Board and Batten Guestroom
Our house is the epitome of builder’s grade. We’re talking basic everything. A basic beige box with very little character… but that’s partly why we really liked this house! It was a blank slate and we were excited to personalize it. We started swapping out lighting (goodbye boob lights) and plumbing fixtures but aside from adding our own furnishings, that was the extent of our home personalization.
Well… fast-forward to March when the COVID lockdown started and Evo’s company decided that their office employees should start working from home. It wasn’t too long after that he started getting a little antsy. The guy can’t sit still! So we started talking about home projects that he could work on in his spare time. We figured we should start with a project that’s relatively simple - and that ended up being board and batten to our guest room! We thought it was a good beginner project. It only consisted of a few cuts, gluing/nailing, caulking and painting. Easy!
The beigist of all the beige
Neither of us had attempted board and batten but I read a ton of DIY blogs so I knew enough to understand the basics. Also, and important note: we were omitting the “board” part. The walls in our house are a Level 5 smooth drywall finish, so it wouldn’t make sense for us to add a board on top of the smooth drywall. It would have been a waste of money.
The baseboards were a tricky issue… I didn’t want to mess with removing them. The baseboards are not as thick than the batten boards, so we weren’t sure about butting them together. But ultimately we decided to go with it - we would place the bottom horizontal batten right on top of the existing baseboard, but we would leave the baseboards white and paint the section above it a different color.
Trying to figure out the spacing
Our first step was to measure the width of the wall and decide how many vertical battens we wanted and how high we wanted this to go. Once we came to an agreement, Evo got final measurements and cut down the sheets of MDF. We recommend using miter cuts when cutting the shelf ledge and the cove moulding. We used straight cuts and when two pieces butt up to each other, they weren’t always even and straight. An angled miter cut would have made this end-to-end connection a little cleaner. But, nothing a little wood putty and sanding can’t fix!
Placing the battens
He brought them back up to the guest room and was ready to attach them to the wall, starting with the bottom horizontal piece right above the baseboard. He put a wavy bead of construction adhesive on the back of the batten piece - careful not to get any too close to the edge otherwise it would ooze out when it’s pressed to the wall - held it to the wall, leveled the board, and pushed it in place. He secured it with brad nails. Then he moved on the the vertical pieces, and finally the top horizontal piece.
He then placed the cove moulding on the top edge of the top batten board, making sure the tops of each were flush. These were also attached with adhesive and nails. For the top ledge, he followed a similar process, but only placing the bead of construction adhesive on the top of the top batten and cove moulding. Nailing these into place was not the easiest since there’s a fine line between shooting the nail straight down into the board below, and shooting it crooked and out the front of the cove moulding underneath. This may or may not have happened to us…
Lots of patching
After Evo got everything secured to the wall, it was time to patch! I used a wood putty to fill in the nail holes, then a paintable fast-drying caulk to fill any gaps between boards or the wall.
First coat of paint!
This was all coming together really fast and I was so excited! I stayed up way past my bedtime to wait for the wood putty to dry so I could start sanding then finally… painting.
To sand, we used a 240-grit fine sand paper. It worked well to smooth the edges on the softer MDF without tearing it up.
With sanding complete and the dust cleaned from the wall, it was time to paint. Luckily, I had found several inspiration images of green rooms because it took some convincing for Evo to jump on board with the vision. Also, the shade of green was really hard to pick! Most were too blue or too grey. We knew we didn’t want a super saturated color but didn’t want it to be really muted either. After taping up a few swatches on the wall, we made a decision.
Our paint of choice was Dutchboy Platinum Plus in a satin finish from Menards and let me tell you - this paint was amazing! The first coat alone covered so well I think because of the built-in primer. The paint made it so easy to edge the corners too. The color we used is called Snap Pea.
The MDF turned out to be a great product for this project, too. It was less expensive than plywood, and it was smooth so it took paint really well. It was a little on the soft side though so it got a little dented from the brad nailer but those were easily fixed with the wood putty and a little sanding.
I got up early the next day to paint on the second coat then moved all the furniture back into place. After a day of work, it was done and we love the way it turned out!
Material List
4x4 sheet of 1/2” MDF (for the batten boards)
4x4 sheet of 3/4” MDF (for the top ledge)
11/16” cove moulding (for under the ledge)
level
table saw
miter saw
brad nailer
sand paper
paint brush and roller
drop cloth
painters tape
Instructions:
Measure the wall to determine height, spacing, and quantity of battens
Cut the 1/2” MDF boards into 4” strips
Cut the 3/4” MDF sheets into 2” strips
Lightly sand edges of batten strips to smooth edges
Dry-mount battens and mark locations. Apply construction adhesive to back of batten board, taking care not to get any too close to the edge. We applied the bottom board first, then the vertical boards, then the top batten boards. After applying a single board, check with a level, then secure with the brad nailer.
Glue and nail cove moulding to the top of the top batten - tops of each piece to be flush.
Attach the ledge to the top batten and cove moulding with a little bead of construction adhesive and secured with the brad nailer.
Patch all nail holes with wood putty, and caulk between battens and the wall to fill the gaps.
Once the wood putty is dry, sand until smooth. Wipe dust from area.
After the caulk dries, apply the first and second coats of paint.