Forgive the awful lighting, it’s dark today and it just keeps getting darker, but I’m too impatient to wait another day for this post.
I jumped on the board and batten bandwagon. Only, unlike all those other girls, I sat back and watched while the men in the family did the work. My hero, Kimba, got a wet saw for mother’s day. I mean, you would think her husband could at least dry the thing off for her. I got a finished office and all I had to do was paint. Who’s laughing now? You know how some people’s love language is like touch and talking and junk? Mine is fixing up the house.
This is not a tutorial post. Karla, Kimba, AnNicole, and Sarah have already done the hard work for us of writing in detail about their projects. I read each of their posts a few times before we decided what to do. But I will give you the short version of how we did it.
First, I picked a height where I wanted my b&b to end. It can be high or low, just don’t cut the room in half because that might look funny. it’s hard to tell in this photo but mine is about 2/3 up the room. I painted the top 1/3 an olive color called Village Square.
Then I painted the bottom 2/3 a semigloss white color. What a weird experience to paint a wall all shiny. I felt like I was turning my office into a hospital, or a mac store, or one of those eyeglass commercials where everyone is wearing white because it’s the future and clearly, in the future we will only wear white.
Then I had to wait 2 weeks to do anything else because I was having a slipcover party and my man was out of town. So of course, because of my great sickness, I had to somewhat accessorize the board and battenless office so it wouldn’t feel naked.
Then finally, last weekend, we spent 2 hours at Home Depot. We went with all our measurements and our goal was to not have to cut anything ourselves at home. So, we bought three 12 foot, 6 inch wide preprimed MDF boards and measured them in the store and had them cut to the right size.
And, if were were more lazy than cheap, we could have bought 2 inch wide MDF boards for the vertical strips and just had them cut to the right length. Turns out that we are both cheap and lazy. So, we grabbed one 4×8? sheet of non primed MDF and had the Home Depot man cut it into strips for us while we high fived each other. We saved about $80 by slicing up one sheet of MDF instead of buying already cut 2 inch strips.
I paid my son and his friend $5 to paint the strips because again, cheap and lazy I am.
Then my man put everything into place while I took a Mother’s Day nap and read a book. Meanwhile, Kimba was probably toiling away with her new wet saw.
By the way, where the boards meet the baseboard, we just left it as is, no tapering, no special treatment. Sorry no photo, but you can imagine.
This was a super easy project {says the girl who didn’t do the work}. However, I did do all the painting and measurements. We spent about $150 and that includes a new toy for my husband–the nail gun. My husband got all the wood on the walls in about an hour or so and then he caulked and we both painted a final coat. I think we’ll add a shelf on the top in the future but for now, I’m thrilled.
When I was getting ready to do our board and batten, I scoured the internet looking for photos for inspiration. Do you have a board and batten room you’ve written about? Link up, I’d love to see it.
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It looks AMAZING! I’ve been looking around at all the board & batten rooms for a year, wondering when I’m going to get my bottom in gear and do it in my house. Way to go!
awesome and amazing!!! do you do consults??? i so need to lighten and brighten my house. yours is so homey and inviting! can i come over? just kidding, im in louisiana! have a great day!!
Looks great girl!
it looks great. and i especially love the children with fudgesicles supervising the painters!
The room looks GREAT! I love the colors. Your one boy is cracking me up, he looks like the supervisor.
You are beyond lucky with your landloard! Of course, he/she is going to benefit from all the work you’re doing.
I’m waiting on the beadboard project!!
tina
tina, I’m still waiting on the beadboard project too. That’s another one that I’m the boss and then I have a willing man who for some reason doesn’t mind cutting 859 outlet holes in beadboard for me. Maybe it will be done next week?
So awesome!! I just love that look and all of your colors. By the way, I’ve noticed that you have mistreatments you need to show off!
Your Cheap & Lazy approach works!! Love that you paid the boys to lend a hand…AND that you chilled while the husband did the install. Gotta love that!! It looks amazing! Janell
I have to confess, I wasn’t into this sort of mistreatment when I first started reading about it, but now I’m totally sold. Great job by you and hubster, it’s the best when a cheap and lazy $150 bucks looks like a million bucks worth of custom. Thanks!
