Mia Jensen
I recently talked about how this new round mirror had me completely itching to make a few more updates in our bathroom. Casey let me borrow leftover white paint and I had all of the tools, so all I had to pay for was the wood.
#oops I did all of the shiplap while Matt was out-of-town and Casey was at work, proving that if I can do it ALONE, I know you can do it too!
I did recruit my mom to help on Day 2 because I needed an extra set of hands to hold the shiplap while I nailed it in the wall.
I would definitely do this project again on a larger scale and think shiplapping a whole bedroom would be even easier than a bathroom because there are less detailed cuts and less tiny spaces to work (i.e. behind the toilet) 2 pieces of Plywood cut down (aka “ripped”) to 5 1/2 wide strips
Rookie Tip: The plywood I bought is very light and flimsy and did do a bit of chipping when I cut it down, so if you want wood that’s a bit more sturdy, consider buying plywood that’s thicker. You don’t HAVE to do this step next, but I didn’t want to paint ALL of my wood since I knew that a lot of it wouldn’t be used.
To identify exactly what wood needed to be painted, I pre-cut the plywood to fit every area in the bathroom.
The day I tackled this project, Matt was out-of-town and Casey was at work, so I had no choice but to do it all by myself. After the pieces of wood were cut and labeled, I primed the walls and the boards. I’m not sure if priming the wall behind the shiplap is totally necessary, but it will save you from having to get a tiny paintbrush into the little cracks after it’s hung.
Priming the front and sides of each piece before it was hung really saved me tedious painting work later in the project. Rookie Tip: When priming, don’t try to cover all of the wood with ONE coat… just a light layer of primer on the front and sides of the boards is perfect.
Since I already had all of the boards cut to size AND primed, all I had to do on day two was hang, caulk, and putty. Keeping the nickels in the seam as we nailed the next board was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Once the boards were up, we used the same method to secure the top piece of finishing wood, which created a small “ledge” of sorts. Because I didn’t want any obvious “cuts” around the vanity, we started hanging the wood pieces on the top of the wall and worked our way down.
I didn’t mind the slight difference because that tiny piece of wood is behind the toilet and is barely noticeable. I think the tiny inconsistency between the two walls is worth the clean, consistent look around the vanity.
We didn’t anticipate this tiny space and that’s why the wood isn’t primed like the rest of the boards. I felt like this simple piece made the corner look more “finished” and dare I say… professional?!
This simple step made the wood a lot smoother and overall more consistent. I can’t believe how clean and BRIGHT this space looked once the shiplap had two coats of this white paint on it.
Speaking of the top of the wall, I’m having such a hard time choosing the paint color.
