Monday Makover- Part 2: Board and Batten is up and rolling!

What a day!  The hubby and I have been working non-stop on the little man's room since early this morning.  The hubs started putting the molding up on Saturday and it is almost complete today!  One step left of putting up a trim piece on the top, but besides that, MISSION (almost) COMPLETE!!  It's so fun watching what I envisioned in my mind come together in reality.  I am quite proud of my hubby for tackling this project.  He will be the first to tell you that he is not naturally a carpenter, but he is willing to roll up his sleeves and give anything a try.  He did an amazing job and I'm a proud wife to say the least :)

Here is the process of installing the board and batten this far:

1.  Installed the base board on this last post (here).  We purchased MDF sheets in the Lumber department at Home Depot for $25 each.  It took 3 for our project with a little left over for another project.  We had Home Depot cut the  width for us and Nate cut the length himself.  This helped cut out a lot of extra time and mess.

2.  Next, came the measuring and cutting the length of the batten and upper molding.  We marked the wall where we wanted the batten and Nate used his chop saw to cut it.  The batten boards were 3 inches wide and we decided we wanted them 16 inches a part on the wall.  The top molding was cut to 5 inches wide with a 3 inch molding on top for a small shelf and a trim piece to complete the look. 

We knew we wanted to keep it the most cost effective way when installing the boards.  Since the sheets come 8 foot long, we cut the strips in half for 4 foot high batten.  The baseboard molding is 6 inches and the top molding is 5 inches with a little shelf molding on top.  That makes the height of the molding around 5 feet tall from bottom of baseboard to top of the shelf.  Here is the hubby measuring the 16 inches between the batten.  He installed the molding with his nail gun.  If you wanted extra support, you could glue in addition to nailing, because you are not guaranteed to hit a stud on every batten board.  We found that the boards were very secure in the wall with just the nail gun in our case.

 There is the 5 inch molding being installed on top of the batten.

3.  Used wood filler to fill in the seems of the wood on each batten and the corners where the top molding met up.  We let it dry overnight and then sanded today.  This part can be a little tricky and ours is not completely perfect and seamless but no one can tell unless you are closely examining it. 

4.  Next, after sanding, I primed all the MDF molding.  I left the wall as is because the color was so light and I knew the paint would cover it well.  Removed all the outlet covers before painting.  We are going to change the electrical out to white instead of cream so it blends in with the molding and wall.  This part will be done this week.

 Our little helper!  He has the sanding block in this picture below while styling the no pants look.  This was right after nap and he was excited and ready to help out!

5.  First coat of white paint.  We used Benjamin Moore's color "Decorators White" since that's what we used downstairs in the kitchen and I was really happy with it.  It is in the "Pottery Barn" collection at BM.  Since I didn't want to spend the price of Benjamin Moore paint I brought the color to Lowe's and they color matched it perfectly.  I bought the signature Valspar 2  in 1 primer and paint and it matches the kitchen color to a T!  Here is the first coat below.  I used a paint brush to get in the nooks and crannys and used a small 4 inch roller to roll the wall and front of molding.  The first coat had great coverage but I'm planning on doing a second coat touch up in the morning for those little spots that may have been missed.

 Here is the hubby using his nail gun to nail the top shelf onto the top molding.

 Here is a closeup of the molding.  There is a trim piece that still needs to be installed on the top in the picture below.  That will happen tomorrow hopefully! 

I will be back this week with a follow up so you can see the Board and Batten complete.  Anyone else thinking of putting this up in your home?  It's amazing what a transformation and statement it makes in a room.  The room looks completely different than it did a few days ago.  Can't wait to get the boy back in there and to decorate and accessorize it for him.  He is anxious to get back in there as well.  He kept asking us all day, "is my room ready yet?" ...Stay tuned! :)