Do you love board and batten and have always wanted to do it? Well, here is a perfect DIY Board and Batten Wall in a weekend project just for you!
Here's how you board and batten walls in a weekend!
How to Measure How much Material you will need for Board and Batten Wall?
How Do you Calculate Board and Batten Dimensions?
On Christmas Day after the presents were all opened my husband walks over to me and says, "Sweetheart, one of your other presents is that you get to choose one small project around the house for us to do." I was giddy with excitement because I knew what I wanted to do, a DIY Board and batten wall in our master bedroom!
So, we decided to get started that weekend, and guess what we were able to board and batten the master bedroom wall in a single weekend! Want to know how?
Board and batten wall treatments are fairly inexpensive to do and it takes any room from plain to wow! And with the right materials and tools, it is a fairly quick project, even if you are married to a perfectionist!
Here are the Supplies You'll Need for your board and batten wall project!
So, measuring the squares is probably one of the most difficult steps of board and batten. Our wall is huge! Like over 200" wide so I wanted my squares to be around 2 feet. The first thing you do is measure the height and the width of the wall. After doing this you did the width of the wall by how big you want your squares and you will do the same for the height! So if you want 24-inch squares and your width is 208" you would divide 208/24= This gives you 8.667. I did the same with the height (110"/24= 4.29") so I knew I would have one square at the very bottom that might be a bit bigger than the others (more on that later) because I didn't want to make a square 3" from the ground!
If your bottom square is slightly bigger or smaller no one will notice because it's at the bottom. With this math figured out, we then knew we would have about 4 squares vertically and 8 squares horizontally.
With this math done we came up with the linear feet of materials needed. We then went shopping for material!
Before we get started many people ask can you board and batten on textured walls?
We decided to just use our existing wall rather than recovering or mudding the wall. This is a personal choice you will need to make. So, my answer is yes, you can. I did. And I love the look of it. It might not be for everyone, but it totally works for us!
The night before we decided to do our project I painted the existing wall white where we would be applying the board and batten wall treatment too. This way it had time to dry. I also painted all our MDF boards as well. This is a step I highly recommend. I know a lot of individuals who wait to paint the wall and boards after because they think it is an added step because they will have to touch up anyways, but by doing this it allows you to roller the paint easily on the wall and the mouldings. It really speeds up things in the end only having to touch up when you are exhausted!
Now that everything is prepared from the night before the real fun begins! Begin by nailing the molding frame to the wall. We nailed the bottom, then the side then the top and then the other side. Be Sure that these boards are straight! We realized our wall was not straight, so we just left a gap on the sides of the mouldings that we could fill with caulking. This will not be noticeable at all, but crooked squares will not look great!
After the frame is done it is time to place the vertical boards. This is when you will really come up with your final measurements of the squares so you are 100% accurate!
Since our frame is complete at this step we take the measurement from the inside of the frame to the inside of the frame. You will measure the wall horizontally. At this point, you will need to subtract the width of the molding from this measurement.
So, our inside measurement (from moulding to moulding was 203". We then knew we would have 7 vertical boards on the wall to make our 8 boxes. This added up to 17.5" of material (2.5×7) which left us with 185.5" of wall.
Then you take that number and divide it by the number of squares you are having across the width of the wall. Ours was 8. This left us which each being 23 ⅕".
Therefore, we knew we would measure 23 ⅕" and place a vertical moulding. Then measure another 23 ⅕" from the side of the moulding and place a moulding and do this for the length of the wall.
Again, while you are doing this make sure the boards are level every single time!
After we did the vertical mouldings we called it quits for the day because we wanted to go spend time with our kids, but we definitely had enough time to keep working.
The next day we got an early start to board and battening the wall in our bedroom. We figured out the necessary measurements like we did before to make our square and we began cutting our horizontal pieces. Make sure everything is level before nailing it to the wall!
Everyone loves a good time-saving trick, right? Well, when you go to measure for the horizontal cut just flip the board over that you are cutting. Then place it right up to the right side of the moulding that is on the wall already. Then make a tick mark where it hits the next vertical moulding. By doing this you are guaranteeing perfectly cut boards that fit in each space to make perfect squares!
After the Nailing is done it is time to caulk! And you will need a lot of caulking! You will caulk the nail holes and then all the joints. And I mean every single joint and crevice. This will take quite a bit of time. Load the caulk into the gun. Be sure you cut the tip on a diagonal and not too big because the worst is when you have caulking gushing out! Do not rush this step do it right because it will hide everything and it will make your wall look perfect, even if you have a gap from a bowed wall!
How to Caulk like a Pro!
Caulking is an art! It can be very messy. And sometimes it is hard to get it into the gaps and crevices. My favorite trick is to cut the caulk on a diagonal that is not too big. Then with a caulking gun, go over each section. You will still have some gapping, so I take a putty knife (a plastic one) and push the caulking into the corners and the gaps! I swear it works awesome! Be sure to have lots of paper towels on hand because caulking will get messy!
Once you are done caulking and it has dried, sand down all the nail holes and the joints. This will give your wall a nice smooth finish.
At this point, it is time to touch up the paint, which does not take long at all! Once the paint dries it is time to sit back and admire your DIY Board and Batten wall you did in just a weekend!
For me, I think it's time to redecorate!
And there you have it! DIY Board and Batten in a weekend!