DIY Shiplap (For Cheap!)

Any other Fixer Upper fans out there? Anyone? I'm guessing if you're anything like me, your life goal is to be Joanna Gaines and one of the first steps you can take to achieve that goal, is adding some shiplap to your house. Now if I had it my way, our entire house would be shiplap...but that just isn't feasible. SO, I settled for above my mantle instead. This project was cheap and relatively quick (with two people at least) and I could not recommend it more! I am in love with the way it looks and it actually is what inspired me to paint the entire wall white a couple weeks after putting it up. I knew there had to be a way to get the look of shiplap without actually having to use the more expensive shiplap or even tongue and groove boards. After standing around the lumber section of Home Depot for far too long, the hubs and I finally decided on a large piece of 1/8 inch plywood (just a little over 5 feet in length). Luckily, the Home Depot employee was kind enough to cut it up for us and he used his fancy saw to cut us 7 equal strips measuring 6 inches wide a piece. Now that the hard part was essentially done for us, all we had to do was get the rest of the supplies. We ended up getting tiny finishing nails to attach the boards to the wall and those turned out perfectly. We also grabbed a gallon of ultra white paint and I am so glad we did. It actually ended up taking SEVERAL coats of the white to cover the raw boards. We already had paint brushes, rollers, painter's tape, and drop cloths at home from previous projects, so we checked out with our paint, nails, and lumber and headed back to the house. I knew I wanted the boards to really look like shiplap, and in order to achieve the look I wanted I was going to need to space them out just a tiny bit so you could see the space between each one. What ended up working perfectly for spacing were quarters. The hubs and I worked as a team to get the first board lined up perfectly with the top of our mantle and then nailed it into the wall with the tiny finishing nails. The next board was a little trickier because of the spacing. I held a couple of quarters on the top edge of the board we had just attached while Mack lined up the next board and then set it on top of the quarters. This allowed for just a tiny bit of spacing between the two and gave me the look I wanted. After this, we repeated this same process five more times (it took exactly 7 boards to fill up the space we wanted) and then the assembly was complete! Next came the painting. It was a little more difficult because at the time, the wall around the shiplap was still a dark gray (Behr Stone Mason in case anyone wanted to know!) As a result, I just had to make sure I taped off the edges of the boards with painter's tape so that I did not have any splatter. I actually used a roller to cover the boards with the ultra white paint and that worked just fine. If any paint dripped down into the cracks between the boards, I just simply took one of the quarters I used for spacing and ran it along the crack to wipe off any paint drips. Quite a little multi-tool I must say! After several coats of the white paint, it was finally complete and I could not be happier with the result. It was exactly what I wanted and I felt more like Joanna Gaines than ever. Since we only had to purchase the piece of plywood, the nails, and the paint, this was a very cheap project. All in all I think we totaled about $35 or so. Not bad for a completely new look I must say! Just to break it down and make it a little easier to read, here is a list of the supplies that we used.

Unforuntately I was so wrapped up in the project that I did not take a picture of the boards while they were in the process of being painted...HOWEVER, I do have pictures from before the shiplap, during the process (before the boards were painted) as well as of the end result. Once again, these are old iPhone photos...forgive me.

This picture was taken shortly after the completion of the project. Excuse the crazy decor, the hubs had just gotten a really great performance review at work. I told you, we celebrate everything around here!

Once again...pardon the decor. I am slightly obsessed with my Easter village houses...but this one was just to show you a close up of the spacing between the boards!

Of course, here is what it looks like now that the surrounding wall has been painted white to match. I can't get enough white in this house!

DIY Shiplap Supplies:

• Large piece (about 5 feet wide) of 1/8 inch plywood (obviously this is specific to the size of our mantle but if you are doing a larger space you will most likely need more plywood!)
• Finishing nails
• 1 Gallon Ultra White Paint (whatever brand you prefer...we always use Behr)
• Paint brush or roller (your preference)
• Quarters (for spacing)
• Drop Cloth (to protect that pretty floor of yours!)
• Painter's tape (to protect that pretty wall of yours if you're like me and are only adding shiplap to part of a wall)

and the steps:

• Line the first board up where you want it (in our case, right on top of our mantle)
• Use the finishing nails to attach it securely to the wall
• Use the quarters as spacers for the second board by holding (or balancing if you are attempting this by yourself...go you!) and then placing the second board on top of the quarters
• Once your second board is lined up and spaced out, use the finishing nails and attach it to the wall BEFORE removing the quarters...just to make sure the spacing stays even through the nailing process
• Repeat these steps until you have filled the space you desire 
• Use your roller (or brush) to start applying those coats of white paint (or whatever you want it to be!) until you have reached the coverage that you desire
• Pat yourself on the back and enjoy your inner Joanna Gaines(ness) because you have officially added shiplap to your house! For cheap!

Once again, for not a lot of money we were able to change the entire look of the fireplace and mantle. If you missed my $15 fireplace makeover, you can check it out here! Thanks again for reading!