How to do Board and Batten trim

 

I wanted to share with you how I did Board and Batten trim on our wall.

Materials I used:

Primed MDF from Lowes:

   - 5 inch width for the shelf and back board (the length you buy will depend on how much you plan to cover.  I purchased Long 12 foot boards and worked from there.

    -2 1/2  inch width for the individual boards (the length will also depend on how high you are going to make your vertical boards)

Tape Measure

Nail Gun

Miter Saw

Construction adhesive

1. I first decided how high I wanted the shelf to be from the floor.

2. Put down the baseboard.

3. Figured the Distance end to end.

4. Decided how much distance I wanted between each of the slats. In our case, ours measure roughly 16 inches in between the vertical boards. So I roughly marked out each vertical board until I felt they were evenly spaced.

From here I made the shelf.  This is actually really pretty simple to do.

1.  The shelf consists of 2- 5 inch wide boards.  

For Example:

here are your two 5 inch wide boards:

2. From these 5 inch boards you are going to make a Back board, a top shelf and a support.

***** Note.  Only one of these two boards will stay 5 inches wide.  Do not cut it.  It becomes your back board.  As for the other 5 inch board, you will need to rip it down to a 3 inch and a 2 inch.  For example I set my table saw at 3 inches and cut so I ended up with a 2 inch and a 3 inch board.

Next I placed the board that stayed 5 inches.  It is the back board for the shelf. I placed it as high up as I wanted it to go.  In our case, our back board begins at  54  inches from the floor.

I found the studs in the wall, used construction adhesive and nailed it to the studs and all along the wall.

Next, I placed the 3 inch board on top of the 5 inch back board I just placed.  This 3 inch board becomes the top shelf. It does not lay flat. It is turned on its side.  Its raw edge is butted up against the wall and the rest of the board hangs out over the back board forming a ledge.  (This is where you are going to put your Pictures, etc! yippie!)

Here is another angle to demonstrate how the 3 inch board is turned up on its side. 

Nail the top shelf board down into the Back board from the top.

Now you are left with only the 2 inch board. This is laid flat up underneath the top shelf on top of the back board.  It is a support to the top shelf.

Here is a close up of the shelf, note this is from a side angle: The top board is the 3 inch board turned on its side then the 2 inch board lays flat on top of the 5 inch board.

Here is some shots of it finished:

and another shot of it close, close up... (at Christmas time)

Now that the shelf is built...  Measure the distance from the top of the base board on the floor up to the bottom of the back board of the shelf.  In our case, it measures 48 1/2 inches, so that is what I cut each of our vertical boards at.  

**Note: This next step is an optional one. 

Once my board lengths were cut, I had to finish the bottoms of them.  **Note I had to do this because the tops of  My baseboards were not as thick as the ends of  the boards.  so I had to miter them at a 45 degree angle so the ends of the boards did not hang over the top of the base boards. Depending on the type of baseboard you have will determine if you need to do this step or not.

Now it is time to place your first vertical board.

I start at the end of the wall or the corner and place my first board right up against the corner.

For the Second board, I measure over from the edge of the 1st board 16 inches up high and 16 inches down low to make certain my board is straight up and down.  I mark and place the 2nd board. I used construction adhesive too under each of these boards for a good fit. I had an outlet I had to jig saw out some of the vertical board for it to fit.

For the 3rd board, I do the same as the 2nd board.  Measure over from the edge of the 2nd board up high and down low. Place and nail. 

For the 4th board,  yep you guessed it, the same thing.  In fact, you continue this until you reach the other end of the wall.  Working your way across until you reach the other corner.  

Once they were all placed, I filled nail holes, sanded and it was painted.  Finished!

If you would like to see a tutorial on how I did Board and Batten trim on our Shed, you can see that here or by clicking on the photo below:

If you would like to see a tutorial on how to update a kids bath with bead board and hooks and a shelf like the one shown in the tutorial above, you can see that here, or by clicking on the photo below...

With Much Love & Gratitude,