Nursery Progress: Board and Batten Tutorial

Right after we found out we were pregnant, I immediately knew I wanted to do board and batten on the walls of the nursery.
And I am so excited that it is complete!
I think it looks so good and I can't wait until the room as a whole is complete.

There are many tutorials around blogland on board and batten and I looked at a few of them for inspiration and then we got started.


Here is how we did it:

First, here is a shot of the nursery when we moved in.
Peachy, beige walls and nothing exciting.

My dad primed the walls when he was in painting mode after helping us move in so the walls were ready to be treated.

We first used painter's tape to figure out the total height of the wall treatment and the distance between batten boards.
We went around the entire room and taped it off. This way we were able to count how many battens we would need to get.

We chose to make the baseboard and the top board 4 inches wide.
The batten boards themselves are 3 inches wide and we spaced the boards 24 inches apart.
The total height of the board and batten is 70 inches so it is rather high but the crib we ordered is 50 inches high so I wanted a good amount of the treatment showing above the crib.

We went to the Home Depot to get all our boards.
We bought 2 sheets of 1/2 in. MDF boards for $25 each and had them cut them down for us on their giant saw into the sizes we needed.
This was MUCH cheaper than buying boards individually.

We got all the baseboards and batten cut by them.
Then we bought some additional boards that were 2 1/2 in. wide to use as a picture ledge on top and some molding to use just under the picture ledge.

After we got it all home, I went ahead and primed all the boards before we put them up on the wall.
I also did 2 finishing coats on the baseboards that way I would not have to paint them against the carpet.

In the mean time, Travis painted the nursery walls.
We both separately thought that we should do yellow in the nursery, so the upper portion of the wall is yellow then the walls where the batten will be, is painted in Semi-Gloss Ultra White by Valspar.

Travis got the walls all painted and I did the cutting in since he doesn't have patience for it! lol

We weren't too worried about making a straight line where the two paint colors met since the top board would just be covering it up anyways.

Time to start the install.
Travis ripped out the old baseboards and replaced it with the new 4" baseboards.

To install the batten, Travis started by using Liquid Nails to place them on the wall.
He then went back with a nail gun to make sure they were secure.

Until the glue was fully dry, we used painter's tape to hold the top and bottom edge of the boards flush against the walls.

In each corner of the room, Travis cut a 3" board in half placing a half on each wall until the met in the corner.

After all the batten was up, it was time to put the top 4" board up to cap it all off.

It was then time to add the ledge on top.
A little glue and then nailed it into the top board.

We added the molding under the ledge for a little added detail and support for the top ledge.

All done!

We framed out the window as well but the sill of the window was all messed up from the previous owners. Travis bought a piece of wood, routered the edge of it, and nailed it down for a small ledge.

Before we painted, I went through and filled all the holes with wood putty and sanded the boards.
After that was complete, we caulked around all the boards before we painted.

Once all the caulk dried, we painted the boards with the same Ultra White paint as the walls.

It looks fantastic and I can't wait until the room is complete.
Just wish the crib would come in! lol

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