Entryway Board and Batten Tutorial

The other day I posted the reveal of my entryway but today I want to give you a quick tutorial of how we got the the board and batten look.  I’ll tell you a little secret… we actually didn’t use batten, I just faked it with a lot of Valspar paint+primer.  We set out intending to purchase batten {“a thin strip of solid material, typically made from wood, plastic or metal“} but when we went to purchase our supplies I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for so I decided to fake it.

Here’s what we purchased:
* 2×2 board
* 1×4 board
* 4″ molding
* 1×2 boards
* Paintable caulking
* Putty
* Straight off the shelf white Valspar paint+primer
* Sherwin Williams, Ponder (gray) paint+primer

Step 1: Hanging the shelf

First we screwed the 2×2 board into the wall and then we attached the 1×4 to it, to create a shelf.  I really wanted to have a shelf without brackets and we thought this would be the best way to do it.  The shelf is about 6 feet high so I didn’t think many people would notice the 2×2. {Now that it’s painted and decorated you don’t even notice the 2×2 at all!}

 Step 2: Hanging molding

Next we attached the molding all around the room, to create the “top” of board and batten.

After we attached the molding we dry fit all the vertical boards to make sure they would fit.

Before hanging all the vertical boards I had Matt cut the bottom of them at about a 30 degree angle so they’d match up to the baseboards, rather than having them hang over by an inch.  It’s not a perfect fit but I think the angle gives it a good transition look.

Step 3: Filling in the holes

After all the boards were hung I puttied all the holes from the nails and screws.  At this point the walls were stressing me out because there were stripes going in every direction.  Doesn’t this picture make you a little crazy?  I couldn’t wait for the putty to dry so I could paint over the horizontal stripes!

Step 4: Caulking

After I puttied all the holes, Matt went around and caulked all the seams.  I know caulking is just part of the process but every time I’m so impressed with how much smoother and cleaner the caulking makes it look!

Before caulking…

After caulking…

Step 5: Painting

I knew I was going to have to paint a lot of layers to cover the brown stripes, but I had no idea how much I’d really have to paint!  I literally painted 6 layers of pure white paint+primer to cover up the dark brown!  Every time I painted another layer I thought, “surely this will be the last coat!”.  You can see in the picture below how even after THREE coats of paint, you can still see the brown stripes! 

With each layer of paint the stripes slowly faded away.

After painting the walls pure white, the beige-color window in the entryway, stuck out like a sore thumb!  After getting Matt’s “o.k” to paint a window, I got to work on getting rid of the ugly beige! {I mean really, who puts in beige windows!?}  After painting the window the whole room looked 100% better!  I couldn’t believe the change just painting a window had!

After lots of wood, screws, nails and paint, here is the finished product.  {See how good the window looks!}

I am so in love with the way this project turned out, I think it’s 1,000 times better than the old entryway!  {For the full makeover tour click here}. I think the other reason I loved this project so much is because it was so easy!  Hanging the shelf, molding and boards was way easier than Matt and I thought it would be.  Honestly the hardest part of the whole process was waiting for the paint to dry in between each layer!  If you’re looking for an inexpensive way to update an entryway, dining room, bathroom, etc. I would highly recommend adding this board and {faux} batten.

Have you ever hung board and batten before?  Did you use batten or did you do the {faux} version?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.