ORC Bedroom Retreat Week 3
It’s week three of the One Room Challenge and shiplap wall has paint! If you’re not already familiar with this challenge, twice a year, you can participate as a guest, alongside 20 featured designers, to join a 6-week challenge to recreate one room. The event was created and is hosted by Linda Weinstein of Calling it Home and Better Homes and Gardens. With hundreds of guest participants, you can be sure to find an endless amount of inspiration and original ideas by following along here. We are enjoying the connections we have made so far with fellow guest participants!
This week we tackled paint 😍 and goodness did it make a difference. Finding the perfect paint color though was a bit of a process. In our room our walls are a warm white and our trim and doors are painted grey. I wanted the accent wall to have some contrast against both the walls and the trim, but not be super bold. Our trim color is Woodsmoke by Sherwin Williams (a color I’ve only found at Lowe’s) and initially, I planned to have that color tinted at 50% so it would be the same color as the trim, but 50% lighter. Paint is tricky though. When I put that sample on the wall, not only did it not look lighter at all, but it also looked like a completely different color. Luckily, I remembered we had tons of leftover wall and trim paint, so I decided to experiment and mix up my own concoction to see if it could work. Thankfully it did! I ended up with a 60/40 ratio of the two colors and found a color I love.
Step One: Decide how to paint. In my research, I found that shiplap is best painted using one of two methods.
Option 1: Paint all the boards before installing and touch up nail holes later.
Option 2: Use a paint sprayer after the shiplap is installed.
Everything I read said the space between the shiplap is impossible to paint any other way (even with a brush.) I am all about learning from other peoples mistakes, so I chose Option 2.
Step Two: Prep! Depending on which option you choose, you will need to prep accordingly. We chose to use a paint sprayer, so I will mainly be focusing on that process. Spraying does require more prep work, but I find it much easier than painting the boards prior to installation. You will need:
Plastic Drop Cloth(s) for covering furniture
You will first need to tape off the area you’re planning to paint and then come back with paper. I would suggest using at least 3 feet of paper around the area to make sure the over spray doesn’t get on existing walls. Use the plastic drop cloths to cover any furniture completely. I made the mistake of leaving one dresser uncovered and it was covered with a layer of paint dust. It was easy to clean, but save yourself the hassle!
Step Three: You’re ready to paint. Once everything is prepped, it’s on to the good stuff. We purchased this HomeRight Paint Sprayer and it is perfect for smaller projects. We used the sprayer for our pantry makeover and now for this wall and it got the job done. There are a few different tips to use depending on the project, but even if you’re painting furniture, it’s a great choice and much easier than using a brush. Fill the container with paint and make sure you have an extension cord handy so you can get the job done without having to stop.
Remove tape, paper and drop cloths and enjoy your lovely new color! We are opening half of the next week at Disney World, so it will be a light week for us, but I plan to makeover some $5 lamps and share the whole process for week 4!
ORC Bedroom Retreat Week 2
We are a full week into the One Room Challenge and our first big project is done. If you’re not already familiar with this challenge, twice a year, you can participate as a guest, alongside 20 featured designers, to join a 6-week challenge to recreate one room. The event was created and is hosted by Linda Weinstein of Calling it Home and Better Homes and Gardens. With hundreds of guest participants, you can be sure to find an endless amount of inspiration and original ideas by following along here. We are super excited to be a guest participant this year and are loving all the design projects we have seen.
Vertical Shiplap Accent Wall
We are breaking down everything needed to DIY a vertical shiplap wall and sharing the process with you step-by-step. It’s a fairly easy process if you’re willing to put in the time.
Here are the supplies you will need. Each tool we used is linked! Note: If you don’t have some of these tools, don’t worry! You may have to get creative, but it can be done. You can ask friends and family to borrow things or even call your local hardware store and find tools available to rent. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Quarter Round/Trim
Pry Bar (if you’re removing trim)
Let’s get started! The first thing to note about installing vertical shiplap is that the studs you would normally nail them to are also running vertically. For that reason, we created a base with 1x4’s so that we had four places to nail the shiplap to when hanging.
Step One: Remove and cut the trim. If your wall doesn’t have trim, then jump down to the next step, but if it does you will need to remove it. Before doing anything (we’ve learned this the hard way) take a razor and run it along the top of the trim where it connects to the wall. By doing this you will allow the trim to separate from the wall cleaner and are more likely to keep the trim intact and not damage the wall.
If there is already trim, use your oscillating tool to shave off a couple of inches in the corners of the trim on adjacent walls. Once the 1x4’s and shiplap are on the wall, your wall will be roughly 2 inches thicker and you will need to plan accordingly for that on the existing trim.
Step Two: Mark all the studs. Grab your handy stud finder and get to work marking off all the studs. Since we were covering up the sheetrock completely, we went ahead and drilled small holes where each mark was to make sure we actually had the spots marked correctly. We do not recommend this if you don’t plan to cover up the sheetrock, but it was helpful to locate the studs before we started hanging the boards.
Step Three: Hang 1x4’s to create a base. Like I mentioned earlier, since the studs run vertically, we chose to create a base to nail the vertical shiplap to. We hung a board at the top of the wall and the bottom of the wall and then two spread out in the middle. Use screws to secure the boards into the studs and grab a level to make sure everything is straight.
Step Four: Hang that lovely shiplap. We purchased 12 foot pieces of shiplap for our 10 foot ceilings, so each piece had to be cut. We got in the rhythm of cutting and hanging 10 pieces at a time. The shiplap interlocks, so once it’s in place all it needs are 4 nails and it’s good-to-go. This part goes pretty quick once you get started. Once the shiplap is done, you’ll probably want to hang a piece of trim or quarter round along the top to make the transition to the ceiling look nice and smooth.
Step five: Fill nail holes and caulk. This part is tedious (and sometimes annoying,) but is very necessary to get the seamless and finished look you’re going for.
Step six: Celebrate. Pat yourself on the back — you did it! Celebrate for a second and get ready for paint!
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