I totally gasped when I saw the first picture. It’s beautiful!
Cheap & lazy works for me anytime.
Enjoy your new office.
That looks fantastic! It’s on my to do list, which is a mile long. Your ginormous urn with twigs looks great in there. I had no idea that HD would do that much cutting for you, for free? What a great Mothers Day gift. Though Kimba’s wet saw sounds pretty fun too! But you got a nap and a great room!
I’m so in love with it!!! Looks awesome! Am I the only one who didn’t know you could get wood cut at the store? Oh, my wow!
They are supposed to charge 25 cents after two free cuts but they never charge us!
Gorgeous! I love how this looks. What a great Mother’s Day gift!! :)
Girl, you are the bomb. This room is evidence. Looks like a million bucks. Are you sitting right there in that beautiful room reading this comment? I would be if I were you. Sitting there, I mean. Reading the comment is optional, I suppose. But I’d be sitting there, just soaking in the beauty.
Well done. Very well done. What value you’ve added to this house–how could your landlord not be thrilled??
YES I am in the chair reading your comment! ARe you invisible in this room with me? I so wish you were!
Oooh, it looks really good, Nester! Good job (to you … and your minions. ;o) ) It’s very fitting in that room. And that is beautiful fabric at the windows. It looks like it has a sheen to it…very pretty.
That looks so great! I love it. Thanks for the photos and the links to the other b&b experts. I am hoping to do my son’s room in the future, so this we be a huge help.
Thanks!
Traci
Your room looks wonderful! We did our dining room in board and batten last summer and I haven’t done a thing with it since. But I’ve started finishing up other rooms (with lots of help from your blog!) so hopefully I can get to the dining room soon. Thanks for all the great ideas you share!
Now that is too stinkin’ funny. When my husband hung our board and battan, trim stuff, whatever its called in our foyer…he told me that I had never looked at him with such love and desire ;)!
it looks fantastic! i too have been saving inspiration photos of the board & batten. looking forward to moving & finding a house so i can try it for myself! [thinking of using vibrant color, just to give it a twist!]
great office!
Amazing! This may have to be a future project for us! :)
Love it!! The paint color is beautiful, and I am so jealous of your board & batten right now…I’m still trying to decide where to add it to my home! :) Great project!
I have wanted to try this in the kitchen area – I just think I might now. It turned out great. thanks!
FANTASTIC job….love it……we are planning on doing this in our office…I have a very handy hubby……just have to get him going :)
Thanks for this post…… you guys should be very proud of yourselves
Kathy :)
I love board and batton and the olive color is beautiful! You guys did such a good job!
☺ Celeste
I’ve don’t think I’ve done a post about it, but our dining room has board and batten in it. We did it ourselves when we were building our house, and it really is a SUPER easy project! I love the way yours turned out!
Love the look! And I really love the money saving tips!!! Paying the boys and crew is an inspired idea. Not only do they do the work for you, they learn that hard work pays…and there is a good reward (popsicles) for job well done.
What a teachable moment!
Jane (artfully graced)
Well Nester, you did it again. Now all of us out in bloggyland are jealous and trying to convince our men to do justonemorelittleproject. Clever girl! Can’t wait to see what else you have up your sleeve — I’m especially excited about that beadboard sneaking into that other post. : )
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this little space!!!! I have an 8×10 little office in the house I just bought in November. I went gung ho with a theme that I am no longer loving, and I just love your set up in this space. This post is getting bookmarked – it’s a keeper! Thanks for the inspiration!
This may be the best mother’s day gift ever!! They did goooood!! No board and batten here — I will just drool over those that do link up…
LOVE it! I’ve been seeing the board and batten look all over the place and it looks so great. What a fabulous Mother’s Day present!
that is a fantastic mother’s day gift. I’m taking notes for next year. It really looks fabulous and I really do want to see how the boards (er, or is it battens) met up with the baseboards. Been thinking of this for our 2nd floor hallway but can’t figure how to meet up with the baseboards without too much cutting or tapering since we are cheap and lazy lovers as well.
They are just straight–they just end and hit the baseboards–I’ll try to do a photo soon!
