The Quickest and Easiest Faux Board And Batten Wall Ever!

Welcome to the laundry room/wish we had a mud room tutorial series!! I really wish we had a proper mud room! Or at least a convenient location in our house to keep all of our shoes, boots, jackets, backpacks, gloves, toques, hats, and just stuff… but our house didn’t come with this magical area, so instead… I’m dreaming up ways to create a few spots in the house to tackle some of these organizational desires of mine. Like this faux Board and Batten Wall!

One of the biggest problems that our house had was that there was no kid accessible place for them to hang up their own jackets, and backpacks. We did have some hooks but they were way to high, ugly, and in the way of our washer and dryer. They just were not working for us… So I Pinterested my dreams out, and fell in love with the look of the mudroom lockers. But we definitely don’t have the space in our awkwardly shaped entryway from the garage, which is also our laundry room. But what we did have room for was a good looking wall with hooks that gave us the feel of mudroom lockers.

Welcome to our simple faux board and batten wall, that gives us the feels of a mudroom, without taking up floor space, which we just don’t have. I love how it turned out, and I thought I’d show you how we made it, so if you suffer from a lack of space for a mudroom, you could get the look too!

NOTE: The reason it is a FAUX board and batten wall is because we are not making the boards. Instead we are just using the wall that is already there. So I guess this tutorial is actually called how to make a batten wall! Wink!

Here is an overview of our small awkward garage entryway which is also our laundry room, which is also a shared laundry room with our tenant, which is also our passageway to the stairs to our basement. It’s a very used area of the house, and it really could serve us better… not to mention look better too!

LAY OF THE LAND: The door on the right goes into our house, the door at the bottom left goes into the garage, the top right door goes into the suite, and the door next to that goes to the basement.

It’s the room of doors, with no windows, and a big red washer and dryer in it (I’m also not a fan of the red). See laundry room floor plans below.

So let’s turn this awkward space into something we love, and on a budget! Starting with a the easiest faux board and batten wall, that will tick two of the needs off our list, jacket and backpack storage! CHECK!

Here are the before photos. Let’s transform this space. Let’s get into it!

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SUPPLIES NEEDED TO MAKE A FAUX BOARD AND BATTEN WALL:

• 3 1/2 inch X 1/2 inch MDF boards – We found this bundle of 10 3 1/2 inch X 1/2 inch MDF boards, that were pre-primed with beveled edges (the beveled edges just reduce that amount of sanding we would have to do to make the edges smooth, and not sharp). 10 boards pre-cut for around $35 at Home Depot
• 1 inch X 2 inch board – for the top ledge (you can get a wider board if you want more of a ledge)
• Level
• Nail Gun and Nails
• Miter saw
• Wood Glue (optional)
• Spackling
• Putty Knife
• Caulking
• 220 Grit Sandpaper
• Paint
• Hooks and Screws
• Math Skills!! (Don’t worry I walk you through the calculations in Step 1)

HOW TO BUILD A FAUX BOARD AND BATTEN WALL:

Step 1: Measure your wall, and figure out how many vertical boards you want to have. Do the math to figure out the proper spacing of your batten. This is the hardest part of the whole project! Especailly if you measure your wall wrong. Lol. Make sure your measurments are correct!

TIP: It is more pleasing to the eye if you have an even number of vertical boards. This way there isn’t one board in the center of the wall.

EXAMPLE: Our wall was 119 inches, and I wanted 6 vertical boards (this includes one at each end of the wall. So do the math…

(6 x 3 1/2) = 21 (these are the width of the boards)

119 – 21 = 98 (minus the boards from the width of the wall)

98 / 5 = 19.6 (divide the left over width of the wall by the number of spaces between the boards to get the amount between each board)

NOTE: If you have 6 boards (with one at each end of the wall) you will have one less space between the boards. That’s where the 5 comes from.

So we have 19.6 inches between each board!

I would suggest a space of anything over 12 inches, and under 24 inches between your vertical boards, depending on the length and height of the wall.

This math makes me feel happy! Wink!

Step 2: Decide what you want to do with the baseboard.

OPTIONS:

• Remove the current baseboard, and put a new flat baseboard that is flush with the board and batten.
• Top your current baseboard with a flat piece of board to blend the board and batten into the baseboard.
• Or just not care that the baseboard is not flush with the board and batten.

We opted for the second option, to add a board on the top of the baseboard that would blend into the board and batten. Like this…

Step 3: Add the top horizontal board. Any height that looks good to you is perfect!

If your boards are not long enough to run the whole width of the wall, the best way to join your boards together is by mitering the ends together. This reduces the chance of them ever coming apart. We also added a bit of wood glue at the ends to make them more secure.

Step 4: Cut and add the vertical boards. Start by adding your boards to the ends of your wall then measure the amount in between, that you calculated in step 1, between each board!

Step 5: Cut and add the small horizontal boards between each vertical board.

Step 6: Add a 2 inch by 1 inch board to the top ledge.

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Step 7: Spackle all of the joints, nail. and screw holes and let it dry. Then add your caulk around all the inside edges of the batten, where the boards meet the walls.

Step 8: Sand all of the spackling down with some 220 grit sandpaper. YEAH Baby! Nice and Smooth!

Step 9: Paint your faux board and batten wall in what ever color you like. I have seen some amazing board and batten walls painted some beautiful colors on Pinterest. But we went for WHITE!

However, we decided to go for a Flat White, which I regret. I may paint over it with some White Semi-gloss paint. It just looks a little too flat… lol. I think flat paint is great for the walls, but maybe not for something that is supposed to be more “hardy”. Does that make sense? This is what we used…

And this is how it turned out! Happy DANCE!

Step 10: Add some hooks! I love these Cast Iron Hooks that I got from Amazon! Like this…

TA DA!!!!! Isn’t it wonderful! Kid jacket and backpack storage of my dreams, and on a budget, and in a small space!!! SCORE!!!

Check out the tutorial to make a backpack with cute patches like Ivy’s backpack here!

We have a mailbox for the tenant in here. And it fit perfectly in one of the spaces between the boards! How lucky are we!! Lol. It all just makes me so happy!

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I am so excited to have a nice place for the kiddos to now hang up their jackets and backpacks, without having them thrown on the tables, chairs, or floors!!

Now to tackle the shoe situation?!?! ideas, ideas…

I hope you feel inspired to create a beautiful place for your kiddos to hang up their stuff, even when you feel like you don’t have any room. You got this!!

Until next time, enjoy building your new faux board and batten wall, and creating beautiful things everyday!

XO JCL

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