I have always enjoyed reading home decor blogs. Since renovating our kitchen, I have also been watching a lot of DIY YouTube videos too. As you might imagine, I see lots of cute home projects. I frequently find myself trying to incorporate these fun ideas into my own house. This is how I discovered DIY faux board and batten. I love the way it makes a space feel custom and handcrafted, but without the expense of hiring a carpenter.
I am going to walk you through the steps, while also explaining how we modified the project to fit our house. But before we get started, I want to go over a few tips and tricks. First, if you have flat (untextured) drywall, you don’t have to use a backboard. That is the reason it’s called “faux” board and batten. Second, I recommend painting your walls and all the wood slats before installing the wall treatment. Cutting in around all those boards sounds like a nightmare. Finally, if you’re not removing your existing moldings, use wood that is the same depth as your moldings (or less, if possible). If the wood slats stick out further than your moldings, you’ll never forgive yourself.
Let’s get started!
Find the correct height for your board and batten.
This is a personal decision, of course, but I recommend going high with your DIY faux board and batten. A good rule of thumb is to go 2/3 of the way up the wall. I tried various heights, and it was a no brainer – the higher height just looked better. I used painter’s tape to help me visualize how the different height options looked in the space.
Paint your walls.
Since my board and batten would have a height of 60 inches, we drew a line around the room at about 59 inches. We used green paint above the line and white paint below the line (of course, you can use any colors you want). This line of intersecting colors will be covered by the top board.
Measure, paint, and hang the top board.
We used 2″ x 1/2″ boards for our top rail. We choose this depth because it looked good butted up against our existing moldings, which we decided to leave in place. John cut them to size, and I painted them. The next day we hung the top rail at 60 inches from the floor, making sure the boards were mounted level. During this phase, we discovered that our walls are bowed. Fortunately, we were nailing the top boards into studs, so the boards went up easily. The bowed walls came back to haunt us when we hung the vertical battens.
Determine the spacing for your vertical battens.
The spacing of your battens is another personal decision, with no right or wrong answer. Our dining room isn’t very large, so I opted to space the boards relatively far apart – about 20 inches. Any closer, and the wall treatment looked too busy in the space. On most of the walls, I simply divided the length of the wall by 20. This let me see how many battens I would need. When the length of the wall was not evenly divisible by 20, I divided the leftover length in half, and added that to the ends. For example, one wall space I worked with was 53 inches long. I knew that I could have 2 20 inch spaces (40 inches total), with 13 left over. So, I flanked my 2 20 inch spaces with 6.5 inches on the ends. This allowed everything to look balanced. It’s important to have all of your spacing mapped out before you begin hanging your vertical battens.
Measure, paint, and hang vertical battens.
Because houses (especially old house) are wonky, you should measure each board individually. Since we decided to keep our original baseboards, we knew the boards would not sit flush with the molding (it has a rounded top edge). To give the boards a more polished appearance, John cut the bottom edge of the battens at a 45 degree angle.
We did the same thing under the window molding.
After making all the cuts, I primed and painted all 22 vertical battens. After allowing them to dry, John got to work installing the boards. This is where things got a little tricky with our bowed walls. It was a struggle to find boards that naturally bowed in a way that matched our walls. John managed to make it look easy.
We decided not to use any glue on the boards. Instead, we secured everything using a nail gun.
Fill the nail holes and caulk the seams
This is the fun part – filling all the nail holes and caulking all the seams. Although it’s a tedious task, spackling and caulking is probably the most important part of the project. It is the finishing touch that really makes this project look amazing. The next 2 photos show you what the vertical boards looked like before caulk, and after caulk.
Touch up the paint.
After everything has been spackled and sanded, it is time to apply one last layer of paint to your boards. And you’re finished! Time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
This was an easy and fun project to complete. I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out. The room feels so bright and open now. If you’ve been eyeing DIY faux board and batten, just go for it! You won’t regret your decision!