DIY Shiplap

So originally I decided to incorporate shiplap into my master bathroom remodel. I was looking for something to add to the walls. Originally I considered board and batton like what we did in our master bedroom (see blogpost:https://craftytravelgirl.blogspot.com/2021/09/creating-board-and-batton-accent-wall.html) but decided against it because I thought it would be too difficult considering all the obstacles on the wall we were working around (windows, toilets, sinks etc). I liked the look of it so much that I decided to shiplap an entire wall in our future nursery (much to my husbands dismay)

Materials: 

- 1/4" plywood. The cheapest is the 4X8ft sheets which are roughly $20 a piece. 

- Saw. A tablesaw is the easiest for this project but you could also do this will a skill saw if you don't have access to one like we do (thanks neighbors who buy nice tools but never use them!!)

- Nail gun/nails 

-Nickels- for spacing. This was an unexpected issue because we discovered when we went to do this we only had 3 total (oops) Depending on the length of the wall I would recommend 3-6 and maybe some extras incase you set them down and can't find them 

- Paint- in the color of your choice. The classic is white but I've seen this in a variety of colors. 

- Wood filler 

Step 1: Gather your materials

We measured our walls and determined how much square footage of shiplap we would need. We determined that needed 5 sheets of 1/4" 4X8 sheets of plywood in order to complete the project. 

Now we have an SUV but we still have a hard time with bigger things like 4X8 sheets of plywood. Because of this I had Home Depot cut the sheets into 1 foot sections. I meant to take a picture of these but it was actively raining as I was loading them into the car so I was more focused on getting them loaded. 

When you go and do this I would HIGHLY recommend attempting to do this on an "off peak" time for Home Depot. Is it technically their job? Yes. But I'm sure its a huge pain for them. I purposely went and did this on a weekday evening when the store was not that busy. It took about 1/2 hour total to complete. If you go and do this on a busy Saturday afternoon then expect it to take a lot longer because there are going to be many people there all wanting things cut. 

Pro tip: you might want to stash some gloves in your car when you go to buy these. I got soo many splinters from loading all these boards. 

Step 2: Cut the boards to 6 inches wide

We used our neighbors table saw to cut all the boards down to 6 inches wide. It did take super long but it was nice that we were just cutting each board in half- rather than cut 6 inch strips off a 4X8 board. 

Step 3: Painting

Now you can totally paint the boards when they are on the wall but I had I a few days off without my husband and I decided to get a jumpstart on this project while I was waiting for a day for him to be home that we could put it on the walls together. I used white interior paint and I found each board took roughly 2 coats. I had a system going for a while where I would put a coat on every 2 hours and was able to get a good pile going for us to put on the wall when Max finally got a day off. 

In addition to the boards you also want the wall that you are applying the shiplap to be the same color. This makes it easier for the gaps in between. The master bathroom had one randomly blue accent wall so I roughly painted it white (just with a paint brush and I wasn't trying that hard) it was mostly to help later me apply less touch up coats. 

Step 4: Prepping the wall and deciding to start on the top or bottom

In order to make this as easy as possible for us we used a stud finder to locate all the studs on the walls that we were applying the shiplap. Using a straight edge we drew vertical lines on the walls. This made it super easy to know where to apply the nails so that it would stick to the wall. 

For the wall that we were shiplapping 3/4 we decided to start from the bottom. This way we didn't have to worry about ripping boards or anything on the last row. Wherever the last row ended is where it ended (we knew we wanted it to be roughly 6 ft tall)

For the wall that we shiplapped the entire thing we started from the top. This is because the top is the most visible and if we needed to rip any boards we wanted to put those on the bottom where furniture and other things could hide it a little better. 

Step 5: Nailing the shiplap to the wall 

We used our nail gun to adhere the shiplap to the studs and we used nickels in between the boards to give it the appropriate spacing. For sections where multiple boards were the same size we found that we were able to cut multiple boards with the miter saw to save us some time. We purposely left the area where the sink would be alone so that we didn't have to go around the plumbing. The most difficult area was around two light switches and we used a jig saw to to cut out this section. Despite Max's face in the photo I think he did a good job! 

Here are some photos as we moved up the wall 

Pro tip: Shiplap corner piece 

As we were moving up the wall I was super frustrated that the corners weren't lining up super straight despite our best efforts. At first I kept telling myself that it was in the corner by the toilet and in the end it wouldn't be super noticeable. I was looking online at other people's shiplap projects and discovered that someone had used this corner trim piece to hide the inconsistencies in the corner and I thought it was genius. We found the same piece at home depot for 75 cents a linear foot in the trim section and used our nail gun to nail it into the corner. I really liked how well it cleaned up the corner. 

Step 6: Wood filling and painting 

Once we had put all the shiplap on the wall I went along and put white wood filler in all the nail holes. I let it dry for 24 hours (you don't have to let it dry for this long this is just when I had time to work on it again) and then sanded all the spots (which took forever). From there I did touch up painting in all the spots where the wood filler was just make it as uniform as possible. 

In the bathroom we only applied the shiplap to 3/4 of the wall. The rest of the wall I painted "Repose Gray" from Sherwin Williams. I really like the contrast between the bright white of the shiplap and the dark of the gray.