Hey friends! Today I want to share something super exciting with you. This is something that I have never done before, but with the right tools and a little bit of knowledge, this project was super easy and you can do it too!!!!!
As you know, our house was built in 1930 and is an old farmhouse. It was actually built for the farm owner’s best friend. It was built so he was able to stay on the property and help maintain the farm. It was originally a lot smaller than it is now, and there have been additions and lots of work done and we are pretty sure that was done in the 1970’s. We can tell from all of the wood paneling in here. And our bedroom was one of the updates.
So our bedroom was paneled and I personally love the look of painted paneling. It reminds me of vertical shiplap, and that is a win win in my book. We don’t have to rip it all out and we can paint over it and get a desired look! So that is exactly what we did. But our room had crown molding that we did not love the look of, so we tore that down. I knew I wanted to do something different but I didn’t know what. I found Amy @the_fetching_farmhouse on Instagram do this in her daughter’s nursery and I fell in love with it. So I decided to roll with it and do our version of it.
So let’s start with a run down of what you will need for this project…
*Nail gun
*Sanding block or sandpaper
*Measuring tape
*Wood – I used 1×3’s for the top and 1×4’s for the bottom
*Paintable caulk and caulk gun
*Wood filler (to fill nail holes and seams)
*Miter saw(you could use a hand saw too if that’s all you have)
*Paint and paint brush (I use semi gloss finish for trim work)
The first thing we did was took the 1×3 wood pieces and nailed them flat right up against the ceiling, against the wall. I nailed them every few inches to make sure they were super secure. Our room is 13×13, so I chose to get 8 foot long 1×3’s(furring strips and they only come in 8 ft pieces) but 12 foot long 1×4’s. The furring strips are tricky. They can be super wonky, have lots of knots and chunks taken out of them, and not be very nice looking. But the upside is that they are about a third of the price of the nicer pieces of wood. So since these would be mostly covered, I made sure I found a few nice pieces I could use, sanded them down lightly and put these up.
I personally chose not to do any tricky angle cuts in the corners. I just laid the boards flat against each other and didn’t worry about that fancy stuff. You could do it, but I thought it would be more period correct if I didn’t do all of that. Plus it saved a bunch of time for me. When I had to cut the wood, I lightly sanded the edge of it before I put the board up. Just measure twice and cut once! But don’t worry if it’s not perfect. Remember caulk and wood filler help a lot if you make a small mistake. You won’t be able to fill big gaps but slight ones you can get by.
Once all the 1×3’s were up, I put up the 1×4’s directly against the wall up as flat as i could get up to the 1×3’s. Our house is not level at all. There were many spots I had to push very hard for the trim to look seamless. But the good thing is, caulk was my best friend with this project. It really works wonders on making things look seamless. It is the perfect finishing touch, well minus the paint!
Once everything is up, now you move to the fun part. Caulking!!!! Some people don’t like this, but they are crazy. Hahaha. It is therapeutic for me. To see it all come together. Okay okay I need to stop talking about how much I like caulking, but you’ll see why. You will want to take the caulk and cut a small angled cut off the top, then use the caulk gun tool to put through the hole to open it up so you can start caulking. Put the tube of caulk in the caulk gun. Then place the tip against the corner, and slowly press the trigger and run down the seams. Then you will want to take your finger and run down that line of caulk to press it into the gaps. A little goes a long way! You will want to caulk between the ceiling and the 1×3’s, between the 1×3’s and 1×4’s, and between the 1×4’s and the wall.
You will also need to fill all of the nail holes with wood filler and in between the seams where the two pieces of wood join. You just need to take a tiny bit on your finger and put it over the hole. Where the seams are you can use a small putty knife or your finger, and once dried just lightly sand it to make it smooth. This part can be a little tricky, but sanding it helps tremendously. Make sure to get the excess off of the wood around the nail holes, otherwise you will be sanding like crazy and it won’t be very fun. Believe me, I made that huge mistake on my bedroom ceiling and it was the worst! So don’t make the same mistake, you will regret it.
Once all of that dries you can go ahead and start painting! This is by far the BEST part. We needed a good 3 coats, but if you do a primer first you may only need one coat. I didn’t have primer on hand, so I just used what I had but ended up doing 3 coats because it soaked into the wood.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. You can always check out my instagram for a video of me doing this too, if that helps! It was such a fun project, with such a good turnout. My hubby was pretty proud of me for this one! I did most of it before he could even get home from work! Let me know if you decide to tackle this kind of project. I would love to see it!
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