I haven’t B & B’d yet, but I think I will… now I just have to decide which room is worthy – we have a chair rail through the majority of our rooms, it’ll have to be a bedroom or bathroom. Love the idea of putting a shelf up, too!
It’s amazing how all hubby’s look the same from the back! : ) The one picture of yours is how mine looked on Mother’s Day, too, except mine was outside hanging vinyl siding. Ipod and tool belt mandatory! Love your board and batten. I just want the office and I’d be happy.
This looks soooo good. My husband’s office is north facing and dark and this would be a great option for him. Even w/builder white walls it’s dark and I think he would prefer a darker more manly paint color and this is a good way to do it without creating a cave right inside the front door! :)
I, too, love the fudgecicle slurping supervisor.
I’ve looked over your site to find the name of the blue on the dresser…can’t find IT, help! It’s the same as the blue on your armoir right? HELP! I think it’s a good choice for my dtr’s dresser.
more digging and found the color – SW Halcyon Green 6213 – for everyone else who may be wondering! But IS it the same color as the armoir? I love the tips from the armoir post about picking a robin’s egg blue color, that will be very helpful!
It’s like you can anticipate our quesitons!
Yep, good work!
It looks beautiful! I laughed at your comments about “touch and talking and junk.” My spiritual gift is shopping. ;)
I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to pay to do painting…I don’t suppose a 4 year old would be ready to tackle my kitchen.
You guys did great!
LOVE it! It is exactly what I want to do for the nursery! Now if I can only convice my husband to go along with the higher height… :)
Great work! It really finishes off the space. Love the little birs on the branch. A cute whimsical touch!
Nester, you truly do have a unique ability to look into a room and see exactly how it ought to have been finished in the first place. The board and batten is perfect for that room.
Your projects are always so inspiring (plan to do the B&B in my office) and charming! The bird in the tree is uber tres chic (German & French words together, does that really work). I just spotted your lamps, oh-so-perfect!!!!!
In hindsight, I should have cruised HD or Lowes when searching for a mate…sigh. My Mr. Wonderful might not be “handy”, but he is a keeper.
I just spotted your lamps oh-so-perfect!!!!!
Bravo, your room is beautimous!
It looks beautiful. I love the paint color too. They never charge us for addition cuts either. Maybe the sign’s there so you won’t ask for more cuts. I once had them cut a sheet into 12″ squares and they still didn’t charge me. The whole room looks great. I’m inspired to get the hubby to do it.
I cannot tell you how much I love it. Will you send your crew to my house?
It looks great, I really like the wall color. I linked up, we did ours about a year ago. The room looks a little different now but I’m too lazy to take new pictures. lol
I’m with you, I let my hubby cut and nail and I did the painting. The saw scares the crap out of me in all honesty.
~Michelle
I LOVE it! We’re doing it in our playroom right now. Even more, I love that the clown car handles are BACK on that fab dresser :)
LOVE IT. My office is painted those two colors right now, but with no chair rail or anything separating it. Its just a ghetto invisible chair rail. Basically your pictures from before b&b, only thats my after. waaaah.
Okay but onto my point…I want to do b&b but I have the dreaded textured walls!!!!!! Will it look dumb?!?!
fantastic!! I have no idea how to “linky”, so I’ll put my link here…http://itsthelittlethingsthatmakeahouseahome.blogspot.com/2009/01/before-and-after.html You clever gals!! :-)
Oh, it looks GORGEOUS! So happy for you…what a nice gift. :)
LOVE IT!
I beg to differ…we will be wearing silver jumpsuits in the future. :) Or so I’m told. Have you ever seen a 6″ tall woman in a metallic jumpsuit? No wonder they say the future looks bright.
This looks lovely–you are great at delegating! I’d link up and show our hallway we did last year (I delegated, too!) but I haven’t posted it yet. :( You are the world’s best renter. Ever.
Mer, you could probably nail up some really thin wood something or other (like paneling, but smooth) and paint that gloss white. It would increase your cost but it would definitely solve the textured wall problem.
*still snorting with laughter over the “future looks bright” comment, and imagining my 6 ft. tall best friend, who is British, attired in such a thing*
*I may wet myself here…that’s just too funny*
SO beautiful!!!!
