More Shiplappin'

Hello! Remember when I said summer would be the perfect time for me to blog more? LOL! School starts back in a week and this is my second post for the whole break. So much for that! Needless to say, it has been a busy season and luckily the hubs and I were able to squeeze in one more (cheap) DIY project before it gets even busier! It's no secret that I love shiplap. If I could shiplap my whole house, I would do it in a heartbeat. However, it took us 4 days and a lot of headache to get just one wall done, so that will certainly not be happening. 

SO, most of you know that I had "shiplapped" my mantle awhile ago and settled on painting the rest of the wall white in lieu of continuing with it. 

Well long story short, I decided that wasn't enough. I approached my hubs with the idea this past weekend. I proposed we use the exact same materials as we did for the mantle (a cheaper shiplap alternative) but simply, multiplied. If you didn't catch it in my original shiplapping tutorial, here is what we used instead of actual shiplap or the other popular alternative, tongue and groove boards:

• Six 8x4' Sheets of 1/4 inch Plywood Underlayment (We had to have ours cut down into Twelve 8x2' sheets in order to fit them in the back of my car and transport them home!)

They look like this:

(Peep my donut float making a cameo in the bottom right corner.) 

We got ours at Home Depot for about $12 a piece.

• White Paint

We put a couple coats of Behr Premium Plus Ultra (Say that 5 times fast) Ultra white paint (with nothing mixed in) on the boards. It took about a gallon and a half to finish this project. Please ignore the awkward arm positioning...I have no idea what I was doing at the time.

• Table Saw

Next, the most noisy and time consuming part of this process, cutting the boards. We cut ours into 6 inch wide strips. We left them all at 8 feet long so that we could use some and cut some down later when we knew more exact measurements. Ignore how hideously ugly our garage is...it was raining so we had to move everything indoors.

After we cut the strips, I applied a third and final coat of paint to them (the table saw was a little harsh on some) and we were FINALLY ready to start putting these bad boys on the wall.

This...as you can imagine...was a SLOW process. First, we actually had to remove the existing shiplap so that they would not make the rest of the wall look wonky. Wonky is a term my sister and her friends use all the time and now she has me saying it. I do feel as though it is a great description for this particular instance however. Anywho, we actually had a little laugh after removing the boards because both of us had forgotten that we put them up before re-painting the rest of the wall.

• Hammer, Finishing Nails, A whole lot of patience

Next, the actual assembly. Yay! We had every intention of making a time-lapse video of the whole process but then promptly forgot. Oh well. We used tiny finishing nails to attach the boards to the wall and nickels (sorry cashier at target for requesting $2 in nickels as part of my cash back...it was all for the cause!) to space them out. Who needs actual spacers when you have loose change that you can spend again later...am I right? I apologize in advance for the HORRIBLE lighting. All of this work was basically done at night.

Slowly but surely, board by board, it all came together. One rookie mistake we made that I will warn you about now...we used galvanized finishing nails. Never use galvanized nails when you're working with and handling white wood. By the time we were finished, there were almost more black fingerprints and smudges than there was white paint. Luckily, magic eraser came to the rescue and cleaned it all up for me. I had originally planned to go back with a paintbrush and cover up the little nails, however the more I looked at them showing in all their glory, the more I loved them. I feel like it looks more authentic with them showing and I am all about that! 

Here are some before and afters of the finished product:

It was a lot of work, but oh so worth it! I apologize again for my utter lack of blogging this summer but I promise before you know it, I'll be back at it with all of my favorite fall decor! Thanks for reading and happy friday eve!

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!