DIY Board and Batten Wall in My Home Office

Learn how to make a board and batten wall using this tutorial!

Update: It has been three years since I’ve had this board and batten wall in my home office. I absolutely love it and get so many compliments on it. At one point, I decided to paint it dark gray and hang a few pictures in the squares. See how my feminine home office looks now!

I am so pumped about my new DIY board and batten wall that *ahem* my husband made for me. He’s the best.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my full disclosure.

This grid accent wall is one of many tasks that’s part of my newest project: to create an inspiring home office space. I’m well aware that this task is a tall order. But, I know I will spend many hours in my home office, so I want it to be beautiful, calming, and inviting all while not breaking the bank.

I knew a DIY board and batten wall wouldn’t be our cheapest DIY project ever, but I knew it would make a bold statement in my small and cozy office space.

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Before starting my office remodel, I made a comprehensive to-do list. Here’s my progress so far:

• Design the new look, including color scheme and furniture layout
• Clear out as much of the furniture/stuff in the room as possible
• Paint all doors, door trim, baseboard, and window trim
• Paint my desk white
• Create a board and batten accent wall
• Get new hardware for my office door
• Patch and paint remaining walls
• Update my bookcase
• Get a lighting fixture for the ceiling
• Create an organized office closet
• Decorate

As you can see, I’m only about half way done my office remodel to-do list, but I’m incredibly happy with the progress so far.

The room is semi-cleared out – enough to do several of the tasks. When we purchased our house in 2013, all the doors and trim were painted a yellowish tint. I want most of my doors and all of my trim to be bright white. While I have painted many of the doors and most of the trim throughout the house, I hadn’t yet tackled my home office space.

After I painted the doors and trim in my office, I already felt a sense of new life in the room. My newly-painted desk helped, too. I wanted a white desk but I didn’t want to spend my budget for the makeover on a new desk. I liked my black desk, I just no longer wanted it to be black. It took several coats of white paint to cover the dark paint, but after seeing how it turned out, I’m happy to say my hard work paid off. It looks like a completely new desk! I was able to use the existing hardware too, which is always a plus. Oh, and we already had the white paint which means I didn’t have to spend a dime on this project!

After I completed those painting tasks, Jason and I sought to tackle the board and batten grid accent wall. We bought all the materials needed to complete the wall and got to work.

I’m happy to report Jason knocked out the installation in one day, and I finished painting it the following day. If you’re looking for a weekend project that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, this is it! It makes a HUGE difference in a space and can be completed in just two days. Here are a few other paint projects you could try this weekend.

Let’s get into the tutorial.

HERE’S HOW TO MAKE A DIY BOARD AND BATTEN WALL:

MEASURE THE WALL

I know you want to race to the store because you’re so excited about your new board and batten wall, but don’t go to the store just yet. You’ll need to determine how much wood you’ll need for your wall first. And, you’ll need check to see which materials you already have and which ones you need.

We decided how big we wanted our grid to look by literally drawing on our wall. We determined that we wanted to do a 4×4 grid. That meant we’d need five boards for the rows and five boards for the columns. To figure out exactly how much wood we needed, we measured the length and height of the wall using a measuring tape. Even after measuring, we always opt to buy more than we need because we don’t want to come up short and have to make another run back to the store to get more. Side note: We’re about 25 minutes from the nearest Home Depot. We clearly missed that boat when we decided on purchasing in the location we’re in.

I also like having extra materials so that I can repurpose them for later projects, so it’s really a win-win when there’s extras.

Our wall is 8′ x 10′ 2”. We determined that we needed to buy five pieces of wood 8′ long for the vertical spots, two pieces of wood 11′ long for the top and bottom of the wall, and three pieces of wood 10′ long for the remaining horizontal boards. The 10′ boards are the ones that we planned cut and fit in between the uncut vertical boards.

BUY MATERIALS

(affiliate links provided below)

Okay, it’s time to build your very own DIY board and batten wall! You’re ready for the store now. I know how excited you are, because I too was extremely giddy at this moment. 🙂

For this project, we used:

• Poplar wood boards, like these (We used 1” x 4”)
• Hammer, like this one
• Measuring tape, like this one
• Stud finder, like this one
• Level, like this one
• Finish nailer air gun and compressor and nails, like this kit
• Miter saw, like this one
• Caulk gun, like this one
• Caulk, like this
• Liquid nail glue, like this
• Chisel, like this one
• Square, like this one
• Sheet rock knife, like this one
• Oscillating multi-purpose tool, like this one
• Sand paper
• Paint. We used Behr Sterling in Satin

REMOVE BASEBOARD, IF NECESSARY

We had baseboard installed at the bottom of the wall so we removed it to make room for the new boards. To remove the baseboard, we used a sheetrock knife to score the caulk. Then, we used the chisel and hammer to separate the baseboard from the wall.

You can see where we actually drew on the wall with pencil to outline where the middle board would go.

INSTALL BOARDS

We installed the four poplar wood boards that made up the frame, or border, of the wall first.

We grabbed the four boards that we bought for the frame and cut them with the miter saw to fit perfectly.

We then installed the remaining vertical boards, leaving the horizontal boards to install last. This is where it got a bit more tedious. There’s a lot more cutting to do with the horizontal boards, as we needed to fill in the spaces between each vertical board.

To install the boards, we measured the wall (again) and cut the boards to fit. It’s so important to measure right because you only get one chance to cut. After the boards were cut, we used liquid nail glue with a caulk gun to secure them to the wall. While doing this, we used the level and square to ensure each board was perfectly straight. Then, we finished securing each board with nails, using the air gun and compressor, after ensuring we knew where the studs were by using a stud finder.

CAULK

To give the DIY board and batten wall a finished look, we applied caulk to the gaps.

SAND & PAINT

The next day, after the caulk was dry, I gave the boards a quick sand and then painted the boards and wall. I used Behr paint in Sterling, with a satin sheen. I thought about having my board and batten wall be bright white, but I wanted it to pop behind my white desk. Plus, my remaining three walls in my office are white, so I thought a different hue would work I love the way the light gray color contrasts against the rest of the room.

Here’s the finished look of the DIY board and batten wall: