Renovation of a Dining Room

My dining room before was dark, boring and needed some color in its life! I saw many examples of this "board and batten" style that I wanted to recreate in my dining room on various blogs and on my oh so fav website, Pinterest. I thought that my goal at first was a far out one, especially since I was going to attempt this all by myself. GASP! So you see, my husband HATES and I mean HATES any kind of DIY projects. I constantly dream up more renovations and projects that I want to do and frankly I think it drives him nuts. He says I can do whatever I want to the house, as long as I finish it without him! hahahaha!! Sounds mean huh? Well, he would rather hire someone than to do it himself, but I am the complete opposite. I love the reward and satisfaction I get after completing a project and the amazement on everyone's faces when they say, "You did this all by yourself!?".... Ahhhh :)

My dining room before, after the majority of furniture had been removed. See how dark and small the area looks?

Primer up on the wall. This took about three coats to the bottom half where the dark brown once was.

Top color on. Misty Morn (Semi gloss)  by Behr.

Boards going up on the wall. Used liquid nail on the back and two small finishing nails to secure in place.

Finished product! The curtains were not in yet, but I purchased two panels from Ballard Designs,  they are the burlap style curtains and look fabulous in this space.

My table scape :)

So here is the breakdown of the items used:

*2 sheets of 0.5in thick MDF board- purchased from Home Depot at about $22 a sheet. Also had all my measurements and Home Depot cut all the boards for me :) Major time saver! They only cut straight boards, no angle cuts, so this is something to keep in mind. My battens (the vertical boards) were cut at 59" long, using 0.5" thick MDF board. My boards (the horizontal board on top) were cut at various lengths, depending on your wall measurements but were 6" wide, using the same 0.5" thick MDF board. I managed to get all my cuts out of only 2 large MDF sheets. WOW!!

*Liquid nail

*paintable white caulk

*Wood filler

*finishing nails and a nail driver

*sandpaper to sand down the wood filler over the nails you drive into the boards

*3 gallons of Kiltz primer

*1 gallon of Behr Ultra Pure White in Semi Gloss, for the bottom wall color and boards and batten

*1 gallon of Behr Misty Morn in Semi Gloss for the top blue/grey color

Basic Instructions:

Start by priming your wall with about 2 or 3 coats, depending on the wall color you are covering, and prime all your boards and batten that you are using (this will be easier for you when they are up on the wall so that you only have to do touch ups to the paint). Paint the top color, any color you prefer, make sure you know your batten measurements before you do this part to ensure you are going down far enough! Once all your coats have dried and your entire wall is covered evenly, you can start putting up your batten. I put my battens up 12" apart. If an outlet or light switch happens to land exactly 12" apart from a batten then simply move the batten over a smidge, trust me, you wont be able to notice! I used liquid nail on the back of my battens and 2 finishing nails, one in the top and one in the bottom once they were up. I later drove in the nails with a nail driver, used wood filler to fill the hole and painted the Behr Ultra White over it. Once the battens are up, the boards are very simple to install since they lay on top of the battens. Use the same liquid nail and finishing nails then make sure to caulk where the board and batten meets to ensure a nice seamless flow of all you boards. 

I hope this tutorial was easy to follow. Please leave a comment with any questions or suggestions. Thanks!