Board and Batten: a Tutorial

Happy Friday!  I am excited to share today’s tutorial with you because it is SO EASY TO DO!  Not only is this a simple project, but it also is very inexpensive and creates huge impact in any room.  So, shall we?  First off, tools.  You will need:

1.       Chop saw

2.       Hammer (if you have a finishing nail gun, this would work better, but we used a good ‘ol fashioned hammer)

3.       Finishing nails

4.       MDF (we used 2 sizes, 3.5 inches wide for the chair rail, and 1.5 inches for the vertical planks)

5.       Caulk

6.       White paint (or whichever color your dear heart desires)

7.       Roller

8.       Paintbrush

9.       Pencil

Step One: You will need to determine the height you’d like the chair rail to be.  Ours is 41 inches from the baseboards.  Now, measure the length you need for your first chair rail and cut with chop saw.  Using a level, line it up and hammer that baby in.  Repeat this step until you have hung the chair rail all the way around the room.  See below to see ours:

 

 

 

 

Step Two: verticals.  Determine how far apart you would like the verticals to be placed. Ours are 10.5 inches.  Use the chop saw to cut a small piece of MDF that is 10.5 inches long and use this as a guide when spacing your verticals…this saves so much time!   Using a pencil, mark the spaces you will need a vertical MDF plank.  Count how many you will need.  Measure, cut, repeat.  Now unless you have flat baseboards, you will need to rotate your chop saw to make 45 degree angle cuts on one end of the vertical plank. Now hammer those beauties in. 

 

 

 

Step Three: (If you used a finishing nail gun you can skip this step) Tap in the nails and caulk.  Now caulk in and around all pieces of MDF.  Let dry.  Now It’s time to paint!  I used a roller in between and as much as I could on all of the boards.  I then used a paintbrush to get in close to the boards and any place that the roller missed.  I used 3 coats of Sherwin Williams “Extra White” to match all of our trim and baseboards.  Step back, and enjoy your architecturally interesting and beautiful masterpiece!  Check back in to see the upstairs bath makeover (Yes, I did hang board and batten up there!)