Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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We’re About To Tackle Board & Batten, Baby!

It’s Wednesday the 27th… so it’s time to share this season’s (completely unofficial) Pinterest Challenge project (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, just dreamed up by Katie to make us stop pinning and start doing). Huzzah!

Winter Challenge

And this season’s challenge was the biggest one we’ve tackled by far. We tried our hand at adding some character with some easy board & batten in our formerly bare hallway.

BattensBefore

Which now, a week later, is looking like this. Woot!

BattenAfter

Is it weird that I’ve been sitting on the floor just staring at it?

BattensBeautyShot

A few folks who had already installed board & batten or wainscoting commented last week to say that pictures don’t do it justice and they’re right. Photos are flat. But in person it’s just so dimensional. It really adds a ton of polish and interest to a formerly drab little hallway that we walk through dozens of times a day.

BattensAfterOtherSide

And when it came to how we got ‘er done, there’s thankfully no shortage of tutorials on the subject. So as per the challenge rules, I took inspiration (or Pintspiration, har-har) from a few awesome board-&-batten-tackling bloggers out there, and then we did own spin. Still have some more art to hang of course…

BattensAfterCorner

Here’s a rundown of the tutorials that we read before we took a crack at it:

  1. This one from Ana at Ana-White
  2. This one from Sara at Thrifty Decor Chick
  3. This one from Kate at Centsational Girl
  4. This one from Emily at Decor Chick

We’ll be back tomorrow with a full tutorial (including a video of each and every step!). We just have to get that all together (we were rushing just to take the photos for this post by today, so we didn’t have time to edit the video and write out the full step by step tutorial). The good news is that although the project took us nearly the full week that we allotted for the challenge, none of the steps were too hard by themselves, so it’s one of those projects that anyone can tackle as long as you take it one step at a time. And although we’ll be back with more details tomorrow (and a video of our entire process) our general order of the steps was this:

  • measure & gather materials
  • mark, level, and attach the top rails
  • nail and glue the battens
  • fill the wood holes and caulk the cracks
  • sand the holes we filled and prime all of the wood
  • paint the wood and the walls below the rail white
  • paint the walls above the rail your color of choice (doing this beforehand is even easier)

As for what color we went with on the walls, we thought the same soft platinum gray color (Moonshine by Benjamin Moore) that’s in our adjoined frame hallway would make for a nice cohesive and open feeling (we worried that anything too dark on the walls would close in the small hallway too much). We really love how it accents the white board & batten effect on the bottom without being too high-contrast. It’s a soft tone-on-tone look for sure, and the dimension in the board & batten adds so much interest. Note: you can see in this pic that we still have to paint the trim in the frame hallway so it’s pure white like the board & batten.

BattensFrameHallway

We’ll have a full budget breakdown for you tomorrow too (still have to go through those receipts!). Seriously, the paint was still drying when we grabbed these after pics for you, so we can’t wait to sit down and write up all the hows and the whys. But anyone can do this! It took a fair amount of time, but nothing was too complicated. Thank goodness or it would have been the first Pinterest challenge that we didn’t actually finish. Haha!

Don’t forget to check in on Katie, Megan, and Michelle to see what awesomesauce projects they’ve whipped up (they’ll all be sharing theirs sometime today as well)!

Winter Challenge Headshots

And now here’s the part where we tip our homemade hats to you guys and invite you to share all of the fun Pinterest Challenge projects that you’ve tackled in the last week (right along with us, well at least virtually with us). If you’ve already blogged about it, just:

  1. click on the blue “Add Your Link” button with the odd cartoon head at the bottom of this post (you might have to do some scrolling, depending how many projects are added)
  2. add a link to your specific blog post about your project in the url field (not your home page)
  3. where it says “name” write a descriptive name for your project (ex: “Homemade Leaf Wreath”) as opposed to your actual name
  4. we’d also love if you could quickly link back over to our project posts within your own (here’s Katie’s, Megan’s and Michelle’s) – it’s also nice to link to your inspiration project on Pinterest as well as to directly link to the original project/site, just so they get some love too.

And if you’d rather just link over to your project in the comment section, feel free to do that – or even add a link to a free photo sharing site like Flickr with your pics if you don’t have a blog (remember to set the gallery to public so we can all see it). I’m waay too excited to see what you guys have been up to! Seriously, Petersik. Calm down.



Comments

  3. Emily says

    Wow! You guys did an amazing job. Board and batten adds class and dimension to any space. Bravo! I can’t wait to see your how-to. We will be putting beadboard in our kitchen soon and I need all the help I can get! :)

    Reply

  9. Julia @ Chris Loves Julia says

    Soooooo beautiful. And it doesn’t matter how many house tours I’ve seen, I am always surprised when I discover (or realize?) where things are. Like, Oh! There’s that little hall bathroom with the purply walls. Looks great, you guys!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh my gosh, I think that would look so pretty! Check Pinterest for some images (I think I’ve seen a bunch) and then I’d just try to map it out with tape on the wall (just to get the angle right, but if you follow along with the stairs and keep the height consistent all the way up it would be gorgeous!

      xo
      s

  12. Kim@NewlyWoodwards says

    Thank you so much for hosting this challenge. I should just block off my day to look through the links.

