DIY Board and Batten for a Modern Farmhouse Mudroom

See an easy tutorial for a DIY Board and batten tutorial for a Modern Farmhouse Mudroom or entryway.

Does anyone have “dead space” in your home that becomes a dumping ground?  Or should I ask does anyone have an area in your home that has no function and consistently collects clutter? For me, this “dead space” was the hallway right off of our garage that we call our mudroom.  I decided it was time create a little DIY BOARD AND BATTEN for a Modern Farmhouse Mudroom of my dreams!

First, let me give you a “before” picture:

This is the mudroom on a good day; shoes picked up, backpacks hung, no trash on the floor.

It doesn’t look terrible, just not the “dream” farmhouse MUDROOM look I was going for.

Goals for this Modern farmhouse mudroom with board and batten:

• Organizational
• modern farmhouse inspired
• most of all, EASY AND SIMPLE
• functional

All the tutorials I found online were a little too complicated for what I wanted. Like I said, I wanted simple, easy and functional.

I set out to make my own easy DIY BOARD AND BATTEN (or wainscoting) my way, with no frills.

Note: I did NOT want to add the “batten,” I would just paint the walls the same color as the boards. I know a lot of you are thinking, “well this isn’t really board and batten then,” but A LOT of people are doing it this way and for me this is what worked!  

Also, I went back and forth trying to decide whether I should remove the existing baseboards that butt up to the board and batten. I ultimately decided not to do this, and even though I was so worried I would regret that decision, I’m pretty pleased with how my results turned out.

Since this post was written we’ve completed a living room feature wall with board and batten. For this project, we did do the vertical and horizontal boards. We also used an angle cut where the boards meet the baseboards.

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Materials for the DIY board and batten (without the batten):

1. nail gun and 2 inch finishing nails
2. 1 inch by 4 inch by 8 foot Pine Boards
3. measuring tape
4. pen or pencil
5. caulk
6. construction glue
7. primer
8. paint- I used a generic white semi gloss
9. Hooks
10. 3M Patch plus primer(this works perfect for small nails holes)
11. drill

The first step in this EASY DIY BOARD AND BATTEN process was to measure the walls, figure out how many vertical boards I wanted, and measure out exactly how much material I needed for the horizontal boards.

I wanted to keep things SIMPLE; so I decided to use 1″ by 4″ Pine board because they are relatively cheap and easy to use. I knew I needed 8 vertical boards at 56″, so I went ahead and had those boards cut at the hardware store.  

How to create DIY Board and Batten without the Batten:

1. Measure the area you are working with and decide how many vertical boards (I decided on 56″ tall boards)  you will need. Note:  the distance between each of my boards is not exactly the same. They are each about  15″ (give or take an inch) from the end of one board to the beginning of the next. The reason why they are not exact is because I tried to work around the outlets and light switches.
2. Measure how much material you will need for the horizontal boards.
3. purchase materials (for me this was 1 by 4 pine boards, which I used for the vertical and horizontal boards)
4. Have material cut either by the hardware store or yourself
5. attach the boards to drywall with construction glue and a nail gun (this required an extra hand).
6. Caulk all the edges and patch up all the nail holes
7. Prime wall and boards (I used one coat)
8. paint 3 (3 coats is what worked for me) coats of white paint (I used semi gloss white, so it would be easy to clean for my kids)
9. Add hooks!

Progress pictures of DIY Board and Batten

Painting everything white!

A couple things to note:

1. Try to buy the straightest boards you can find. If not, the boards will not lay flat on the drywall and it will require a lot of patching and caulk.
2. When measuring how many vertical boards you will need, try to work around the light switches and electrical outlets. This prevents you from having to make more cuts.
3. A lot of people use different width boards. Like the vertical boards would be a 1 by 2 and the horizontal boards would be a 1 by 4.  My theme for this project was simple, so I stayed with one width and although I was worried it would look to plain, I’m real happy with the outcome.
4. When purchasing the hooks, keep in mind that you will be hanging heavy things from them, so make sure they are heavy duty! A link to the hooks I purchased is in the materials list.

A few final pictures!

You can see more of Vintage Metal Co HERE.

If you enjoyed seeing this modern farmhouse mudroom, you might enjoy our budget friendly coastal mudroom in our current home.

That’s it! I love the way my DIY BOARD AND BATTEN (or wainscoting) creates a nice Modern Farmhouse Mudroom.

Looking for more easy wall molding ideas? Check out my list of 10 great molding ideas here.

It’s really nice to walk into a more organized and lovely space. Isn’t it funny how a few 1 by 4’s and a few hooks will transform a space.

Did you enjoy this post? If you did and want to save it for later I would love for you to pin it to Pinterest with the image below!

Lindsey**