DIY Board and Batten

Build your own DIY Board and Batten wall! This beginner tutorial includes a video of how to measure spacing, how to choose trim, and how to install!

We love accent walls. There is just so much that you can do with a wall to give a room character, and molding walls and right up there in our favourite ways to do it! We've done several molding walls in the past, even board and batten, but this is our first time sharing how to do your own DIY board and batten wall.

*This post was sponsored by DAP Canada and may contain affiliate links. As always, opinions are 100% my own. For more information, please see my disclosure page.*

If you're not used to doing home renovations, board and batten is a great place to start! It's a great project for beginners and experienced woodworkers.

In this tutorial we are transforming the blank slate above, a commercial bathroom for a local hair salon! We wanted to review everything from what trim to use, to how to measure spacing, and how to install the boards.

What Trim Should I Use?

We've done different molding wall tutorials with thin molding slats, and thick 5" boards, and both give completely different looks!

Here's an example of thicker board and batten walls in this hallway:

Here's an example of thinner board and batten in this entry.

What you choose to use is really based on personal preference. Every wall we have ever done with molding, we've chosen to use ½" thick moldings, with different widths. For this board and batten we chose 2 ½" wide molding pieces.

If you're not sure what to use, I suggest searching Pinterest, pinning some of your favourites, and taking those to the hardware store with you.

How to I Determine the Spacing?

Spacing for every board and batten wall will be different. It depends on the length of the wall and the room itself, so every room needs to be measured individually.

To measure the spacing you need to know the total width of the wall you are adding moldings too, and the width of each of your moldings.

What you need to do is estimate the number of moldings you want, substract the total width of those moldings from the total wall width, and then divide the final number by the number of spaces.

So if we say our total wall length is 100" and our molding is 2.5" wide, and that we are hoping to do 8 boards, as in the photo above (so 7 spaces)

• 2.5" x 8 = 20"
• 100" - 20" = 80"
• 80" / 7 = 11.4"

Therefore, with three quick calculations, you can see that you need 11.4" of space between each molding.

Once you know the measurements, I suggest you draw it out on the wall to see if it works the way you were hoping. You can always go back and recalculate with one more or one less molding before nailing boards up on the wall.

Tools and Materials Needed to Install Board and Batten

They great thing about board and batten is that it doesn't require a lot of tools. Even when it comes to sawing your boards, you can use something smaller and more affordable if you don't have a mitre saw.

Materials:

• ALEX PLUS Spackling
• ALEX FLEX molding and trim sealant
• Multi-Purpose Construction Adhesive
• Paint - we used Cracked Pepper by Behr

Tools:

• Nail Gun
• Mitre Saw
• Sander
• Long Level
• Laser Level (optional)
• Caulking Tool Kit

Video Tutorial on How to Measure Spacing and Install DIY Board and Batten

Board and batten can be complicated if you've never tried it before. The most complicated part, in my opinion, is figuring out the spacing between the battens, etc.

So we made a video of the whole process, and really tried to simplify how to do all of the spacing so that you can easily do it from home.

Watch the whole tutorial here:

Don't forget to