The Wall

February 16, 2016
nicole

Hi! I'm Nicole

Fearless DIY. Sharing building project tutorials and interior design tips. Let’s build something beautiful together. For more projects, design tips and behind the scenes, follow me @designtobuild.nicole

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Hello!! Hope you had a great weekend! And got to spend it with someone you love for Valentine’s Day. 🙂

I want to share with you “the wall” today. 🙂 In January, I put up new trim in the foyer. You can see that post here. For a while now I’ve been wanting to do a wall treatment on an inlet in our foyer. So last week I completed this project. And I love it!!!

I started out by ripping my boards. I used underlayment (super cheap at Home Depot..$12 for a sheet of 4ftx8ft). I cut 6 inch wide strips. So they ended up being 8ftx6in strips. I knew I wanted one constant board going across the wall….

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I was somewhat undecided on the painting technique I wanted to use for this wall-planking project. So I tried out a few choices…

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Wasn’t wild AT ALL about this one.

I painted a couple more options…

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Although I liked the look of these (especially the one on the left), it wasn’t what I was going for.

In the end, I decided to go with the same painting technique I used on my mom’s ceiling

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It’s basically a dry-brush technique. I started out with lightly brushing on black paint and then after it dried, I lightly brushed on white paint. Super easy!!

Then starting at the top of the wall I worked my way down nailing in my boards….

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That first board was not fun!! I’m not wild about heights. So standing on a tall ladder in our 12 foot ceiling foyer was a bit scary for me. ERGH!!!

I like to space my boards somewhat, leaving a small gap between each one. You can achieve this by using a nickel in between or just by eyeballing it. I prefer to eyeball it–1. Because it’s easier and 2. Because I like the subtle imperfection you get from eyeballing it….

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There it is almost finished. As you can see, my very first step was painting that wall white. Although you don’t see much of the wall in the gaps between the boards, you still see glimpses. The white definitely looks better in the gaps than the original blue would look. 😉

Cutting out that wall outlet you see in the picture above, is not as hard as it looks. It’s more time-consuming than anything. It’s a matter of measuring where the cut out will be. I use my jig-saw for these cuts. If you want more information on how I do this, don’t hesitate to ask. I’d be happy to share it with you.

Here’s a look at the finished wall…

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And a couple more with my decor back in place…

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Looks great with my new craftsman trim!!

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I love adding these wall treatments throughout my home. It adds so much character for so little cost and not a lot of work. Please let me know if you have any questions. I would love to help you out. 🙂

Have a great week!!

 

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