Shiplap Wall-An FIY

Who doesn't love Chip and Joanna Gains?! My favorite part of their show is their interaction with one another. The way they work as each other's biggest cheerleaders makes me smile. Knowing there is someone in your corner, rooting for you always.... sigh. And, if that person happens to be the love of your life....bonus! Sometimes, I think Mister and I are very similar although personality wise our roles are reversed. I would be the one trying on tool belts and lederhosen in the antique store...

I think I have seen every episode from past seasons multiple times. When I first saw shiplap I thought "Oh, that's kinda nice". As time has worn on and the nation has embraced the Gaines' a collective love of shiplap has swept the nation. Oh, I know there are some that probably don't like it and to each his own... but come on- it's everywhere! You can't sign on to Pinterest, Houzz, bHome, and Hometalk without seeing it. The more I see it the more I want it....but where should I put it?

As I've previously told you, we've embarked on a remodel project quite by accident. You can read about it here. What started in the living room led us to our bedroom. That led to a wall being dismantled and rebuilt. We took that plaster and laths off but left the original framing and added insulation for a sound barrier between room. Of course, all that meant repainting. And here's a kicker for me... I wanted it white! Yup, white. As a military brat I developed an aversion to white. All our walls were white in the military- no color allowed. Since then I have had rooms red, green, blue, pink, purple, brown, yellow, gray... just about every color but white. But, I digress. So, as long as we are repainting I might as well try to fit some shiplap in there! Now remember, my house is old which means ceilings are wonky and floors are not level and there is no such thing as a 90 degree angle. Shiplap kinda needs at least one of those things to work off of. Hmm.

I scoured blogs and all the aforementioned sites for help. I didn't really find anything pertaining to my situation but I was not deterred. When I thought I had a plan I took off to Home Depot for some fact gathering and pricing. My thought was that I would purchase 1/4 plywood, have it ripped down into 6" strips and uses those as my planks. This would minimize the overall weight on the wall, eliminate the need to remove the baseboard Mister had already reapplied. I could fudge the spacing to make up for some of the wonkiness of the walls. I was using this as my inspiration; found on Pinterest.

Source, Source

Okay, so my Home Depot will not cut the plywood that small. The smallest they cut is 24". That means I will still have to rip those down on the table saw. We don't have a great table saw or room for it. We end up with a saw horse and saw on the driveway and the cuts tend to be a little less than perfect. Not the look I was going for. My Lowes store would cut the pieces into 12" strips which would still require me to break out the table saw. Hmm. I came back home and looked at all the blogs again that have stores that cut their wood smaller. Maybe I should to move to where those stores are! Or, maybe I should take a road trip to one of them and come back with a vehicle full of ripped down plywood. I don't think Mister would go for it...

Then I came across another blog that showed a beautiful pitched-ceiling room with a window on the gable end. The shiplap was pretty and clean... but it wasn't shiplap!

Source

Following Emily's lead, here is what I did:

I wanted to reposition the bed against the wall that had just been rebuilt and that is the wall I wanted shiplapped. I busted out my big level and grabbed a couple pencils. With a yard stick I measured down the center of the wall every 6 inches, making a small little mark. I used the level to draw parallel lines mimicking the wood planks. Sometimes my metal level left marks on the wall. This happened because we did not change the framing and so the studs are not uniform meaning the drywall is not quite flat-leaving high and low places in the elevation. For the most part the marks erased off or washed off but there are a couple that will require a little touch up paint.

When I was done I stood back. My pencil lines were too skinny. I grabbed a colored pencil in gray and went back to the wall. I used my yardstick to come just under the first line and made a parallel line and filled in the space between with my gray pencil. I stood back several times making sure the lines were thick enough. Ha! An FIY (Faux It Yourself) Shiplap Wall.

As I stand back from the wall it really looks off because of the ceiling not being flat or level but I have a plan for that. I'm not gonna lie... I am worried that I may have to have Mister repaint the wall. Ugh.  I will press on first to see what will happen when things get into place.

In my inspiration photo, the blogger went back over her lines with a sealer to keep the lines from getting smudged. I have not done this as the wall has the bed against it. I may change my mind but for now I think I'm okay. This has become a long post so I will spare you all the fears and worries about when "level" according the level doesn't look level to the eye. It will all work out...right?

 So, that is it for now. Stop back soon! ~ Jolena

*I forgot to add a picture of the finished shiplap...just a peek... I'll show you more when it's all done.

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