Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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We’re About To Tackle Board & Batten, Baby!

It’s Wednesday the 27th… so it’s time to share this season’s (completely unofficial) Pinterest Challenge project (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, just dreamed up by Katie to make us stop pinning and start doing). Huzzah!

Winter Challenge

And this season’s challenge was the biggest one we’ve tackled by far. We tried our hand at adding some character with some easy board & batten in our formerly bare hallway.

BattensBefore

Which now, a week later, is looking like this. Woot!

BattenAfter

Is it weird that I’ve been sitting on the floor just staring at it?

BattensBeautyShot

A few folks who had already installed board & batten or wainscoting commented last week to say that pictures don’t do it justice and they’re right. Photos are flat. But in person it’s just so dimensional. It really adds a ton of polish and interest to a formerly drab little hallway that we walk through dozens of times a day.

BattensAfterOtherSide

And when it came to how we got ‘er done, there’s thankfully no shortage of tutorials on the subject. So as per the challenge rules, I took inspiration (or Pintspiration, har-har) from a few awesome board-&-batten-tackling bloggers out there, and then we did own spin. Still have some more art to hang of course…

BattensAfterCorner

Here’s a rundown of the tutorials that we read before we took a crack at it:

  1. This one from Ana at Ana-White
  2. This one from Sara at Thrifty Decor Chick
  3. This one from Kate at Centsational Girl
  4. This one from Emily at Decor Chick

We’ll be back tomorrow with a full tutorial (including a video of each and every step!). We just have to get that all together (we were rushing just to take the photos for this post by today, so we didn’t have time to edit the video and write out the full step by step tutorial). The good news is that although the project took us nearly the full week that we allotted for the challenge, none of the steps were too hard by themselves, so it’s one of those projects that anyone can tackle as long as you take it one step at a time. And although we’ll be back with more details tomorrow (and a video of our entire process) our general order of the steps was this:

  • measure & gather materials
  • mark, level, and attach the top rails
  • nail and glue the battens
  • fill the wood holes and caulk the cracks
  • sand the holes we filled and prime all of the wood
  • paint the wood and the walls below the rail white
  • paint the walls above the rail your color of choice (doing this beforehand is even easier)

As for what color we went with on the walls, we thought the same soft platinum gray color (Moonshine by Benjamin Moore) that’s in our adjoined frame hallway would make for a nice cohesive and open feeling (we worried that anything too dark on the walls would close in the small hallway too much). We really love how it accents the white board & batten effect on the bottom without being too high-contrast. It’s a soft tone-on-tone look for sure, and the dimension in the board & batten adds so much interest. Note: you can see in this pic that we still have to paint the trim in the frame hallway so it’s pure white like the board & batten.

BattensFrameHallway

We’ll have a full budget breakdown for you tomorrow too (still have to go through those receipts!). Seriously, the paint was still drying when we grabbed these after pics for you, so we can’t wait to sit down and write up all the hows and the whys. But anyone can do this! It took a fair amount of time, but nothing was too complicated. Thank goodness or it would have been the first Pinterest challenge that we didn’t actually finish. Haha!

Don’t forget to check in on Katie, Megan, and Michelle to see what awesomesauce projects they’ve whipped up (they’ll all be sharing theirs sometime today as well)!

Winter Challenge Headshots

And now here’s the part where we tip our homemade hats to you guys and invite you to share all of the fun Pinterest Challenge projects that you’ve tackled in the last week (right along with us, well at least virtually with us). If you’ve already blogged about it, just:

  1. click on the blue “Add Your Link” button with the odd cartoon head at the bottom of this post (you might have to do some scrolling, depending how many projects are added)
  2. add a link to your specific blog post about your project in the url field (not your home page)
  3. where it says “name” write a descriptive name for your project (ex: “Homemade Leaf Wreath”) as opposed to your actual name
  4. we’d also love if you could quickly link back over to our project posts within your own (here’s Katie’s, Megan’s and Michelle’s) – it’s also nice to link to your inspiration project on Pinterest as well as to directly link to the original project/site, just so they get some love too.

And if you’d rather just link over to your project in the comment section, feel free to do that – or even add a link to a free photo sharing site like Flickr with your pics if you don’t have a blog (remember to set the gallery to public so we can all see it). I’m waay too excited to see what you guys have been up to! Seriously, Petersik. Calm down.



Comments

  1. Lynn @ Our Useful Hands says

    I just LOVE how it turned out. It really makes the hallway stand out which otherwise would just be a simple walkspace. Now it’s a corridor of WONDER! :o) I can’t wait till tomorrow for the tutorial and breakdown. No, really. We’ve been waiting for your tutorial all week so we can proceed with our construction this weekend. Haha!

    My best, Lynn

    Reply

  6. Danielle says

    Wow, it looks really beautiful! Kudos! And now I’m looking around our house, wondering where would be a good spot to install some of our own. hmmm. We do already have wainscoting in our dining room so maybe it would be fun in our office or spare bedroom. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

  7. Danielle says

    It looks great! I can’t wait to see what Clara is going to place on the bottom boards when she is playing (like a tiny Olivia hiding from yet another dinosaur)!

    Reply

  8. Kitty says

    I think it looks great – it gives that hallway a little something, that it didn’t have before; it feels more connected now.

    I was wondering what the vent on the wall is for, is it connected to your air con or something?

