After we painted the living room (see more here), I still felt like something was missing from our living room. We have a vaulted ceiling which makes one of the walls huge – which also houses our fireplace. We have a stone fireplace with a nice mantel, but it was still lacking something, which is why we chose to do tongue and groove (or shiplap depending on what you want to call it).
Bradley of course did all the measuring and manual labor, while I decided on the design. Overall the project wasn’t too expensive – less than $200 for lumber.
You could possibly make it cheaper if you bought a large board of MDF and ripped it yourself, but it made more since for us to use real tongue and groove for this project because we used the remnants for our mudroom area wall (see here).
Here’s what you need:
– 1x8x8 tongue and groove boards (qty dependant on your size area)
– 1x2x8 finishing boards (qty dependant on your size area)
– brad nail gun & nails
– wood filler
– outlet extenders & long screws (if you have any outlets in the area)
– paint of your choice (we used our trim color, Sherwin Williams Pure White)
Step 1: Get your supplies
We bought everything from Lowe’s since that’s what was convenient for us. I do recommend checking online to see what they have in stock – it will save you a unnecessary trip!
We needed 14 1x8x8 boards and 2 1x2x8 boards for our space. We gathered those and headed home!
Step 2: Cut to Size
We could have gotten someone at Lowe’s to do this, but honestly we just didn’t think about it! Cut your boards to size you need for your space – ours were 52″ for comparison, with a total of 55″ wide with the trim pieces.
Step 3: Install
Start hanging! Since we used real tongue and groove this was pretty easy once the boards were cut to size. We did have two outlets which is where the extenders come into action – they are super easy to install, just make sure your power is off to the outlets!! You will have to cut your boards around the outlets, so make sure you measure accordingly.
We also have a slight angle at our ceiling line, so Bradley had to cut those pieces accordingly as well.
Once you slide the tongue and groove together, make sure you tap it with a hammer to lock it into place. The finish with nails (preferably at a stud) to hold the pieces in place on the wall.
Step 4: Paint and Finish
Now for the paint! We painted ours to match our trim (Pure White by Sherwin Williams).
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