mini board and batten "mudroom" wall

With Olivia potty training last week, I knew I would need/want a little project to do in the evenings to keep my sanity (what's left of it). Some people like adult coloring books, some people read, me? Gimme a drill or some paint and lemme take it out on my house! ;-)

I looove the functionality of a mudroom space, it's on the "must have" list for our next house, but with our town house, there just isn't anywhere to put one. But we did have a small useless wall in between the half bath and back door that I knew would be perfect for board and batten, that we could also add hooks to for more functionality and some added interior appeal. In total this took 3 hours total and cost less than $20. BOOM. Wish I would have done it months ago. 

I used two different blogs as guides (here and here). It really is a super simple idea- measure your space, decide how far apart you want the vertical boards to be, measure and cut the horizontal boards, fix to the wall, paint, add hooks. Done. 

Deciding where and how high you want the boards to be really is a preference thing. Using masking or painters tape to get something up on the wall so you can easily play around with the layout and spacing is genius. A good rule of thumb is either halfway up the wall or two-thirds.

Materials:

1/2" x 3" pine boards, cut to length

1/2" x 1.5" pine boards, cut to length

Wall screws

Stud finder

Drill (with 1/8" drill bit and countersink drill bit)

Gorilla glue

White paint (I used Benjamin Moore White Dove)

Painter's Tape

Level

Wall spackle or nail filler 

White paintable caulk

These wall hooks (by far cheaper than what you will pick up at Home Depot)

Couple of things to note- if you don't own a saw of any kind, no worries. Just pre-measure the sizes you need, take your list to Lowe's or Home Depot and they will make the cuts for you there. 

Also, you can secure the boards faster with a brad nailer and air compressor, I just don't own one and didn't want to borrow or rent one. If this project was larger though, I would go that route to save a considerable amount of time.  

And lastly, the complete list above will cost you more than $20 if you have to buy everything on it. I had everything already except the pine board and hooks. If you do have to invest in it all, really nothing is lost because those are materials and supplies you will use time and time again!

Once I knew where I wanted everything to go, I used the stud find to mark where the studs are in the wall. You want your horizontal boards to go into those as much as possible, especially if you plan to add hooks to hang weight from. The vertical boards it doesn't matter- their purpose is purely decorative. 

Everywhere I was going to drill in a screw, I first used my 1/8" drill bit to drill a pilot hole to make it easier for the screws to go through the pine boards. After drilling the pilot holes, I used the countersink bit to widen the top of the hole. This allows the screw to sit below the surface so you can fill it with spackle and paint over it, and no one will ever know a screw sits there.

I screwed my horizontal boards into the wall first- don't use your baseboards as a guide as those aren't always level. Check EVERY board with a level before attaching it to the wall, or you may be sad. For the vertical boards that aren't secured into studs, I applied a thin line of gorilla glue down the middle, and attached them to the wall with one or two screws.

Once the Gorilla Glue was dry (didn't take long at all!), I caulked around every board to fill in the slight gap between the wall and board. Caulk is magical stuff that makes all of your imperfections just disappear. I also filled in all of the screw holes with spackle. This whole process from a clean wall to the boards attached with caulk took roughly an hour and a half. 

Once the caulk dries, you're ready for paint! I painted mine the following night and used 3 coats of Benjamin Moore White Dove, which took about an hour. By the time I finished one coat, I was ready to start at the bottom for the next coat, so that worked out well. 

Lastly, hang the hooks! I also drilled quick pilot holes into the pine boards before screwing these in. I didn't use to do this much- okay- never, but it makes it a million times easier to get the screw where you want it to go without sliding all over the place, so I think I'm converted! I didn't measure my hook placement- just eyeballed it. Seemed to work out.

And wah-lah! It is a very non-intimidating, cheap, and quick DIY project, making it worth every second of your time.

 And this friends, is officially my last real project in this house! It's bittersweet. Now it's time for lame stuff, like fixing some outlets, patching up random scuffs and paint, etc. to get her all ready to show!