DIY Wood Plank Feature Wall

Hi everyone!   So sorry for the long gap between posts.  But, I’m here today to share what has been keeping me busy here – a DIY Wood Plank Feature Wall that was my Valentine’s Day gift from my sweet Hubs!    We’ve been married 30 years and he knows me so well – no chocolate or bouquet of flowers can compare to a DIY project that we work on together!!

There are so many wonderful tutorials you can find on Pinterest for DIY wood plank walls that give you that old shiplap look.  We ended up using three sheets of luan, a flooring underlayment product, from Lowes.

We had Lowes cut down the luan wood into 6 inch planks.   I would recommend sanding the edges of the planks before hanging them.  There are many tutorials where an adhesive is used to apply the boards, as well as, nails.  Because we aren’t sure we wanted this to be a “forever” wall, we opted to just use a pneumatic nailgun to attach the thin planks.   If using a liquid nails type product, you are going to have a real mess when you decide you no longer want a planked wall – and I’m known to tire of things over time.

To create the spaces, Mark lightly tacked a nail directly underneath (touching)  the board above and then placed the next board up against the nail.  Once that board was attached, he pulled out the nail spacer.  We started at the top and worked our way down the wall, but I’ve seen others who have done the opposite – starting at the bottom and working up.

I painted the planked wall with Benjamin Moore Simply White.  My fireplace mantel was also a white – but a different shade and I didn’t like the way it looked.  So, I gave it a little makeover too.  I mixed up some custom chalk paint with Webster’s chalk paint powder.   I used Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter (which is my wall color) and added some Simply White to create a custom lighter gray shade.  It’s hard to notice in the pictures, but the mantel is a soft gray.

I’m pretty happy with how this plank feature wall turned out.  It’s definitely a doable weekend project.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on plank walls – do you like this look? And, do you think plank walls are a trend or here to stay?