BOARD AND BATTEN: A Tutorial

The oh so talented Emily (Decor Chick) is here today to show us how she made her own version of board and batten for a room in her house. I must say, I love the look of board and batten and have wanted to try it for some time now. I know you've seen it many places and I swear the tutorial on how to do it just keep getting easier and easier! Don't believe me? Keep reading!




To satisfy my love of all kinds of different styles and colors, I decided to do board and batten on the one big wall in our upstairs multipurpose room. :) The upstairs will have a different vibe than the downstairs, and I think that's so fun! Probably a design rule no-no, but I don't follow rules. :)

I know I just showed you all the other day what this room looked like, but here it is again.



And new paint and several battens later, here it is now (remember this room is not decorated yet)...







I'm singing "Isn't She Lovely" right now. :)

This was a very easy project and went very smoothly, but I say that because I had the guys at Home Depot cut it all. Haha. I wasn't charged for the cuts though! I took all of my measurements with me, and decided to go with the lattice strips for the battens like Thrifty Decor Chick did in her big boy's room. One, because they are cheap, and second, because they don't stick out from the baseboards. I'll show you in a bit how they sit perfectly on top of the baseboards. She really is a clever gal!



BUT wait, I think I was pretty clever too because I thought to use a thick door casing that looks like nice molding instead of a plain wood board going across. Why you ask? Well, because it's more decorative, AND because it gives me the plate ledge to display pretties on! I'll show you that further down too. I haven't seen anyone do this, but if you have, you are very smart. :)

The lattice I used for the battens at .66 per foot...




And the casing I used for the board at $1.50 p/ft.




I had each batten cut 4 1/2 ft tall. My wall is 17 ft and 1 inch long, so they cut 2 of the casing boards to get it the right length so I could just joint them together. Everything fit perfectly when I got it home. I love that!!

So all of this was only $70.00




Not bad! And no those aren't my calves in that photo. I sure wish they were though.

I put all of the battens up with tape until I could nail them all in with the super cool nail gun. I spaced them 12 inches apart, and used a spacer that size to make it easier.



And whenever I hit an outlet, I just simply "jumped" it like it wasn't there. :) I know my Dad is cringing right now at my mathematical spacing skills, or lack thereof, but that's ok because it doesn't bother me. So yes, a few of my battens aren't exactly 12 inches apart, but most of them are. :) A quote from my Dad, "I prefer uniform spacing, but you like the occasional random placement." Yes Dad, you finally understand me!!

Here are the battens all up.




And with the board (casing) on top...




See how perfectly they fit on top of the baseboards?


Awesome!

Then it was just a matter of caulking, painting it all out with a semi-gloss white paint, and more caulking, so here are lots of pictures. The paint for the walls is Sherwin Williams "Oyster Bay." LOVE this color. It's a nice blue/gray, and really love it at night. Lots of gray comes through. I almost went all gray but chickened out. My heart said blue-gray. :)

Shut me up already!!








And my favorite part...THE LEDGE THAT WAS ALREADY DONE FOR ME!!




And that's it folks! I hope this little tutorial was enough oomph for you if you have been wanting to try this. This was a very easy project I promise!! Did I mention I did EVERYTHING all by myself, paint and all??! My husband did help me touch up the paint all around the room thank goodness, because I was d.o.n.e. with paint. Painting ceilings is hard. Well not really hard, just a pain. He also took care of little girl so I could "get er' done!" That was a huge help.

And no, of course this isn't "true" board and batten, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper and looks just fine to me!

Now comes the fun part...decorating the room! :)



Now who is going to try this in their home besides me?! I love the look of board and batten and for 70 bucks for this project, its certainly worth giving a try! Thanks again Emily for that amazing tutorial!