5 Board and Batten Tips – my adventures with power tools and a giveaway

You guys, 2 things…

#1 – I am now the proud owner of power tools!!!

#2 – I’m still the proud owner of all my fingers!

TADA! Yep, I’m pretty giddy about it still (the power tools, not all my fingers, although I’m very thankful to have all body parts still intact).

You know I typically do all my projects with a hand saw, miter box, and a good ole fashioned hammer and nails. I like to get in touch with my amish side that way…but never again!

Installing this board and batten in my daughter’s room literally took about an hour as opposed to the whole weekend. Why did I go so long with out power tools in my life?? I’ll tell you why, for one I thought they were going to be super expensive – which was not the case! I got this handy dandy little Craftsman Jigsaw for $60 and the whole Craftsman EvolvAir Compressor with 2 in. Brad Nailer and Accessory Kit for $99.

Bonus, the Evolv kit came with all sorts of attachments included so I will no longer turn blue in the face trying to blow up all my kids inner tubes and rafts this summer.

I kind of feel like I can take over the world with this thing, or build a whole house! Ok, so maybe a bird house to start…but this baby saved me so much time and was so easy to use!

I picked these both up at Ace Hardware which brings me to my 2nd reason why I never had power tools – the intimidation factor. I can’t tell you how many times I walked through the tool section at other stores and felt like I had no idea what I needed or how to use them. But one stop in my local Ace and they had me hooked up in no time. One of their friendly staff had me explain my project to him and then he showed me all my different options of saws and nail guns, his recommendations of what I needed and a few pointers on how to use them. I left feeling totally confident that I got this… and guys – I so did!

If you follow me on instagram you know I’m getting ready to revamp my favorite girlie’s room. I originally had put up some bead board wallpaper in her room, but I was never crazy about how it turned out. I had always wanted to put a nice chunky board and batten in there instead, but didn’t dare do it myself. This month Ace Hardware challenged us bloggers to try a project we would normally hire out and it was just the push I needed to try it myself.

Here’s the wall after we ripped down the previous wallpaper – (hello old pepto-bismal paint, so we meet again…)

and here it is after nailing up all my trim, in about 20 minutes (!) still can’t get over how easy the brad nailer made my life!

The jigsaw was perfection too, no more blisters from using the hand saw for 20 minutes to cut just one board.

There are a zillion and 1 tutorials out there on how to put up board and batten so I won’t give you a full tutorial, but I will tell you my top 5 board and batten tips!

1. Obviously power tools are your friend! Enough said.

2. Make all your cuts first. I found it helpful to cut all my board first before nailing anything to the walls. I then laid them all out side by side so I could make sure I had cut them all exactly the same length, this will save you a headache when you go to attach the top piece of trim. This also helped me visualize the spacing I wanted between all the boards.

3. Spackle, or wood filler is a must.  Even with the perfect cuts the jigsaw made, none of my joints were perfectly tight. Fill all those gaps with spackle, let it dry and give it a good sanding with a sanding block.

4. For a really professional look, use caulk.  I caulked everywhere the trim met the drywall for a really airtight seal. This really makes your trim look great when you paint. You can see in the photo below how handy this is too for when your walls aren’t perfectly level.

5. Paint! Use a high quality paint, roller cover and brush.  I used Clark+Kensington Satin paint (Silent White is the color) and primer in one and did 3 coats, sanding lightly in between each coat. I also cracked a window when I painted, because the helpful guy in the paint department told me that paint dries with less noticeable brush strokes in cooler temps.

So there you have it, my board and batten all finished up, but I’m just getting started in my daughter’s room! Stop back later in the week to see the GORGEOUS wallpaper I added above the board and batten and learn all about my almost nervous breakdown during the process. Let’s just say I’ll use my power tools any day over wallpapering ever again…

 

Now here is another giveaway for $100 gift card to Ace Hardware so you can get some power tools of your own! Just follow the rafflecopter instructions below for you chance to win, good luck!

Disclosure: I’m a member of the Ace Hardware Blogger Panel. Ace Hardware provided me with products and compensation for this post, but all opinions are 100 percent mine. All opinions and positions here do not necessarily reflect those of Ace Hardware.

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