Hi guys!

Last summer I painted our master bedroom wall a beautiful deep blue. I shared that transformation HERE. 

I also had recently added an accent wall, using wallpaper to our guest bedroom (check that out HERE).

These two projects taught me one key lesson:

FEATURE WALLS GIVE LIFE TO ROOMS.

period.

so here we are. Adding more “drama”  to this pre-existing feature wall our master bedroom.

This time, it’s going to cost $50 and maybe a few hours of your time (if you have all the tools and knowledge)… maybe a full weekend if you don’t. But, like every DIY – it’s so worth it, even if it takes the full weekend!

What you will need:

1. Measurements of your wall (width and height minus the trim). Our measurements were 92 inches by 143 inches.

2. 2 inch wide MDF strips cut to size. Home Depot sells these at a standard length of 8 feet. Mr. Mint Candy Designs, who did this whole project in about a day, got the lovely folks at Home Depot to cut the strips to size.

3. Brad nailer with 2 inch finishing nails. We use our Dewalt nail gun, that we have had for two years. No complaints.

4. Level to make sure things line up

5. Caulking and applicator for finishing (to cover up nails, and seal the sides of the boards to the wall).

A handy husband is also useful, in my opinion 😀

What you need to do:

1. Sketch out either on paper, or on excel like my husband did, the dimensions of your wall, and how far apart you want the boards in order to calculate how many boards you need to buy. You can see our exact measurements on the drawing, and we ended up with 10 boards, with two on either end of the wall for a framed look.

2. My husband started out by putting the board on the first edge of the wall, nailing it on the top part first followed by in the middle and then at the bottom. He checked if the board was level after every nail to make sure it lined up straight.

3. He then worked his way across the wall from left to right, as per the pre-measured distances. This is where taking accurate measurements and drawing out the layout accurately the first time can be incredibly useful, and save you a lot of time.

4. Keep going until your boards and are all installed. Cover holes with nail putty/caulking if you like – we didn’t… because meh it makes no real difference in my opinion 🙂

5. Paint with your colour!

Now – one thing in hindsight. MDF is different to paint than dry wall. So, since our main wall was already painted a dark blue prior to us installing the skinny board and batten, we didn’t cover the wall in MDF. What this did was, it made it MDF a bit more challenging to paint as it paints differently. So if you are doing this on a wall from scratch, I would recommend covering your whole wall first in a sheet of MDF, and then adding on the vertical skinny boards – or use regular wood.

Overall, I think it turned out pretty nice! $50, a quick DIY, and our room feels so different than before! 

Sources (some affiliate links):
Bedding: Duvet Cover and Shams
Head Board: Home Sense clearance find
Night Stands: Home Sense finds which I chalk painted
Lamps: Ikea
Beaded Light Fixture: World Market
Rug: Nova Rug by Home Dynamix
Paint Colour: “Northern Sky” by Canadian Tire Premiere Paints

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