Dirt Cheap Shiplap Wall

 

Hello everyone! As many of you know I thrive when it comes to cooking, baking and decorating. I love creating and getting my hands dirty. I've received such an overwhelming response on Facebook about our tiny house renovation and I'd love to help others create a beautiful space for less! 

What better way to start a blog than starting it with a dirt cheap shiplap wall tutorial?! 

Last month Ryan and I shiplapped our 8x14 wall space. We spent about 2 hours at the home improvement store figuring out how much wood we needed and how to get it for the cheapest price {because we never plan ahead}. 

Here's what we found out: Outdoor pickets are significantly cheaper than traditional 1x6x6 boards. 

*warning my math is not exact*

We had about 112 sqft of wall space to cover, that'd be about 50 pickets (purchase 5 extra, you'll thank yourself later).

A standard pine 1x6x6 is $2.98 per board. Holy cripes. That is $163 JUST ON WOOD. And here is the truth, good luck finding 50 boards that aren't either damaged or warped. Aint going to happen..

All of a sudden the light switch went off.. fence pickets! Now, hear me out. Yes, this requires a little more work than a standard 1x6x6, but think about all the dough you'll be saving + fence pickets tend not to be warped or damaged + stores tend to stock a TON of them. A standard dog ear fence picket is $1.58 per picket. That makes it about $86 for 55. That's a $77 savings! 

What you need to know: 

• The pickets may be wet from being stored outside, they may need to be dried out before starting this project
• The wood is treated so you'll definitely want to paint or stain your wall 
• you will need to remove the top of the picket (easy peasy)
• The boards are rougher than a typical pine board

{STEP-BY-STEP}

Step 1

 You will need to cut off the tops of each picket. Ryan used a miter saw and cut 3 at once. 

Step 2 

Plane or sand your boards if desired. We ran them through the planer once. {Ryan was given this old planer by his grandpa. He fixed it up and it works like a charm!} This step is not required but I desired a smoother feel. 

Step 3

 Paint/Stain the edges of your boards. I just took a roller and did one quick swipe, we didn't even wait for them to fully dry. This is solely so you don't see raw wood when you look through the gaps.

Step 4 

Figure out how you'd like to stagger the boards. We just kind of winged it. We used approximately 2 3/4 boards per row. {We also did NOT use spacers but it doesn't bother me that the boards aren't perfectly spaced!}

Step 5

 Nail those suckers up! We used a Hitachi Brad nailer. (Hint: make sure you have the right nails or you'll be driving back to the hardware store. Hint #2: mark your studs!)

We went to 3 hardware stores, bought the wrong nails twice and ended up having to drive 30 miles to get the correct ones. We took the nailer with just to make sure we got the correct nails this time. My husband is a champ <3

Step 6

Roll on the paint or slap on the stain! Finish as desired. 

One quick coat of white paint

After the coat of paint dried I quickly ran my sander across the paint, then I stained the areas where I had ran my sander



Step 7

Decorate!

Approximate project total: 
Pickets: $86
Nails $10 
Gallon of paint $22
quart of stain $8
TOTAL: $126
not too shabby

Did you enjoy this blog? Would you like to see more of what's going on in our nest? Comment below what you'd like to see next {baking or home reno}!