Yup! For Christmas, I bought my mom shiplap. Nothing ever is real shiplap anymore, this stuff was just the cheap look a like shit. Reading so many blogs about the knock off way, I figured that's the easiest way to go for my mom. If only...
Turns out, it wasn't so easy. See, I went and bought 6 sheets of the 1/8 in plywood. Then I had them cut it for me, there's where I went wrong. I mean who would have thought that someone working the large saw at the store would have completely botched the cutting job?
I watched him do it too. I had asked for the boards to be cut into 6 inch strips. And he measured a 6 inch line. Then, he cuts each piece at like 5 and 5/8 inches. Not only that, he didn't hold the piece as they were being cut so almost every single strip had a curve to it. The guy cutting? He must have just had a really long day that day. Pretty sure the saw was super dull as well. Lesson learned.
Oh yea, to the left, a crappy picture of my adorable little mom on Christmas morning 2016 with her bundle of fake shiplap :)
Anyhoo, here are the glamour shots!
Some before pictures. Check out the hideous wallpaper! Click to view larger images
So was it easy? No, no it wasn't. This ended up being a pain in the ass 4 day job for my dad, the expert on re-sizing and cutting each individual piece and having to hang them all himself because they weren't initially cut right.
Up goes the shiplap!
Having an air compressor is a luxury, let me tell you. And it really is worth it to have one if you find you need to be handy around your house more often than not. My father owns two of them. With him being a carpenter for 30 years and my brother rebuilding his old truck (you can follow that story on my blog here shortly), they really did need one -or two- around.
Hanging the shiplap was a trial and error process. Since they were only 1/8 inch pieces, we had to turn down the air compressor pressure so the nails wouldn't go all the way through the wood (which they did at first). Probably a good idea to test this too depending on the thickness of the wood you use.
With this being part of a 100 year old farm house, the plaster walls are not the most even walls. They do have dips and bows in them. In order for the shiplap to not hang out from the wall between each stud, we had to glue some down with Loctite. Oh the fun things you have to do with an old house.
Tip: Try not to make a pattern with the butt end of your pieces when two pieces meet at a stud. Some people do that in every other row and it looks very unauthentic. Scatter your seems! The farmhouse look is perfect BECAUSE of imperfections.
You may not be able to tell from the above pictures but we did this a bit on the back wall only because we knew it would be covered up later when we added furniture.
*That poor old pedestal sink. Over the years it has gotten a huge crack in it and my parents need to get rid of it. We do have something in the works planned to replace it soon. Stay tuned for that!
Ollie getting in on the action too!
Cost Breakdown:
Fake shiplap from Home Depot: $67
Nails: $10
Nail Gun: on hand
Air compressor: on hand
Caulk: on hand
Locktite: $10
Primer: On hand
Sherwin Williams Paint: $77
- The paint breakdown:
Alabaster white in Satin - 1 gal (walls)
Alabaster white in semigloss - 1 qt (trim and doors)
Hint of Blue in satin - 1 qt (ceiling)
New Light fixture: $70
New toilet paper holder: $5
New waste basket: $10
Total cost: $249
Of course we didn't pay for this all at once. The shiplap and light were from Christmas. The first weekend, we bought nails and Loctite. The next weekend came the paint. Lastly, the small finishing touches.
You don't have to spend a lot to revamp a room. And it doesn't all have to be done in a weekend especially if you want it done right!
I read all sorts of different blogs about how to shiplap a room for super cheap and while that can be done if everything goes right, we all know that most of the time things don't always go as planned and you may need to spend more money fixing unexpected things. So in all, yes, it only cost $67 to buy shiplap for a whole bathroom. But to hang it? That might cost you a bit more than you planned if you don't have all the right tools on hand.
Needless to say, it was definitely a learning process. I, for instance, learned how to caulk properly, what kind of primer is best based on your project, and that you should always lift your outlet when adding shiplap. Probably a good idea to just ask my father to cut things for me from now on too.
The finished product? Success!
Also the below pictures show the ceiling painted a very light blue. We initially bought Sherwin Williams "Hint of Blue" in satin. That was actually still too dark of blue so we mixed 1 part Sherwin Williams Alabaster white and 1 part Hint of Blue. I LOVE how the color turned out!
Also note the simple farmhouse crown molding. Not too intricate. My father has a lot of scrap wood laying around and decided to add these two small pieces of board around the top. Very cute and very simple.
Oh and here's the Westinghouse light fixture I also bought my mom for Christmas. VERY farmhousey. You can find it here. We will be getting Edison bulbs for it later. It'll look much better then!
Well there it is! Hopefully this generated enough inspiration for you to get crackin' on some projects! Have you had any "weekend projects" that turned into "month projects"? Let me know in the comments below! I'd love to hear your stories!
-jaym