Griffin Glover
It went through many stages before I finally settled on what to do with it and was actually totally and completely happy with the result. It didn’t hurt that I managed to DIY faux shiplap for a fraction of the cost to get the look I wanted. Last week I posted our full modern farmhouse dining room makeover reveal.
And it wasn’t so much that the chair rail bothered me, I thought, as it was that the bottom of the two-toned wall seemed so….blank.
Years ago I toyed with the idea of adding more molding to the bottom of the wall to add interest and texture. So I began the (not-so-painstakingly) process of removing the chair rail from our walls and also from the surrounding columns.
Since our home has such an open floor plan it couldn’t be anything too drastically different from the other adjoining areas. That’s when an article I’d written for Better Homes and Garden.com, 8 Shiplap Walls That Gave Us Major Home Goals, came to mind and I realized that a DIY Faux Shiplap wall was the perfect solution and it cost me less than $100 to do it!
**For best results measure they wall you’re placing these on and try to divide it into equal sections to determine how wide your planks should be.
We chose to add our planks with a brad nailer directly into the studs instead of going with an adhesive. This keeps all the seams from lining up, which adds more interest, and nailing the ends into studs ensures that each plank will be secure. I also used the brad nailer to put the 1×3’s at the top of the planks (as a kind of chair rail) and nailed those directly into the studs as well.
In order to paint it effectively you’ll need to use a brush to get into the gaps you created with your coin (or tile) spacers. Something you’ll want to keep in mind is that you will need to readjust any outlets in your room to accommodate the 1/4″ planks you’ve added to your wall.
But every time I redo a room I always do these things: change out the yellowing outlets, refresh the baseboards with a new coat of paint, change out our outdated brass door knobs (like in the guest bathroom makeover) and replace our old and rusty (how does that even happen?!) Replacing and updating these things as I go means I don’t have to be concerned with the amount of time and cost of doing this all at once.
