I usually like to share thrifty decorating solutions.
This was one occasion when we decided we'd rather spend
a little money and save a lot of time and effort.
The product I used for my wood plank wall
is v groove wood planks by
EverTrue,
sold in packs of 6 eight foot long planks.
The package says it will cover 14 sq feet.
Our wall is 11 feet wide by 8 feet tall
or 88 square feet, so we bought seven packs.
I also bought three small cans of wood stain,
a light shade, a dark shade and gray.
The light shade was golden oak.
Don't buy this unless you're going for the color of mustard. Blech!
That other can is one I already had.
I usually buy Minwax stain, but I decided to give the Rustoleum a try.
I liked it. Especially the gray.
I stained all of the boards, brushing the stain on, letting it sit a couple of minutes,
then wiped off the excess.
Some I just used the gray stain, some the dark. For some I dry brushed the dark over the gray
and others I stained dark then brushed the gray over.
I was just going for old looking and
wanted quite a bit of variation in colors.
I brought them into the room and laid them out,
according to color.
The foreman was present, to make sure the job was done right,
as usual.
Mitch did the first few rows, before he had to go to work and I finished it up.
He started by finding the studs to determine where we would nail,
but these guys are so light, you don't really have to hit a stud.
There was no formula to our cuts,
we just knew we wanted it to look random, no pattern.
When we got to the outlets, Mitch notched out around them.
He used a coping saw, but said a utility knife would probably work.
We attached them to the wall with an air powered stapler. (from Harbor Freight)
Again, being supervised every step of the way.
The boards are tongue and grove so they lock together.
I was able to put up several rows before actually securing
them to the wall,
That allowed me to be sure I was happy with the layout.
We started at the floor and luckily it worked out
that I was able to finish with a full sized board at the ceiling.
The only place we had to cut the width of the boards was just above and below the window.
Mitch made those cuts and used a box cutter.
The back of the planks have channels or grooves you can follow for cutting.
You can see in the photo below, the piece above the window
is pretty thin and it broke before I got it installed.
I taped it together and kept installing,
Once it was all up we removed the tape
and patched it with wood putty.
It blended right in.
This is one time I'm so happy Mitch didn't want to go along
with my plan. Shhh, don't tell him I said that.
Remember, the room is unfinished. Excuse the unpainted window trim.
Don't mind the saw on the floor and the ladder in the corner.
Or the bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling.
We can't seem to find the light fixtures we
purchased at IKEA.
It's a bit of a mess around here.
Finishing up this wall has given me
an extra little push to forge ahead.
It's nice to see my vision coming to life.
Sharing is fun! Check out these parties~
