Entryway Makeover- Part One

Hello DIY friends! Are you as excited about spring as I am? And this says a lot, because I live in Florida! We had a great winter when it comes to weather. Some warmer days, but lots of cooler days below 75 degrees. Perfect in my book! Spring always gets me excited for new projects. A couple of weeks ago, I finished my first board and batten project. I did it completely myself! Today I am sharing a new project. This one is much bigger! It will give a new look to both my entryway and my dining room. Join me for part one of my entryway makeover, we are adding board and batten to the whole wall!

Two years ago we did a small board and batten project in this area. I loved it, and at the time was too overwhelmed to consider doing it to the whole wall. My husband helped me hang the boards. On my last board and batten project, I learned to hang and cut all of the boards myself. Huge learning curve for me, but so worth it! Finishing it inspired me to do what I wanted to do in this room two years ago: have B and B all down the wall. So let’s do this!

Here is a picture of my entryway before:

I bought the same precut boards from Home Depot, as I want the boards to be consistent in size and depth.

Disclaimer: For your convenience, I have included some affiliate links. This simply means if you click on one of the links and make a purchase, I might receive a small commission. But do not worry- you will not pay a dime more. I only provide links to products I actually use and items I own. I hope this helps you fulfill your DIY dreams!

Step one for my Entryway Makeover- Part One

The first step is to get the stuff!

To begin, I use precut boards for the boards and battens. Because I already had a small portion of board and batten on the wall, I had to continue with the same product and the same spacing between the boards. I needed four times the amount of boards and 13 battens to complete the space.

After I had the boards, I gathered my tools and other miscellaneous stuff to complete the job. I got the following:

Paint

Step two for my Entryway Makeover- Part One

For step two, I need to hang all of the horizontal boards. Because I already have some board and batten complete, I use a level (cool app on my phone :-)) to see if the board is straight and then just nail it to the wall. No measuring! Next, I continue down the wall until I need to make cuts for a board to fit.

One question I get asked a lot is how I cut a board if it will not fit. I learned to use a circular saw when I did my last board and batten project! It takes practice and patience to accurately cut a board. Cut too much- cannot use the board. Cut too little- you have to make another cut. Let me walk you through the steps for cutting a board!

Do you see this space? The space is too small for one of my boards to fit. So I need to cut a board to make it shorter. First, I use a tape measure to see how much space I have until the corner. Additionally, I measure twice- once each way, and then I compare the measurements. If I get a match, great! Sometimes I do not get a match and then I measure both ways again.

Next, I measure an equal length on one of my boards. I mark it off with pencil. This shows exactly where I need to cut the board. I then use my circular saw to cut the board.

And here you see it in place!

Project Ramblings, I Mean- Wonderings

I get asked two questions often: one, how do I find time to complete projects when I work full time, and two, why I do most projects with little or no help from my husband. Both questions crack me up! Okay, so first, my projects take forever from start to finish. And I am completely okay with this! I work on them as I have time. This project got started over our Spring Break, which was in the middle of March. I finished it four weeks later. Sometimes, a whole week passes and I have done zero work on it. It is called life, friends!

I was not always this chill about project completion. A younger me would stress anytime things were out of place or not how I wanted them, so doing a project felt like chaos until it was done. You know the signs, staying up until 1:00 just to finish something, right? Trouble with this strategy, for me, is I would rush and cut corners near the end. I would do two coats of paint instead of three just to rip the tape off and be done! Problem is that third coat really would have made it look polished. Stuff like that happens a lot with my work. I now find the value in taking my time and doing it right.

More Ramblings, I Mean- Wonderings

These days I take a more relaxed approach to finishing things. If I am tired, I stop working. Frustrated that a step is not working out at the moment? I stop working and come back to it when my mind is clear and I am better able to problem solve. Progress is progress, and at the end of the day, if a beautiful project takes two days or two months to complete, does it matter?

Join the Journey!

Do you love DIY? Does DIY scare you- but appeal to you at the same time?! That was me! Let’s continue to connect! Join me on this journey where I share how I am turning our builder grade home into the modern farmhouse of my dreams one DIY project at a time! Click here!

So the second question- why does my husband rarely help with projects? This one makes me laugh! My husband is a good guy- hard working, knowledgeable, and handy. He is great at fixing things around the house. Projects? Not his thing! He despises them, actually. The hubs supports me doing them in every way- he will drive me to Home Depot, help me pick out the materials I need, load them up and pay for them (sometimes 😊). He cheers me on while I work and always praises the finished product!

There is something truly empowering about doing projects myself. I was never good at woodworking. In middle school, I HATED wood shop! For Mother’s Day in 7th grade, I made a plant stand for my mom. It was crooked, like not level AT ALL and wobbled. My mom had that thing for years. I thought I was bad at working with wood. But now I realize I can do the things I only wished I could do before! I love looking at project on Pinterest or on blogs and thinking, “yeah, I can do this”. Opens a whole new world of possibilities!

Step three for my Entryway Makeover- Part One

Once all of the boards are hung, it is time to fill nail holes, caulk, and sand. And sand again!

In all transparency, this part is my least favorite! I am not the most patient person and I hate the sawdust! Sometimes I want to just speed through and call it quits, but I have learned this can really make the finished product look crappy. The more smooth the boards are, the better it looks when finished!

So remember, you are filling in every nail hole and caulking every seam. Couple of tips that I have found helps this process: one, the fewer nail holes, the better. If three nails will hold the board, go with this! As a newbie, I was going cray cray with my nail gun! Yikes is all I can say! Go easy with the nail gun. You will be thankful later!

Second, keep the caulk line clean. I do not have a caulk gun. All my caulking is done right from the tube. It helps make the line more clean when I clip the tube so just a small amount of caulk can come out of the tube. It’s okay to have it so thin you have to make two lines. Better than having a super thick line that spreads and gets messy, making more for you to sand!

Step four for my Entryway Makeover- Part One

Here is the project after all the sanding is complete. It is taped off and ready for paint! I like to paint the top first. Stardew by Sherwin Williams is the color I chose for the top. I wanted a soft blue with gray undertones.

Typically, I am a three coats of paint kind of girl. I love really great coverage! This paint covered the wall so well, though, and I found two coats to be enough. Here is the wall after two coats of paint.

Step five for my Entryway Makeover- Part One

Once I have two coats of paint on the top, it is time to paint the board and battens white! I use a paint brush for the boards and a roller for the wall between the boards.

The transformation is happening!

I ended up using the roller for just the first coat of white paint. The coverage is just better with a paint brush! It takes a bit more time but it is worth it. My favorite brand of brushes are made by Wooster.