So I first got this idea from The Nesting Place (see http://www.thenester.com/2010/05/board-and-batten.html). I then googled board and batton and found some other sources, pictures, directions, etc. (http://hookedonhouses.net/2010/09/15/how-to-hang-board-and-batten/, www.centsationalgirl.com/2011/01/basic-board-and-batten ). I was happy to know that Gary was all about it when I approached him with the idea. That definitely makes doing a project like this easier. We have wanted to do something in the dining room for awhile and this turned out to be the thing!
We talked about it, decided how we wanted to do it, decided on our height and got started. Saturday morning we were off to Home Depot. Cash flow is tight right now because we used so much of it when I was on maternity leave and not getting a pay check...so...4x8 sheets of MDF cut into strips created our moulding. Again, got that idea from the fabulous blogs listed above! And according to said blogs, the store would cut them to size...yes, Gary was excited about that! Made the project a whole lot simpler! We used 3/4 inch MDF. I was afraid that 3/4 inch would sit funny on our existing moulding because we were not removing or redoing the moulding, so we decided to cut the bottom at an angle. Not so exciting for Gary, but he agreed because he knows I can get picky about the little things sometimes...he obliged and it looked great! He should know by now that I'm always right, right?!?! We had Home Depot cut 3 inch strips for the battons and 5 inches for the moulding around the top. Once home, we, and by we I mean the hubby, cut the strips to 5 feet. We decided to do 5 feet above our existing floor moulding which is about a foot off of the ground, so our battens are about 6 feet tall.
While hubby was cutting the battens, I began priming the dining room that was already chocoloate brown. We then painted the walls with the exact color of our moulding, in semi-gloss. I must say that by exact, I mean the color the moulding was painted a long, long time ago, soooo....it mostly matches, but the old moulding is not quite a white as the new walls. Close enough, but one day they could use a new coat of paint.
After all of the cutting and painting, the next step was nailing up the strip of moulding across the top. Then we nailed up the battens. We used a nail gun...a gift for Gary at our couple's shower when we got married) and that made the process a whole lot faster. An extra piece of MDF cut to 14 inches made a spacer for our battens. In theory this was good, but in reality 14 inches did not always work. We used it when we could, but for a lot of the battens we eyeballed it (is eyeballed a real word...never typed that out before) and did what we thought looked good as opposed to what was exactly right measurement-wise (again...not a real word). We nailed a 3 inch strip of MDF on top of our moulding strip to make a little ledge and then put quarter-round underneath. Finally, caulking and a final coat of paint finished it off. We need to caulk a little more, but we've kind of decided that we like the look it gives without being perfect...makes the room seem a little older...like the board and batten's been there forever.
Now for me...the most important question is....where were the children while we did this?!?!? Avery is now 3 1/2 so she is pretty independent. She was back and forth between the dining room, her room, and a movie. I'm not a big fan of movies and tv...I didn't even let Avery watch tv until she was 2, but sometimes when you're cleaning or working on a project, a video can be your best friend! Looking back I keep thinking, where was AnnaLee, but then I remember stopping frequently during the project to do bottles, change diapers, rock, bounce, etc. She was not quite crawling at this point so when she was happy, we were able to set her up in the den within eyesight and she played with her toys. She also took an unusual, amazing 2 naps that day which helped a lot. And she even slept through the nail gun! She must have know we needed some time...good job AnnaLee...so smart already :).
I must say we are super proud of this project. We still look in the dining room and say, "That looks really good...I love it!" So here are the pictures to show a little about the project. I'm not very good at this blog thing and I'll try to get better at detailing how we do things. Overall I thought this project was relatively easy...especially with Home Depot doing a lot of the work! Hats off to the hubs for all of his work too...we make a good team!
