DIY Kid’s Room – board and Batten with bold Floral Wallpaper

Posted on June 25, 2020

I am so excited to see my little girl grow in this space! I was a first timer installing board and batten, but I loved the process and I learn A LOT! It is definitely a project I will be doing again. It creates a high impact with such a low budget, it is an perfect choice for anyone wanting to add that wow factor to a space!

I started off with a mood board to help me determine colors and finishing touches. This was very helpful in the process. It helps to hone in on what you love and not be overwhelmed with making selections along the way. I already had the bookshelf and sconce so it was very convenient to have those work again in the updated space. I knew I wanted to board and batten to be a dark color so I chose a color that complemented the wallpaper.

So I tested out which process worked most efficiently for installing the board and batten – including painting the wall before or after as well as painting the boards before or after.

My conclusion is to paint the wall and sides of each of the boards as the first step. In addition to the top and bottom of the 1×2’s as those went up after the paper and I did not want to get paint on the wallpaper (or a fresh painted wall if you forego wallpaper).

I did not paint the sides until the final wall but you can see how much cutting in had to be done on all of these. When the sides are painted, a quick swipe to cover the painters caulk was much easier. I also prefer the texture of paint applied with a roller vs. a brush.

To summarize – paint the wall and roll the sides of the 1×3’s as well as all exposed sides of the 1×2’s as step one.

I then used my nail gun to install the horizontal board (1×3) and propped up the verticals to determined what spacing I wanted between the boards. I tried to find a distance that was both visually appealing and also avoided things such as corners and outlets. The spacing for my vertical pieces is 17″ from board to board.

You can see there is wood putty on the joints. I used caulk for the corners and putty for the flats. I also put a thin layer of spackle over the wood putty after sanding to provide a very smooth finish. I also used spackle to fill the nail holes (caulk or spackle both worked fine). I painted over all corners with a brush and used a 4 inch roller to paint the flats of the boards.

Now for the fun part! Installing this amazing peel and stick wallpaper I was gifted from Rocky Mountain Decal. Be sure to follow the instructions to prep your wall prior to putting up the paper. I like to start on the left side of the wall and Rocky Mountain Decal does a nice job of numbering the panels so they don’t get out of order.

The wallpaper adds such a huge wow factor and it goes up so quickly and easily. It is also removable, which is great as childrens’ personalities can change over time so it is easy to change it up in the future (unlike the dreaded wallpaper removable from our prior home that was coated in 1980’s permanent wallpaper).