    Can’t wait to see the step by step :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, that’s the main register for air intake, so sadly it’s majorly important (wish it wasn’t there, but at least not the board & batten takes some of the focus away from it).

      xo
      s

  9. lauren says

    Wow, that looks INCREDIBLE! What character! I wish I had a long hallway – ours is all full of doors and closets, so no room for board and batten…

    Reply

  10. Stacey B. says

    WOWEE!!! I love the way the hallway looks! I can see why you would want to sit at the floor and gaze at it!

    Also, I wanted to thank you and Katie for creating the Pinterest Challenge. I participated for the first time and just had a ball knowing I was participating in something that led to a show-and-tell, where you also got to see everyone else’s projects. It’s really fun and community building. So thank you for hosting!!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw you’re so sweet Stacey! It was all Katie! In fact she had the idea for months before I got my act together and jumped in for the fun. She gets all the kuddos :)

      xo
      s

  18. Bonnie says

    Oooh, looks nice. I love that it’s a subtle contrast. Good choice with the light gray.

    I’m super pumped to look through everyone’s projects but I’m bummed that I’m at work and most blogs are blocked (and I should be working…but nevermind that.)

    Reply

  20. Sarah K says

    LOVE this! It makes such a big difference & that hallway actually looks welcoming now. I think some colorful art in white frames is just what the upper part of the walls need.
    Sarah

    Reply

  21. Melissa @ Loving Here says

    Thanks so much for this challenge! Hubs and I each did a project, so we got double the projects done! Woohoo! Of course, we didn’t tackle anything major like an entire hallway like you guys did, which looks awesome by the way! Good job!

    Reply

  26. Heather says

    I love how gray is a ‘cool’ color, but when paired with white and used in the right context, can feel so warm and inviting. Looking forward to perusing through the other pinterest challenges later today! xo

    Reply

  29. Megan @ Rappsody in Rooms says

    This looks great! It is amazing how dimension can add so much to a room! I really love it. I just painted our hallway this weekend. Now you have me thinking about adding some board and batten. Hmmm… Can’t wait for the tutorial!

    Reply

  31. Starr @ The Kiefer Cottage says

    I was up and rarin’ to go for this challenge…and then we had two huge snow storms here in KC since last Wednesday and I didn’t get to the store in time. I’m mid-project and can always link up next time.

    Your project looks very good! Adds some interest to the house.

    Reply

  32. Erin says

    I love it! I would imagine that it makes your house feel a lot more modern in it’s bones/architecture rather than just adding in modern furniture and paint colors to an older house.

    I do have a question, though. Is there any reason or pros/cons for painting vs. staining the shoe moulding? Ours was already painted by previous owners, but am wondering how you decided to leave yours stained. Had you ever considered painting it? Thanks :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We just go with whatever the decision has been throughout the house (it was all here and stained to match the floor, so we don’t want to go around painting it all – plus it hides dirt and scuffs that way since it blends into the floor instead of being white). Hope it helps!

      xo
      s

  34. Kaylan says

    I like it but it looks sort of lonely and out of place on its own. Have you though about extending it into the frame hallway or doing it again in the sunroom or some place to tie it with the rest of the house?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, we mentioned that we still have to bring frames into the board & batten hallway, which should visually link it with the frame hallway (along with the colors on the walls) so it’ll feel more integrated. We don’t want to take down all of our frames in the frame hallway and add more batten there since it leads into other rooms and wouldn’t have as clean of a stopping point as it does now :)

      xo
      s

  37. Liz says

    Gorgeous walls! I love starting the day with a reveal, and I’m really looking forward to the how-to. I’m not sure which way I prefer – the reveal, followed by how you got ‘er done, or showing us the process as you go and then the finished project. Either way is great fun!

    Reply

    • CFBetcher says

      Katie, wondering how you pasted the Flickr address in? I can’t find it! I just set up my Flickr account so I could share my pinterest challenge project.
      Thanks, Caroline

  44. Elisa says

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE your hallway! While I don’t have a hall in my home, my bestie does and this would be fab in her home!! I’m so excited to look at all the linkups too!! This was so much fun I’m so happy to have participated :) Thanks for lighting the DIY fire under my behind!

    Reply

  47. KathyG says

    That is really pretty! It’s one of those things I bet you say, what took us so long…(I know that feeling!)HA. Looks Good!

    question, I’ve been catching up from being away for a while, is there no way you can move comments to group them so that you don’t clutter the thread with the same question/answer over and over? I know that’s what the ‘thread’ was supposed to do, but can’t you move them to a particular thread?

    I LIKE to read comments, sometimes there’s interesting stuff there as well, but the more you have the harder it gets! And I’m going to be one of those asking the same stinkin question too! LOL

    Have a great day!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Sadly we can’t move comments around (they’re listed in the order they come in, since that’s what our plug-in does) but if there’s ever a plug-in update there’s a possibility that they’ll add that update down the line :)

      xo
      s

  49. Katie says

    Wow that looks great, makes such a difference!

    I sent my link above, wierd coincidnece that I’m link no 333 as earlier today when I checked in on my blog I’d had 333 pageviews (In total not today, I’m just a beginner!) and I thought that it’s meant to be lucky (something to do with being half of 666 I think) so maybe I’d have a good day today…it must be fate something brilliant is obviously about to happen…

    xxx

    Reply

  50. Ren says

    this has absolutely nothing to do with Pinterest or crafting but I’m wearing Grellow pants today and thought of you Sherry! xx

    Reply

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