Looking for board and batten accent wall inspiration? This week’s One Room Challenge update is all about the wall molding we had installed last weekend. Board and batten adds character to a builder grade home, and gives your space a high end look on a budget. It completely set the tone for our coastal dining room makeover! You can install an accent wall on your own if you enjoy DIY projects and have the necessary tools. We hired a friend to do ours, but I will share a few tutorials that helped me in the planning stages. I’ll also be sharing the paint color, wooden board sizes, and measurements we used. In case you missed any weekly updates, here they are:
- Week 1: Modern Coastal Dining Room Mood Board
- Week 2: Pretty Toy Storage
- Week 3: DIY Aged Stone Vase
- Week 4: Vintage Rug in the Dining Room
- Week 5: Cancelled
The past few weeks have been especially challenging for our country. The One Room Challenge paused last week to stand with the black community and to mourn George Floyd and the racial injustice that persists today. While we are continuing the ORC this week, it is important to keep the conversation about anti-racism going and take action.
Board and Batten Inspiration
While planning our board and batten wall, I saved a lot of inspirational designs! Here are a few of my favorites. Check out my Pinterest board for more.
I loved how each of these designs took up the whole wall (rather than two thirds like some board and batten) but felt more casual than a grid wall. Ultimately I decided to go with one horizontal board a bit higher than a traditional chair rail.
Board and Batten Measurements
Here is my haphazard, not-to-scale drawing that I shared with our friend who would be doing the install for us. We mostly stuck to this drawing, except that he ended up ripping down a board to five inches for both the baseboard and the top board (beneath the crown). Then he placed the center horizontal board 35 inches from the top of the baseboard (40 inches from the floor).
The tricky part of this plan was the area to the right of the window. It was too small for there to be a gap between the window trim and the final batten, so he used a thicker board to fill out the entire space. Since I would be painting everything one color, we thought it would end up looking alright. (It does!) The window trim on the other three sides is made of 1x4s, the same as the majority of the design.
Paint Color and Materials
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While I love the look of white board and batten, I knew that I wanted contrasting trim since our dining table is white. After some research and suggestions from you all on Instagram, I decided to go with Benjamin Moore Classic Gray. It is a light, neutral beige and I love the warmth it adds. I had the color matched at Home Depot in Behr Marquee paint, my favorite as it requires the fewest number of coats. (This required two coats since it is not a Marquee color.)
As for materials, we used primed pine boards for added durability. You can also use MDF boards, but since our dining room doubles as a play room, I wanted to make sure that our beautiful wall wouldn’t be easily dented with kiddos running around and occasionally throwing toys 😉 Our friend purchased the materials but here are a few products to get you started if you are looking to tackle this project yourself:
- 1 in. x 4 in. x 8 ft. Primed Pine Board from Lowes
- 1 in. x 6 in. x 8 ft. Primed Pine Board from Lowes
- 1 in. x 4 in. x 8 ft. Primed Pine Board from Home Depot
- 1 in. x 6 in. x 8 ft. Primed Pine Board from Home Depot
If you are looking for more detailed instructions for installing your own board and batten, here are a few tutorials that helped me in the planning stages:
Board and Batten Accent Wall Reveal
Here is the completed space!
We are so pleased with how the board and batten turned out; it completely transformed the space! Can’t wait to put the finishing touches on this room now that we only have two weeks left until reveal day. Let’s check out my list from week one:
Remove existing curtain rods and patch wallsRepaint blue wallAdd board and battenDIY black vintage vaseReorganize toysRestyle toy storage bookshelfAdd vintage rug- Install new curtain rod and curtains
- Install new light fixture
- Replace chairs
- Add artwork
- Style the space!
We still have a few big changes ahead!
Thanks so much for stopping by today friends! Tell me, have you used wall trim in your home? Would you try installing board and batten on your own, or hire a pro like us? Be sure to leave me a comment below so I can see your projects too! XO,
The wall looks amazing. Love how the space is coming together so nicely.
looks great and so fresh!!! that palette of black and white + neutrals get me every time. can’t wait to see the finished room in 2 weeks.
It’s been fun following along on this space!
It’s been so fun following along on this space !
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
C.Fair
Thank you Carol! 🙂
Your dinning room wall looks amazing!
Would you be able to let me know how tall is you wall?
I’m trying to do something similar in our dinning room, but since my wall is a bit shorter (148.5 inches wide with 92 inches high), wondering if I should keep the 40 inches from the base to achieve similar feel. Looking forward to your thoughts!
Hi Ivana! Thank you so much! We have 9 foot ceilings, so 108 inches. You may want to move the center piece down just a bit. Hope that helps!
Great job! I was very inspired by your design. I’m doing the same in my husband’s home office. Thank you for sharing.
Sue, thank you so much! I’m glad you found it inspiring and helpful 🙂
What type of finish for the paint did you use? It looks beautiful
So sorry for the delay Connie! I used eggshell 🙂
Looks so amazing! Can you tell me what sheen of paint you used?
Thanks so much Jennifer! I used eggshell!
Looks great! We are trying to do something similar in our dining room. Our room also has existing crown molding – what did you do where the board and batten meet up with the crown? Do you have overlap (do the new millwork boards protrude past the crown, just wondering how that looks)?
Hi Erica! So sorry for the delay. You are correct, the new boards protrude past the crown a bit. It doesn’t bother me, but for a “perfect” look you would want to remove the existing crown and put it on top of a board.
That turned out absolutely beautiful. I was planning to do this in my bedroom but told I couldn’t because of the existing crown moulding. Does your board stick out farther than the bottom depth of your crown? Hard to tell from the pictures.
Thank you so much Linda! This is the same issue we ran into. You are correct, the board directly beneath the crown moulding does stick out a bit. It does not bother me, but it is not “perfect.” Another option would be to use a taller board and put the crown moulding on top of it, but that is a lot more work!