Yes…we have finally installed the shiplap on the bedroom wall! It’s taken a while but it’s all up and ready for its debut.
When we started this room, way back in April, I knew it would be slow going but I didn’t think it would be 4 months slow. We have already painted the ceiling and trim, installed crown molding and a DIY light fixture, but the biggest problem has been the water damage on the window wall, where the planks are. We think that the chimney, which is located where you see the primed planks, was leaking where it meets the roof. After some handy roof work by Mr. C² we are hoping that the problem is fixed…fingers crossed.
After the roof was fixed, we pulled some of the old plaster off and cut holes in the wall where the leaks were to make sure there was no mold behind the wall. Thankfully it was mold free and it stayed dry for the two months we left it open, so we patched up the holes and primed with some Kilz. Then I painted a coat of BM Gray Owl on the whole wall (just in case you could see the wall between the planks).
Putting up the shiplap has been the easiest part of this project. We used 2 very thin sheets of wood, which we had ripped into strips at Home Depot (I think we paid about $20 for both pieces). I didn’t want this to be a complicated task of measurements and mathematics, so we just kind of slapped them up on the wall. We did need to do a little bit of measuring around the windows and the return vent at the bottom of the wall but it wasn’t difficult.
There are many different kinds of wood you could use for a shiplap wall. We chose this particular wood because it was cheap, it was easy to use, it was cheap and, because I had planned on painting the wall, we didn’t need to use expensive wood. Just to show you how thin the wood was, I used a quarter as a reference.
It went up pretty quickly taking us about 2 hours to cut and put all up. I spent another hour spackling and sanding all the nail holes and, once the wall was done getting prepped, 2 coats of BM Palest Pistachio finished it off. I’m thrilled with the results and would love to have it in another room, maybe cover all 4 walls. Woohoo…living on the edge!
Want to see some other projects we’ve worked on in the guest bedroom?