:-)
Layla
Absolutely lovely! It adds such depth to the room.
I just emailed this to my husband telling him I want it in EVERY room of the house. No pressure or anything. ;)
I absolutely love it! Too bad my house is in the Southwest (complete with dark brown vigas), or I would completely board and batten every single room in my house! (Okay, maybe not EVERY room, but pretty close.)
I’m totally freaked out about this post because last night at 10:30 I was searching “board and batten” on your blog! So weird! I love, love, love your office…pretty! So I have a question for you that I was going to e-mail to you last night, guess I should have. I want to do quite a bit of board and batten in my house, both in individual rooms and in some hallways and entryways. How would you go about deciding where or where not to do it? Maybe I should just do it everywhere! I have NO interesting architecture in my house. Well, the kitchen has low board and batten and the playroom has a former exterior wall (it used to be a deck) that still has siding. Other than that it’s all boring. What would you do?
Your room looks wonderful! Peaceful, serene – I want to work there!
That looks so amazing. I have been “batting” around the idea of doing that for a few weeks now. I was thinking of doing the dining room, now I am considering my bedroom, or maybe the den, perhaps youngest daughter’s room..ooooh maybe even the closet and the foyer and the deck…
You have outdone yourself yet again. Well done nester lady
U r a genius for cutting mdf into the strips! I have a large stack of 2″ strips and 4″ boards in my garage right now waiting for myself to create board and batten in the entryway. PLEASE answer me this: would u ever consider painting the white in high gloss? I have a whole gallon of it and don’t want to buy another gallon of semi-gloss for this project… But also don’t want to hate the whole thing when I am all done!
I got a nail gun for mothers day… Best mothers day gift ever! I have been pfffd pffffd pfffd-ing ever since! See the photo lovefest session at my place!
Angie
AMAZING and gorgeous! And what a great Mother’s Day gift…it won’t die OR make you fat!!
Beauty, beauty, beautiful!
I love the shades of blue and earthy-taupe you are using. Would you consider sharing the names/brand of paints you use? Paint can be so tricky! Thanks….beautiful office!
wow. all I can say is wow. I am a landlord and all we see from our renters are cigarette burns in the carpet and holes in the walls. You sure you don’t want to move to Illinois? Seriously, your landlord should knock some $$ off your rent or something! You are inspiring me to get off my butt and decorate my bare walls. We’ve been here for almost 3 years and I think I have maybe 2 things on my walls and a SHEET over my bathroom window (and not in a good mistreatment sort of way either!)
thanks for all you do! You are so talented, but more important – you have a beautiful heart :)
Bravo! Beautiful DIY work. I need to rent your husband for a month to get some of my projects done. My husband can work a mean adding machine, but a nail gun??? Never gonna happen.
Thank you for all your inspiration. I can’t wait to tackle projects after reading your posts!
So, you didn’t have to remove the baseboards?
Looks great!
We are moving in to a rental soon and I’m planning on doing this treatment to cover up some imperfections in a wall removal the owners did recently. This post convinced my husband that board and batten was the way to go, so thanks!
I have been reading your blog for a LONG time and have always been a lurker. I am coming out of hiding now and plan on writing more regularly. Thanks for the daily inspiration for all these years! I love your style and wit.
…it is simply beautiful…and the “atmospheric ” lighting just makes it more cozy…
I love your board and batton and the contrast olive color is beautiful! My masterbedroom makeover is still in progress but I’m hoping to get it finished soon and share the finished project.
Love, love, love this!!!! Can you please, pretty please, post a photo of what your bottom trim looks like with the batten?
Love the entire room! You are so talented! I wish I had an eye for design like you. Can you tell me where you got the curtains for the room? I am in love with them! Once again, excellent work!
Nester! It’s gorgeous! Please tell me you got the fabric for those curtains at Mary Jo’s???
I. LOVE. IT.
Seriously. I may be “accidently” leaving this post up for my husband to see… because I am thankfully married to a man who also has a sickness for fixing up the house. ;)
Hi here….would you mind telling me which nail gun your hubby got…and is he pleased with it !!!??? Thanks so much, mine has a b’day coming up and I know he’d love one
This is so pretty! I love it, you did an amazing job! It’s amazing how wood can add so much to a room!
