The scene has been set for the makings of our Nantucket Nursery for the Spring 2020 OneRoomChallenge! My husband and father-in-law installed board and batten around the room, spruced up all the paint and installed a ceiling fan. The room is just beautiful and I’m so excited to move to the next steps of the process!
But first, here is a quick look at our board and batten installation. Since I wasn’t the lead on this project, I don’t have specific step by step instructions. However, I can point you to some great resources and share how we decided our method!
Getting a plan
I’ve known for a LONG time that I wanted high board and batten with a ledge around all walls. After sharing a few inspiration photos and explaining my hopes, my husband was totally on board. We love the timeless look and know it adds value to our Charleston area home.
The first step was determining the size of boards and measurements. We purchased 1×3 and 1×4 primed MDF samples to hold them up in the room. In the end we decided to use 1x4s for the trim, battens, top piece and ledge. This allowed us to really minimize waste with cuts and saved money too! We also decided to do a quarter round under the ledge to finish it off.
When it came to determining height, welllll I just eyeballed it and rounded to the nearest foot! We opted for 5 foot battens, so adding the baseboard (3.5″), top piece (3.5″) and ledge (.75″) our “design” was just under 68″ from the floor to the top of the ledge.
I also figured going with 5 foot battens would allow us to cut 10 foot 1x4s in half to really save money! Let’s just say it was a good intention…
We knew typical spacing between battens was 16 to 24 inches. Being a small room, we didn’t want it to look cage-like. 20 inches center to center ended up being the perfect spacing for our walls.
I calculated our material list based on 10 foot MDF primed boards. Unfortunately, our store was out and my husband opted to purchase 8 foot pine primed boards. The project could have been completed for about $160 but due to the material switch we spent closer to $300. The quality looks great though!
Assembly Line
My husband and his dad (my son knows him as “Bubba”) got a pretty good flow going. Bubba measured and my husband did the running to the garage for cuts.
They started by redoing the trim around the doors and under the window. This is not a necessary step, but it sure looks great and makes the room look cohesive!
For the walls, the first step was installing the base board and top piece with a nail gun and air compressor, going straight into the studs. Like most houses, ours is not perfectly straight! So every batten was measured and cut precisely. These were installed with just Liquid Nail.
Next came the ledge, which they again installed with the nail gun and air compressor from the top. They mitered the corners for a clean look and did a 45 degree angle around the doors to avoid sharp corners.
And finally, the quarter round (with nail gun and air compressor again) finished it off!
Almost all of the woodwork was installed day one. Day two was just doing the quarter round!
The Tedious Part
Bless my husband’s heart… caulking all of the seams, filling nail holes and prepping the walls for paint took more time than installing the woodwork. But! Those steps really make all the difference in the finished look. Don’t skip the caulking!!
Paint!
All of our upstairs bedrooms are painted Sherwin Williams Repose Gray, so we wanted to maintain consistency. (And it makes it a lot easier for touch ups!)
Everything from the ledge down went white – but which white?!? There a million whites to choose from and it can be so overwhelming. I think I grabbed 30 swatches at least!
Our entire downstairs is painted Sherwin Williams Greek Villa – walls, trim, ceiling, everything! It’s perfect for that space and warms up our light wood floors. But in the nursery room, it takes on too much of a creamy cast for what we were wanting. In the end we went with Valspar Du Jour. It’s just your basic white without being too sterile. Looks perfect in our room!
Finishing touches
Our house is twenty years old, and a few things have shown their age. My husband graciously decided to replace all of the outlets, switches and plates so they look fresh!
The room didn’t have a ceiling fan – which is a necessity in our family. I’ve also read that circulated air is very important for a baby’s room. We kept it basic with this Monte Carlo fan. Looks great in the space! The reverse side of the blades are wood, which is what we thought we’d prefer. But… we actually LOVED the silver!
Next Steps
We have a clean, beautiful foundation to our room! I’m so excited to start adding in the layers of love!
Next up will be moving in the furniture pieces. As I’ve mentioned before, we’re reusing our crib with attached changing table from our son’s room. We converted it to a toddler bed for him almost a year ago. He’s almost 3 and his new BIG big boy bed is on it’s way. It’s AMAZING and I’m so excited to share a mini update in his room too! Also reusing our rocker because it’s nice and broken in – super important for all those middle of the night feedings!
We’ll be getting a new dresser for the room, but that project is on hold due to IKEA stores being closed currently. For now, I plan to position our current dresser in it’s place so I can still design around it!
Then comes all the fun layers! Fabrics (Week 3), Accessories (Week 4) and Art (Week 5). I have some good things planned so stay tuned!
For regular #oneroomchallenge chat, follow along for updates on Instagram – @charlestonhomemaker.
