DIY EASY board & batten tutorial

We did a simple board and batten treatment on one of the walls in my daughter’s room. It is a super easy way to add a little dimension and character to a room, especially one that’s painted white! Here’s how we did it:


Go to Home Depot and picked up 12 of the 11/16” X 1 1/2” primed mdf (we only used 10 but it’s good to have extra) Figure about one per foot.


And then three of the the 4” craftsman baseboard for the sides and top of the wall – we already had the same size for the baseboard on our bottom.



1. Paint the wall – we used Sherwin-Williams Alabaster. It’s a great white!

2. Cut and attach the baseboard to the top, bottom (if needed), and sides. We use a simple nail gun that we’ve had forever. Measure twice, cut once! I had to make another trip back when I cut a board (or maybe 2!) too short.

3. Then calculate how far apart you want your vertical boards to be, taking in account electrical outlets. Ours are about a foot apart. We used my daughter’s music theory book held horizontally, she was glad we could get some use out of it. Getting the cuts just right so they fit snugly without much of a gap is tricky.

4. Fill in gaps, edges,  spaces, and nail holes with latex caulk (we used 2 tubes)

5. Paint over everything with the same color you used to paint the wall.



Her room is coming along, (UPDATE: See the finished room here!) I’m having a hard time finding curtains that work! We also are going through everything that we’ve been stashing in the closet and getting rid of ALOT. It feels so good! Hopefully we’ll be able to share it with you soon --