    I love your board and batten. I’m a bit of a b&b addict. We started with our dining room in the last house, and now we’ve got it in the dining room at our new house, along with the stairwell, living room ceiling and bath. It’s addicting.

    Reply

  15. Haeley @ Design Improvised says

    What a transformation a little board and batten can make! Such a great way to upgrade a hallway. We have board and batten in one room of our house (previously the office, then nursery, now playroom!) and it is my favorite room in the house because of it!

    Reply

  23. Wendy @ New Moms Talk says

    Thank you for hosting the challenge.

    I really didn’t think there’d be time to complete a project, but I couldn’t let it go.

    The result is that I was able to complete a 0 dollar (yes, not a penny spent) project for something that our little girl loves!

    Bonus- it’ll heading with us as we get our travel on!

    Thanks again!

    Reply

  24. Whitney says

    Oh this is beautiful! It was the perfect way to add interest to a part of a home that most people would just ignore! We have a hall that’s too narrow to do a gallery wall, and I’ve been trying to decide how to spice it up. This may be just the thing! Awesome job! And thank you for hosting this challenge, I get SO excited each time to be a part!

    Reply

  29. audrey h says

    I would love to do this in my upstairs hall, but I have “bumpy” (textured plaster) walls. Has anyone else successfully done this in the same instance?

    Reply

  32. Lisa says

    Can I please come over to pet your new B&B walls? I promise not to get in the way and keep my fawning volume to a minimum. ;) They’re beautiful!!

    ?
    L

    Reply

  33. Allison Jabaay says

    That turned out awesome! What a big improvement for the space! I can’t believe how fast you were able to finish it on top of everything else you guys do.

    Thanks for the challenge, too. I enjoyed checking a couple things off of my house to do list.

    Reply

  34. Anne @ Planting Sequoias says

    I LOVE your board and batten! We just did this to my parents’ new bedroom and went up the wall 3/4s of the way to let their dark wood antique furniture really stand out against it–and it looks great, if I do say so myself.

    P.S. I think you should do a sweet stencil/something unexpected on your attic door–perhaps herringbone like Mandi at Vintage Revivals did on her ceiling?

    Reply

  35. cassie {hi sugarplum} says

    This looks great — you guys really killed it! I did a very basic version…skipping the batten part here: http://hisugarplum.blogspot.com/2012/12/mudroom-complete.html

    For anyone who’s looking for an even easier, cheaper method. All it is are the thin boards attached vertically, and a piece of trim horizontally. My walls are even textured.

    Thanks so much for the link party…this is def my favorite, so many amazing, inspiring ideas in blogland!

    xo. C

    Reply

  38. Karah @ thespacebetweenblog says

    Hey good lookin’! That’s me talking to your hallway … not that you too aren’t good lookin’, too … but that board and batten is awesome! I love the textural interest it adds. And thanks so much for the party … my very first blog post was for a Pinterest Challenge (fall 2011) so every time around I feel like I’m coming home. :)

    Reply

  39. Melissa S. says

    The hallway looks GREAT! I’m looking forward to your tutorial tomorrow. We have a miniscule hallway, so I think this is a project I’d actually be able to tackle on my own.

    Reply

  40. Tanya from Dans le Townhouse says

    Wow!! That looks fabulous. I totally understand the sitting and staring at a project that has turned out so well. It really adds a lot of character.

    Thanks for the fun Pinterest Party! Sherry, I thought you might get a kick out of my project: I dyed a dress! Your wedding dress turned out so well, I felt emboldened to dye a drab dress I had in my closet.

    http://dans-le-townhouse.blogspot.ca/2013/02/pinterest-challenge-diy-dyed-dress.html

    Reply

  42. Katja @ Shift Ctrl ART says

    That board and batten looks amazing!! I am sending this link to my friend who is putting it up in her new house right now. I love how it turned out.

    Thanks for doing these challenges. I really enjoy participating in them.

    And THANK you for the “Petersik bump”! Colbert has NOTHING on you ha ha :)

    Reply

  44. Michelle says

    looks awesome! can you guys explain the reason for the light brown trim underneath the white trim in the B&B hallway? and then it looks like you have dark brown trim under the white trim in the frame hallway? What is the function of this extra little piece of trim? probably a stupid question but looking around my apartment, we don’t have that! We just have one solid piece of trim (probably 2-3 inches wide).

    love the hallway :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That’s just the way it is throughout our house (some people paint quarter round to match their molding and other people leave it to match their wood floors, which tends to hold up to scuffs and hide hairs/dirt a wee bit more).

      xo
      s

  47. Heather says

    I know its new but it looks like its been there or supposed to be there if that makes sense….It looks great! Awesome job!

    Reply

  50. Lauren says

    Wow, looks awesome! I’m obsessed with board and batten. That was our first project when we bought our house in November 2011 in the dining room. It took us forever, but mostly because my husband also did three door casings! Will have to blog that one sometime. Maybe when I get around to convincing him we should also do it up our stairwell and in the half bath too :)

    Thanks for hosting! I linked up above; it was nice to have this challenge to inspire me to complete a detailed tutorial. This one is for a sewing machine scrap catcher. Hoping to be adding many, many more tutorials in the future :)

    Reply

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