Board and Batten Wall DIY - Step-By-Step Easy Tutorial for an Accent Wall - (2024)

I hadn't planned on sharing a board and batten wall DIY tutorial, but I had a lot of requests so here it is! This project took us about a weekend to complete and to say I'm in love would be a total understatement! I'll share some rough photos of our progress, but for the majority of the finished room along with decor details click here! Full tutorial is below!

When we moved into our home, I had wanted to do some walls with board and batten and some with shiplap. So far, we’ve only done shiplap. You can check out those projects here, here and here! We had long talked about doing a board and batten accent wall in our bedroom, but we hadn’t decided what style we wanted.

With shiplap it’s pretty easy, full wall or half wall. Horizontal or vertical. I finally decided on just a basic vertical board and batten, and to make it somewhat unique we did double battens.

Shopping List

With our plan now finalized, it was off to the hardware store and pick up the necessary materials. Nothing too fancy here. We used a thin backer board for a nice and smooth finish. I used 1/8” hardboard for the backer, 1x2” MDF for the battens, and some 1”x6” MDFfor the top and bottom trim.

Measurement Details

Our battens are 15 inches apart for the the larger gap and the two smaller battens are 4.5 inches apart. We did them this length apart so we'd avoid hitting windows and outlets but we couldn't avoid it completely.

Tools and Supplies Needed

The tools we needed to complete this project were:

• Cordless Nail Gun
• Jigsaw (for cutting the window and outlet sections on the boards)
• Miter Saw (for cutting the battens and trim pieces)
• Circular Saw (for cutting the backer board)
• Paint Sprayer (it's gotten a lot of use!)
• Orbital Sander
• Nails
• Liquid Nails (for gluing the backer board)
• Primer (ours took 2 coats)
• Paint - We used Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel in Sea Salt

Tutorial

With all the material on hand we first put up the backer board, cutting out for the window trim and the outlets with a jigsaw. You will definitely want to use a backer board if your wall has any texture to it. It also looks much more 'custom' and finished with the backer board covering the drywall.

We cut them to fit using our circular saw. We used liquid nails to glue the backer board to the wall and then nailed it to the wall with our nail gun.

With the backer board on, add the top trim and the new baseboard using your nail gun. We have been nailing on a baseboard for other projects to our old baseboard so that it isn't flush with the shiplap/board and batten. I've seen that done before and it doesn't look as finished.

1st backer board is cut and glued!

Video

Measuring for Your Battens

Next up is marking where your battens will be. If you’re trying this yourself, make sure you plan out the spacing in advance so you can keep even spacing between them. Since a couple of our battens were going to hit the outlets, I decided it would look best if I trimmed out the outlet.

At this point, it’s time to cut the battens to length using your miter saw and nail them to the wall.

we'll be nailing battens over the seams to cover these up

Finish Work

Now that your backer board and battens are up, it’s time to do the finish work before painting. Before I could paint I needed to caulk around the window trim, the top and bottom boards, and each batten. I started using a caulking tool to get a nice finish on it.

We also used wood filler on all the nail holes and then sanded everything before the first coat of primer. A little bit of work now will make this look great once the paint is on.

trim is added to the top and sides as well as the base board

our laser level came in handy to make sure our battens are perfectly level!

Paint

To get a super smooth finish, we used our paint sprayer. While this gets a good finish, it requires a lot of prep work. Tape everything off and add plastic to create a paint booth. I sanded with a 220 grit between each coat.

Spraying also tends to put the paint on thinner, so I did 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of the actual paint. Even though it’s more coats than rolling, they go much quicker once it’s prepped. With the paint on, I took down the tape and plastic and just touched up a few small areas!

here is our paint spraying "booth"

1st coat of primer is on!

Helpful Tips

If you're going to do a board and batten accent wall, the most important thing is measuring out your batten spacing. We tried our hardest not to hit the edge of a window, but did in one spot.

I think it looks just fine though! The finish work is also the most time consuming. You do the finish work, and then have to wait for it to dry before being able to move on to the next step.

We also didn't cut the board around our window perfectly (because of course we were in a hurry) and had to wood fill, sand, wood fill, sand, wood fill and more sanding to get it looking ok. It looks fine now that it's complete, but it did take more time than it should have! So, if you make a mistake with a cut you really should start over on that section.

Total Cost

The cost of this project is really affordable! We spent about $100 on the wood/backer board. The main cost of course are the tools, which if you're planning on a lot of projects is a good investment.

Paint

We decided on Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams. I am working on a post sharing why we chose this color and why we love it! It's a great paint color for a bedroom or bathroom. I love the coastal vibes! For our board and batten accent wall, we used a urethane trim enamel.

Other Posts You May Love!

Master Bedroom Coastal Decor // Our DIY Mudroom // Our White Oak Flooring

Shop

Feel free to click any photo below to shop the tool/supplies we used for our board and batten project!

Pin This for Later

I hope this board and batten tutorial was helpful! This was our first time doing it, and it honestly went super smoothly. I was pleasantly surprised! I'd love to do our stairs next, but there are a lot of cut outs and angles, so we'll save that for another time! Please let me know if you have any questions at all by leaving a comment below or feel free to DM me on Instagram!

4 comments on “Board and Batten Wall DIY - Step-By-Step Easy Tutorial for an Accent Wall”

1. How far apart do you think the two sets of batten should be? We are doing a 22 foot wall so I’m thinking 20 inches?

   1. Hi Korie! Our battens are 15 inches apart for the the larger gap and the two smaller battens are 4.5 inches apart. We did them this length apart so we'd avoid hitting windows and outlets but we couldn't avoid it completely. Hopefully that helps!

2. You should have listed materials at bottom

   1. Hi! They are all listed under "Tools and Materials Needed" just a few paragraphs from the beginning of the post 🙂