If you are like me, you probably never heard of shiplap before a certain couple from Waco, Texas made HGTV fans fall in love with it! Chip and Jo weekly showed how using old shiplap they found behind drywall could add character to rooms and brighten up living spaces. Having watched their wonderful Fixer Upper adventures for years, I was ready to add some of that shiplap love to my home!
The first place I decided to tackle was in the kitchen. Before we started, this was what the wall beside the kitchen table looked like. Yep, VERY boring! It did have a picture on it but it was removed before I thought to take a “before” pic. Either way, this wall needed some love!
So, I had seen enough of that boring wall and was ready to do something about it. I had seen an article about how plywood could be used as an inexpensive “look alike” for shiplap. So, with almost no plan, hubby and I headed out one Saturday to Lowe’s and decided to figure it out on the fly. We chose pre-sanded pine plywood in 1/4 inch thickness. We had the folks at Lowe’s cut the plywood to the length we needed (which they will do for a small fee…I think 25 cents per cut which is TOTALLY worth it). We decided on 6 inch high boards and had them cut the length of the wall which is 4 feet. I Googled the shiplap paint color that Joanna Gaines uses. Although she now uses her own paint brand and the color is, appropriately called, Shiplap, we didn’t have access to her paint. So, I found an article from several years ago where she mentioned she previously used Sherwin Williams Alabaster paint color. After grabbing the cut boards and some paint, we were off to add a little shiplap character to our kitchen.
The wall was previously painted a soft yellow. My hubby was worried that you might be able to see the yellow between the spaces so he painted where the spaces would fall on the wall. Turns out, you wouldn’t have seen it anyway! But, that is why there are stripes painted on the wall in the pictures! We also painted the boards before we put them up. It also turns out that you can just paint them once they are on the wall and save some time. We did it that way in our bedroom project which you can see below.
Using a nail gun and nickels for spacers, we put up the boards. The project went up fast and, in less than an afternoon, we had a finished wall! We did spackle, sand down, and paint the nail holes but you could leave them unfinished for a more rustic look.
All that was left was to decorate it with some items I already had around the house. Total cost for the new accent wall was less than $50 including the plywood, paint, and nails. Note: Hubby has a nail gun which speeds the process up but this project could be done without one too.
Bam! One shiplap looking accent wall! (We trimmed it out with quarter round which, I just noticed, was not fully finished on the left side in this picture!) I loved it so much that we decided to do a wall in the bedroom too!
The bedroom project was done over two days but could be finished in one day as well. The only change on this one was the wall was significantly bigger so we had to use 8 foot and 4 foot boards and alternate them. In the kitchen, we used just one size (4 foot). Also, we went from a 6 inch high board to an 8 inch high version because of the size of the wall. We thought the slightly “taller” boards looked better. Spacer was again a nickel.
We trimmed it out on either side with molding but that was just personal preference. We also hid the seems a bit by spackling and sanding those areas before painting. Again, that was just personal preference and could have been left more rustic. Total cost for this accent wall was around $100 for the plywood, paint, and nails.
There you have it! If you would like a little “shiplap” in your home, it can be done quickly and inexpensively and make a HUGE impact in your space!
Hope this inspires you to change things up a bit in your home too!
Lovely Thoughts ~ Beth