Enjoy your day!
kristin
Looks great. I love the height.
You know the verse in the Bible about not coveting any thing that is your neighbors? Every time I visit your blog I have serious coveting issues! You are so talented!! I love everything about your style, decor, whatever you call it. I would decorate just like you but alas, I can only dream because what starts in my brain, never produces what it thinks it wants- which is your style. However, when I start making changes around here, I’m going to do some major copy-catting. Hope you don’t mind. Thank you for sharing your gifts with the world – and me.
love the child labor! lol!
p.s. I wrote dwell on one of my chalkboards last week. I like it and I figured all my real life friends are not bloggers and will not know I am a copy-cat. I did not reallize it was assoicated with psalm 91. I read it and realized how fitting it is for where I am right now and that I need to work on dwelling more as well. so I am going to have to write it down and dwell some more… :))) I love that you use one word on your chalkboards that have a bigger picture behind them. I am a big words person and am constantly seeking my chalkboards for reminders throughout the day. thank goodness for chalkboards because I don’t think a white board would do so well with the decor!
LOVE this post!!!!!!!! Thanks for the inspiration!
I love the board and batten and have been wanting to do it in my house. My only problem…all my trim is cherry. Can I stll do it or will it look strange? What about if it was in a non-white neutal? would hat be better?
I chuckled out loud at this post, Nester! The projects here in our house are conducted in a similar fashion. My husband and I are a great project team. I dream up all the projects and he executes them. What could be better? Ha! Seriously, my man has amazing skills and a huge workshop so I have to keep him busy so he doesn’t get bored and his tools don’t go unused. I marvel at women and their wet saws. Now, I do my fair share of the work too, I really do. I am in the middle of stripping the weird paint treatment we did a few years back on our fireplace mantle. Now, THAT is work, I tell you! But normally I am “researching” all over the blogosphere for projects to keep my husband in shape. Thank you for sharing yours!!!
that looks so good. you must have the best landlord ever and i’m sure he loves you guys now for making his house so nice. i’m still a mega fan of beadboard, but the board and batten is beginning to have a little sway to getting into the house.
ok, so I just might copy your home decor room by room. Then I’ll invite you over and you’ll feel like you’re still at home.
Ok, so I am wondering (and hopeful that someone actually reads this question, since it is so late after the actual post)… I would love to do board and batten- with a twist. My boys’ room is going to be nautical themed, and we would like to do it in navy blue on the walls, with white and red accents… So we thought it might be kind of cool to tone down the EXTREMENESS of the dark, bold navy, with board and batten, but instead of white between the boards, just have the navy show through. So it would basically be the framework of the b&b, but navy wall. Is this crazy/ugly sounding??
Love the board and batten! What color is on the wall above the board and batten? Also, I’m looking for a nice robins egg blue, sort of grayish blue, nothing bright. What do you recommend? Love your site!
LOVE the idea! I would love to try this, but I guess I am a little nervous! I have what may be a completely stupid question…..what was the caulking used for???
Love your board and batten. How far apart did you place your vertical boards?
Thank you for all this inspiration and all in one place. I have dreams for my walls and these posts are great to get me inspired!! Rebecca
Hi Nester,
I love this idea. I’m probably going to be here in our rental for a couple more years at least while we hammer away at our finaces. Can I please ask you to share your approach on landlords and fixing up your rental. Do you ask first.. or just improve things as you go along. Do they expect you to remove it? What is your take on this subject (or maybe you have already posted on this and I missed it). The reason that I aske is because my apartment is old and needs love. The owners live far, far away and the landlords are hands-off to the extreme (I have to hunt them down to get things fixed)… I want to make some improvements. Thanks for all of the inspiration!
Gorgeous! Gorgeous! Gorgeous!! The whole room is!! LOVE the board and batten, but I also LOVE LOVE the way you put the whole room together! It is magazine worthy!!
Love the bird on the stick! LOVE that!
Lou Cinda :)
This room looks stunning. Beautiful, clean lines, soft, restful colors…makes me want to just go in there and think about everything I’d like to do…it’s simply dreamy! Congratulations on a job very well done!