How many times have you caught yourself daydreaming about your perfect house?
Have you ever been scrolling through your feed on Pinterest | Instagram and thought to yourself…
I just have to have this!
No, just me? Come on girls; I can’t be the only one.
I feel like this is a super frequent occurrence in my household. There is always a new project, that I have dreamed up, for Jay and I to try and tackle.
Like you may already know, I am always looking for new ways to dress up and design my house | home and my life.
Total Cost: Roughly $60
This DIY board and batten wall is the newest project we have finished and, in true Katye fashion, we wrapped it all up in just two days!
There were only a couple hiccups along the way. Hopefully that means, my lost time | stress is your gain!
Let’s get started!
- MDF Board
- Circular Saw | Table Saw
- Frogtape
- Paint
- Spackle | Wood Putty
- Construction Adhesive | Caulk
- Sandpaper | Block
- Screws | Drill
Jay and I wanted a top moulding on our DIY board and batten; This gave our wall a more “finished” look, in my opinion.
We purchased a basic moulding from home depot and then cut it down in size to the horizontal length of our wall.
For these boards, we used the construction adhesive to hold it in place; This dries pretty fast so be ready to place your moulding!
We placed ours for a overall height of 5’6″ above the based boards.
Once your moulding is in place, screw it into the wall for extra support.
Don’t worry about the screw holes for now; We will fix those later.
Once you have placed your top moulding, you have to decide what width you want your MDF strip to be, below it. We decided to make ours 4″; Making the top board strip, 7.5″ in total width length. Our wall was roughly 11′ in horizontal length.
In order to have a strip of MDF long enough, we had to cut a 8′ x 4″ piece and a 3′ x 4″ piece. We do not have a table saw. Therefore, Jay [My husband], decided to tackle this task with a circular saw.
In order to make these cuts, as straight as possible, we sketched out the desired size in pencil on the MDF itself; Utilizing a ruler. This task probably would have been easier with a table saw but…
Hey, sometimes you have to work with what you have!
Once you have these pieces cut, repeat the process in step one. These two boards will not have a seamless transition from board-to-board. Don’t worry, we will fix this later.
Now, you need to decide how large of a space you want between your top and middle board.
For our DIY board and batten, we decided to make our top and middle board 12″ apart.
We made the middle board 6″ in width; Making it 1.5″ shorter in width then the top board.
Repeat step one for this part as well.
Next, we measured the height from the baseboard to the middle board. Once we had that measurement, we drew this desired size on the MDF sheet; Making the remaining boards all 5″ in width. This being just slightly shorter in width than the middle board.
We first placed the far left and right boards; I just felt that this would make calculating the distance between each vertical board slightly easier and more organized.
We then repeated this step for the far left and right 12″ vertical boards as well. We simply screwed all of the vertical boards onto the wall; Jay and I did not use the construction adhesive for these boards. This was decided because, these will not be load | weight bearing boards; We felt this decision made the process faster.
Next, we need to do some math calculations. This step will determine how far apart your vertical boards should be placed.
In order to do this calculation, you need to decide how many spaces you want on your wall. We decided on 6 spaces; In order to give us 5 hooks later.
- Measure the horizontal length [We will call this x] of your blank wall; Do this after you have placed the far left and right boards and do not include them in this number.
- Depending on the number of spaces you want, determine the number of boards to go in this space. We wanted 6 open spaces; This means we need 5 vertical boards. [Ex. If you want 7 spaces; You will need 6 boards]
- Multiply the number of boards you need by the width of these boards. [Ex. 5 boards x 5″ =25″]
- Subtract the number you got for step 3 from x. [Ex. X-25=C]
- Last you will divide C by the number of spaces you have chosen. [Ex. C / 6 open spaces =Space between vertical boards]
We drew these 5″ spaces directly onto our wall in pencil; This just made it easier to visualize and check the spacing before placing the boards on our wall permanently.
Jay and I then started by cutting all of these boards in the same size and placing the middle board on the wall first.
In order to ensure that these cuts were the same; After cutting the first vertical board, we traced the exact size and shape of this board for the remaining vertical boards.
We continued by placing the remaining boards one at a time.
We cut the 12″ boards next and sketched out their measured placement on the wall as well.
This did vary a little bit in order to ensure perfect line-up above the bottom boards.
My advice…
Line these boards up as best as you can. Once you paint over your DIY board and batten, you will hardly notice any imperfections anyway. It all just blended in | together for us.
Once all of your boards are in correct placement and you like the layout, you need to spackle | putty the screw holes and where your boards meet.
I recommend using the brand shown in this photo; It is linked above under the “Shopping List”.
We purchased ours from Home Depot but the one linked is from another website because I couldn’t find the single tube on Home Depot’s website. However, I am sure you can find it in stores.
This was super easy to use directly out of the tube. I just applied this spackle with my finger.
Allow this to dry | set. I left it to dry overnight but I believe the bottle recommends 6 hours; Depending on the amount utilized in a single location.
Once you are confident, that it is good and dry, you can start sanding down the excess putty | spackle.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to sand the excess down; As seamless as possible.
The areas you have spackled should feel smooth and fill any gaps you want hidden.
Once this process is complete, start applying your frog tape for painting!
Start painting!
I have linked the paint that we used above; Use any color that appeals to you and your style!
We loved the way our DIY board and batten turned out so much that Jay and I are actually planning to do a similar project in our office. We plan on using a bold color selection for this project.
This will probably take you a few coats of paint so be patient.
I know, I’m not good at being patient either.
Trust me, it will be well worth the wait!
Here I have linked my hooks and the sign, pictured in this post. We purchased both of these items during the biweekly Hobby Lobby 50% off sale.
- Take your time to sand down the putty | spackle well and let it completely dry. If not, the outline might show through your paint.
- Remember, you can always cut more but you can never uncut what you have already cut. We had to go back and cut small portions little by little on some pieces to make it have that seamless look | fit.
- Use a level to help with positioning of your boards.
- Use flat head screws, not nails. Making the screws go in a little bit further than the surface of the wood made it easier to cover with the spackle. This way, you will just fill in the holes instead of having a bulge in your framework.
- If you have an electrical outlet on your wall, be sure to take that into account with your board spacing | placement before you start putting up your boards. I have seen some people leave a space between the wood board if you can’t space them a different way.
- We roughly spent less than $60 to get this finished DIY board and batten wall. It would not have been possible without utilizing MDF.
- Always reach out with any question you run into!
