Faux Shiplap

Where has this summer gone? Seriously, it seems like only yesterday that school let out! What a great summer we have had! The weather was perfect and we were able to do a lot of outdoorsy things. Lawns never turned brown with all the nice rain we had. I always love summer but it seems like this summer was exceptionally beautiful.

I almost feel like I should apologize for not writing any blog posts since the vintage fair in June! Some of you have been asking whether I’m ok that I haven’t posted. I am fine. :) We have had so many changes in the past few months that have kept me very busy. Hubby started his own business of hauling furniture and I started a part time job of secretary work, that I can do at home on my own time, which is nice. I also do hubby’s paperwork so I’m at the computer a lot! There’s always something to do with my Etsy shop and there’s also always a piece of furniture that needs a new look. But most importantly, I have three guys that are pretty important to me that I want to do my best to take care of. :)

For all you faithful Vintage fair fans, check out the Holiday Farmhouse Show by Vintage Fair that is coming up in October! I’m so excited for it! I am planning on having a small booth there and I’m sure there will be many vintagey, farmhouse vendors again. Hope to see you all there! Mark your calendars for October 6th from 10 to 8..

Now, I gotta say I am about bursting to share my latest project with you! For a while now, I’ve had this uncontrollable yearning for some shiplap in our home. I began eyeing some walls and weighing the pros and cons. I knew I couldn’t spend a ton of money so I began to toss some ideas around in my head. I remembered the plank door I did a year or so ago, where I used strips of underlayment to get the plank look. Why wouldn’t that work on a wall also?

So, I went to a local lumberyard and ordered four 4’x8’ pieces of Luon underlayment, 3/16” thick. They had such a good rate to cut it into 5” strips for me so I just got them to do it. Each piece cost around $14 so I was able to get everything for under $100!

The pieces were pretty rough, so I ended up spending a lot of time sanding the edges and the one side.

After the pieces were sanded nicely, I gave them a coat of Zinser 123 white primer. I used my sprayer to apply but it could have been brushed or rolled on too.

After these steps were completed, it was ready to install.

The walls I chose were by the fireplace mantle, entryway and another wall that I want to convert to a office space eventually.

The wall above the mantle is of course all covered in screw holes so I thought what better way to take care of that than cover it up?

I found and marked the studs in the walls, so I would know where to place the nails.

I chose not to glue the strips down, but it could be done. I thought if someone would ever want to remove the “shiplap” (heaven forbid), the walls wouldn’t be ruined with glue. (When I took the picture I still wasn’t sure whether I would use glue or not.)

Now, the fun part..

I used popsicle sticks to wedge between the pieces for the spaces..

Once in a while I would use the level, just to make sure everything was nice and even. I started at the top and made sure that first piece was level, since most houses’ walls aren’t perfectly level. If I had to cut a piece, I used the cut-off for the next row, and so on.. That way none of the seams matched up.

After all the walls were covered, I puttied only the nail holes that seemed out of place. I didn’t fill the holes that were in the studs, since I wanted a natural shiplap look. Once in a while I had to pin in other areas that didn’t go into the stud, so I puttied those.

I applied two coats of satin paint, by Do It Best. I used my favorite color right now, Spectral.

So here is the before and then the after..

I chose to keep the trim along the bottom, but I think it would look great with boards all the way to the bottom and maybe just a quarter round to trim it. I also placed trim on the corners of the walls to give it a finished look.

I can’t wait to decorate the mantle with the new look!

I got my son, who has some electrical experience, to redo the light switch and outlet. They had to be brought out level with the shiplap.

I also started working on the entryway wall, which I will share with you soon!

So, now our house has once again made another turn towards becoming a farmhouse, which suits me just fine! :)

This was a very easy, not too expensive project and I would encourage any of you who love the fixer upper look of shiplap to go for it! :)

Thanks for visiting! And, hopefully it won’t go so long again until I post!

-Mary