DIY Board and Batten Tutorial

So, the dining room walls are finished!! I showed you the reveal a few weeks back (yes, WEEKS!). Man, I've been slacking BIG TIME on the blog.

Today I am going to show you how we transformed the space with a board & batten treatment.

We started with a space that looked like this...


The first thing I did was measure up about 5' on the wall and primed the bottom section.

It's amazing how different the room looks from night to day.

Once the priming was done we painted the wall white (in a semi-gloss finish).

Next, after using a chalk line to make sure we had a level mark all around the room (5' up) we nailed on a 1 x 4 on every wall for the top of the board & batten.



We had a few "issues" on my measurements but it was nothing that a few RREEAALLY tiny cuts couldn't fix. Yes, I am proud of those tiny cuts.

I then took blue painters tape to mark where I thought my vertical 1x4s would go. This gave me a good idea as to how many cuts I needed to make. You'll decide on how far apart each vertical board will be. Usually it depends on outlets, switches and other things you have to work around on your wall. Mine ended up being about 13".



I set up all the boards in my garage to prime them. I suggest priming before you nail onto the walls because you'll have to do that anyway (unless you purchase primed MDF). We used unprimed pine 1x4. This will save you time later. We lined them up close enough to use a roller to cover 2-3 at a time and then I went along with a brush to get the edges. My husband and I did this part together so I could do the edges while he rolled.


Once I determined how far apart my vertical pieces would be I cut 13" long pieces of the same 1x4s to use as my guides for spacing (and to be the second horizontal strip going around the room).

We used another chalkline to mark 13" down (to make a perfect square) for the second horizontal strip. Tip: We installed the vertical piece and the 13" horizontal piece at the same time using the 13" piece as my spacers (one up top and one down by the baseboard. Some people prefer to do the vertical piece all around the room FIRST and then going back and installing the horizontal piece. We decided that if we used the 13" piece as our spacer every time then we wouldn't have any 'oops' moments where the space between two vertical pieces were either too narrow or too wide for the horizontal piece.



Working around the room we eventually ran into an area where an outlet was going to be in the way. Don't panic!! Just get out your jig saw and measure how far up and wide the outlet will infringe on the 1x4 and cut a notch for it.

Don't you just love my professional set up I've got going on?! HA!

I have to say I've did a happy dance when it actually worked as planned!

After finishing up all the boards on the walls, we went around the top and nailed on a 1x2 for a ledge.



We finished up by doing a fresh coat of paint in almost the same color on the top portion (even thought that wasn't intended!).


I brought back the table, chairs and a new rug into the room. I'm still on the hunt for a piece of furniture for the back wall. We're getting new blinds (YIPPEE!) and then I'll work on curtains to bring in some color.

I know the piece that I want so badly for this room. It matches my table and I wanted it 3 years ago when I got the table and chairs but we passed it up to save money and got a cheaper one. Now to my utter disappointment... it's DISCONTINUED! So, if anyone has THIS...


Sell it to me! :)

I want it sooo bad! Until then... Here are the results.

More Free Printables {Valentine's Day}

This post is for all you procrastinators {like me} out there! I created some Valentine bag toppers for my kids to take to school tomorrow and Wednesday and I'm sharing them with you today! Yay for free things.

So if you've got time to spend printing and putting together Valentines for your kids tonight... get busy! :) If you're kids are in preschool and won't be exchanging Valentines until Wednesday {THANK YOU, CBC Weekday School!} then these are just in time for you.

Maybe next year I'll get mine finished earlier than the day before Valentines Day.

Find the files to download and print here.

Enjoy!

Free Valentines Printables

Mommy by day CRAFTER by night has some adorable, FREE printables right now! They're fun and cheesy, but isn't that the whole point of Valentine's Day? :) These are just a few of my favorites. She has quite a few more that you can download and print for free. So cute. And so in my budget!

Burlap Valentine Pillow

Just in times for Valentine's Day!!

Unfortunately, it's not mine to keep. It was a custom order that I'll have to part with this afternoon. But for now, it's greeting my guests in the entry way.

Check out our other Village House pillows.

Each one is custom made. For example, this "love" idea was written out on a napkin and texted to me. So get creative and let us know if there's anything we can make for you!

Kid's Valentines!

Are you trying to figure out what to do for valentines?

Here are some great ideas from some super creative mom's!

This is from Zakka Life.

And here is the template and tutorial on how to make them.

From Disney Family Fun. And here's the tutorial.

I love these photo cards from 24-7-365.

For you mom's with boys, I think this is perfect!

30 Handmade Days has the tutorial and template available.

And just for fun, these mustache suckers are sure to make 'em smile.

Skip to my Lou has some other great ideas too!

Laundry Room Revamp

I was recently inspired by Lindsay's laundry room to reevaluate the room that most of my guests first see when they walk into my house (because few people actually use the front door). So I added just a few decorations over the washer and dryer. Nothing big. But much better than it was!

Unfortunately, THIS is what the other side of the laundry room looked like. Yikes! Where to begin?

So I pulled everything out, threw away half of the mail, and reorganized everything into baskets that I picked up from Walmart. I'd like to go back and add labels or tags, but for now this is a big step for us!

And of course I couldn't stop there.

These junk drawers needed some serious attention. I'll spare you pictures of the other 3 drawers but they pretty much all looked like this.

But with the help of a few drawer organizers, my

catch-all drawers now look like this!

I hadn't planned on tackling the laundry room closet, because THIS is what was staring back at me when I opened the doors! Oh my! But while I was out at a meeting, my mom (who was visiting), took the liberty of emptying out the whole thing for me! So sweet, right?! She knew that having it all sitting in my living room would drive me just crazy enough to go ahead and

re-organize it all. Thanks mom!

But it was well worth the work! Now I can actually open the doors and find things. All of this organizing, just makes me want to start a project!

I don't have a before picture, but this new ribbon holder and broom holder have done wonders for this closet!

And talk about a great space saver! Why have I never used these drawers before? Hello! But now they hold my grocery bags and coolers. Love it!

Thanks Lindsay, for your laundry room inspiration!