DIY Horizontal Board and Batten Accent Wall

So it’s begun. The process of turning the guest room into the girls’ shared room is underway. A couple of weeks ago, Matt and I decided to tackle our latest home improvement project that I’d been dreaming about for this room, a board and batten accent wall. I love a good accent wall. I think board and batten especially, give dimension and texture to a space. We did a very easy board and batten wall in our guest bathroom last year. This time we opted for a horizontal board and batten and I love the way it turned out.

Paint colors SW Topsail and Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace

How to install a horizontal board and batten wall as an accent

The installation of this accent wall really took just a few hours. I convinced Matt to do it in the morning and by the evening the board and batten was complete and the next day we had painted the entire room.

Supplies needed for the horizontal board and batten wall tutorial:

• 1x2x8 boards (pre-primed if available)
• Ryobi nail gun
• Level
• Electric Sander
• Wood filler
• Caulking
• Scrap wood

The first thing you’ll need to decide is how much space you’d like to have between each board. We decided on a 10″ space between each board left us with a reasonable gap at the top and bottom. You don’t want a tiny gap on the top or bottom.

After we decided where we were going to attach the first board, we set up our laser level to get a perfectly straight line.

Since this wall was a bit over 11 feet long, we had to use two pieces 1×2 for each row of trim. Matt trimmed off the ends of the 8 ft board, to ensure that they would meet nice and flush, then he measured the left over distance and cut another 8 ft board to that length. By trimming off the edges of the board, it gave a more flush finish that was easy to fill with wood filler which I’ll show a later in this tutorial.

Once the boards were cut to size, we got to work securing them to the wall using our brad nailer – adding a nail every few inches. After ever couple of nails we slide our level down to ensure that the boards were staying straight. We created a 10″ guide using a piece of scrap wood. We would push the guide up flush to the newly installed piece of trim and line up the new board at the bottom of the guide like you see above (and below).

This little guide was super handy and it saved us a bunch of time. Every time we added a new row, we’d use the guide to place it, always using our level to make sure it was straight.

Once all the boards were up it was time to fill the 100 holes we put into the wood. We filled each of the nail holes as well as the seams where the two pieces of wood meet with wood filler. Maybe, we went a little crazy with the brad nailer at first but you can see we got the hang of it towards the top. After the wood filler was dry, I went through and sanded all the wood filler spots until they were really smooth. Matt came behind me and told me to sand them down even more 🙂 So make sure they are really, really smooth.

After I sanded, then sanded again, Matt got out his caulk gun and started caulking the seams. This is where  I have to tell you how grateful I am to have a Matt. Seriously, he just rolls with all my crazy ideas and whenever I say I want to do this “fill in the blank” project, he always says okay, well I’ll run to Home Depot. He also does all the stuff I hate like caulking and finishes painting whenever I start and get half way into it and don’t want to finish. Not that I do that. Okay, I do. Ha.

Matt got everything caulked and cleaned up and we took a break for lunch and then came back and started on painting the room.

I usually use the Behr Marquee brand of paint that doesn’t require a primer. The paint we used for the accent wall didn’t have primer in it but the previous color in this space was a really light gray (Behr Quiet on the Set), and the wood was pre-primed so we didn’t bother with primer in here. We went straight to painting the board and batten accent wall Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace.

*Tip – I don’t have a Ben Moore store nearby so I always have my friends at The Home Depot mix paint colors I love into Behr paint.

This is the same color I painted my living room recently, and frankly, I’m well on my way to painting my entire house this color, I love it that much.

After two coats of Chantilly Lace on the accent wall, we were done ready to call this project a wrap.

We set up the beds right away because I could not wait to see the metal finish against that beautiful white wall – and I absolutely swooned. How great is that contrast?

The shared girls room is on the way – I love how this unique board and batten wall as an accent turned out. I’m so glad I decided to do the more unconventional horizontal board and batten because I think it has a great simple yet elevated design that you don’t see every day.

As for the girls’ shared room, you can see the design board I created for this space here. The rug arrives recently and so did Millie’s mattress so it’s moving in the right direction. If you try this tutorial and create a horizontal board and batten accent wall in your own home, please tag me on Instagram, I’d love to see it!

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