight or prefect of course, but it helps a lot to do this before making permanent choices.
It’s time to do some math. The horizontal boards are going to be easy to cut, because they just need to be the same length across the wall (in our case, around 129.6 inches). For this design, you need four of them. To determine how far apart they will sit on the wall, you can either space them out evenly, or have a larger middle section than what’s above and below it.
The boards are 3.5 inches thick, so subtract 14 inches (3.5 inches x 4 horizontal boards) to determine how much of the wall left you can play with. The vertical length of the wall was 95 inches, so we had 81 inches left to play with. If you divide by three, each square would be 27 inches long. However, we decided to make the middle section 33 inches long, and the top and bottom ones 24 inches long.
These measurements can tell you how long the vertical pieces need to be: in my case, 12 pieces that are 24 inches long, and 6 pieces that are 33 inches long.
Now you have to decide how large the vertical columns will be. It’s easier to decide this once you make cuts and nail the horizontal pieces to the wall (you can play around and see what looks good). We decided that the smaller columns would be 18 inches wide. So subtract (18 x 2) + (3.5 x 6) to get a sense of how much space you have left. The 3.5 x 6 comes from the fact that there’s 6 vertical boards that go across, so we want to subtract the actual boards’ width from our total. Use what’s left to map out how far in the skinnier columns should start and match that on the other side.
Supplies needed for board and batten
Now that you’ve mapped it out, here’s everything we used for this for project:
- Primed MDF Baseboard Moulding – Here are the exact boards we purchased from Home Depot. They are already primed and ready for paint.
- Trim Moulding – here’s the exact interior trim moulding we used inside each box.
- Painter’s tape – to mark your walls and help you figure out where you want the paneling to go.
- Miter shears – these sharp scissors are from Home Depot and they cut through trim easily, so no need for a whole saw and miter box to cut the interior trim. These shears have a 45-degree angle to make the perfect box cuts that you need! Remember that you need to cut your pieces on an angle so they fit together like picture frames.
- Tape measure – critical to measure the walls and determine the length of our pieces.
- Nail gun with a compressor – we used this to nail the pieces to the wall. We borrowed one from my in laws but you can also rent them from Home Depot, which is easier than buying!
- Wood filler – to fill in the gaps between the boards (if you have any) as well as the small holes from the nails. It doesn’t matter what color since you paint over it.
- Putty knife – to smooth wood filler into gaps.
- Sandpaper – to grind down any lumpy remnants of the wood filler once it’s dried.
- Level – helpful to make sure that the pieces are straight as we nail them to the wall.
- Caulk and a caulk gun – this will provide a finished look before we paint the panels, creating a more seamless transition between the wall and the trim.
- Wet paper towel or baby wipes – this is useful to smooth out the caulk once you pipe it across the trim.
- Paint – Pick a paint color you’d like for the wall. If you were curious, we went with French Toile from Benjamin Moore.
- Paint brushes – brushes are necessary to paint the nooks and crannies of the trim and paneling.
- Paint rollers and a roller tray – If you are just painting the paneled wall, you could get away with just using some paint brushes, but these items speed up the painting process if you are painting the rest of the room.
How to create a board and batten wall
Step 1 – Make your board cuts
After measuring the walls and making your calculations, use your tape measure to carefully mark the boards with a pencil to the exact length you need them. You can ask someone at Home Depot to cut them straight across with a power saw, or there is always a station with a box and hand saw where you can make the cuts yourself. The horizontal boards are really easy to identify once they are done, but you can use a pencil to mark some of the vertical boards, like “top row, middle row, bottom row” if they vary in length.
Be sure to also select an interior trim while you are there. Ask for help if you can’t find the section, but it should be in the “moulding” aisle. If you can’t find the exact style we have, just know there’s a pretty good assortment of other options that look similar. Beware that you will need a lot of it, and we had to visit a couple different locations because they didn’t have enough of it stocked (or you can purchase it online of course). We waited to cut the trim and used our miter shears at home. They are very thin, so they are easy to cut. You can refer to my box molding guide for more tips on this.
Step 2 – Prepare to nail your boards
Remove the painter’s tape (if you have any on the wall). Start with the top horizontal board since it’s easy and you can just press it to the top of the wall. Have a buddy hold it up straight with you as you prepare or load a nail compressor. Use the nail gun to secure it in place. Use as many nails as you need until it feels stable. Then do the very bottom piece and nail that in place too. Use a tape measure to figure out where the next two should go based on our measurements and mark it with a pencil if you need. Use a level to make sure they are straight before nailing those in.
Then nail in the vertical pieces. We started with the smaller columns first, marking exactly how far in they should be on both sides so they were symmetrical. Use a level again when you nail them in.
Step 3 – fill the gaps and sand
Use the putty knife to smear wood filler into the gaps and seams between the boards. This will help make the boards look seamless and continuous. Use the wood filler to also fill the holes of the nail compressor (you can use your finger). Smear off the excess as best as possible and let it dry.
Once dry, use your sandpaper to grind the wood filled areas into a smoother, flatter landscape. Grind away until you feel like it’s in a good spot.
Step 4 – Add your trim
Now you can line the inside of each box with your thin trim. With your tape measure, measure the inside of each individual box so you know exactly how long each horizontal and vertical piece will be. Then use your miter shears to cut the trim into 45-degree angles, so that the four pieces fit together like a picture frame.
Using the nail gun, nail the trim to the wall. Then use the wood filler again to fill any gaps between the trim pieces so they look seamless. Use the filler to also fill in the holes created by the nail. Again, it’s easy to use your finger to wipe away the excess.
Step 5 – caulk and seal
The caulk will make the pieces look flush and seamless against the wall. Use your caulk gun to carefully squeeze a straight line on the borders of each box (so you are technically applying it around the trim you just laid down). Use a wet baby wipe or paper towel to go over the caulk while it’s still wet to smooth it out and remove the excess. Let dry.
Step 5 – Paint
Pour your paint into your roller tray. Use painter’s tape to protect any crown molding you might have (or the ceiling). Use your brushes to paint the trim, and rollers to use the larger parts of the wall to be most efficient. Let that dry and then do a second coat where necessary.
Have other questions? DM me on instagram: @caroline_hoffman. I love how our walls turned out and I’d love to help you figure it out if you need assistance!
More on the blog
If you enjoyed this post on how to make a board and batten wall, check out my stash of recipes for dinner and dessert or my travel guides! I also have a few other house tutorials to check out too, like how to add box molding to a living room or how to make a gallery wall.
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