• Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube

Love & Renovations

  • Home
  • New? Start here!
  • Shop Our House
  • Ampersand Supply
  • Contact

May 20, 2020 · 8 Comments

DIY Vertical Shiplap

DIY Projects· Home

We’ve officially started our Phase 1 makeover of the game room, and step one was installing some vertical shiplap on a couple of the walls – here’s a full tutorial on how we got it done!

green shiplap wall

When we decided to take on a “phase one” makeover of our game room, Corey and I spent a lot of time debating what exactly it would consist of. Our long-term plans for this space include an entire wall of built-ins, a cozy library feel, and tons (TONS!) of storage for toys, games, and more.

But, since we’ve only lived here for 6 months we didn’t feel completely ready to dive into such a massive undertaking. We want to really take our time with the big decisions for this house and stick to projects where we know exactly what we want. And we aren’t quite ready to nail down our exact plans for the built-ins yet (though we have lots of ideas!).

The only thing we knew for sure we wanted in this room was to paint the (eventual) built-ins Black Evergreen by Behr (because we fell in love with the color months ago and can’t let go of it), and we want the built-ins to turn the corner and turn into a long desk for our boys for homework, coloring, or whatever.

Originally we had planned on just waiting until we were ready to do the whole room before we did anything in here, but we’ve quickly realized that this is a favorite spot for the boys to play, and it wasn’t very functional for us as it was – there was no organization, Corey and I hated being up there because it was always a wreck, and we just knew it could be a lot more useful for us.

Enter the Phase One makeover!

We decided that instead of tackling the built-ins now, we’d go ahead and do some vertical shiplap in the space where the built-ins will eventually be – it can stay and become a backdrop for the shelving eventually, and it gives us a good idea of how the color will look in the room (spoiler: it’s AMAZING).

This is a pretty simple project, and I’ve tackled shiplap on the blog a few times before, but this was my first time doing vertical shiplap so I figured it deserved its own tutorial.

I had to dig deep for some before photos of this space – apparently I really avoided photographing this space because I had a hard time finding any! But, here’s what I’ve got:

Game room before installing vertical shiplap
Game room corner before shiplap

You get the general idea – basically a total blank slate, white box of a room!

Let’s add some shiplap, shall we?

How to install vertical shiplap

Tools & Materials:

  • 5″ pre-primed shiplap
  • Brad nailer (Read more about how to use a nail gun here!)
  • 18-gauge nails
  • Caulk + caulk gun
  • Wood filler
  • Orbital sander and 220-grit sandpaper
  • Paint (We used Black Evergreen by Behr)
  • Paint brush + roller

The first thing I’ll note is that this project is gonna be a lot easier for you if you pre-paint your shiplap! I had planned on doing that but we had a week full of rain in the forecast and I didn’t want to commit to having all my shiplap outside and get it ruined by rain. I went ahead and installed it and, of course, we got zero rain.

OF. COURSE.

If I was doing this again, I’d 100% pre-paint using my Wagner spray gun, but you could just paint with a brush and roller. Just trust me when I say you’ll save hours of your life (and prevent a hand cramp or two) if you get it painted before you get it up on the wall.

Another prep work step that you can choose to do is measure the entire wall to figure out if you should start on a full board or a partial board. I didn’t do this, so I can’t speak to exactly how well it would work, but we ended up with a tiny sliver of a board over on the end of our wall. I think that if I had measured the entire wall and divided that by the width of my boards, would have seen that there was a tiny fraction of a board at the end. If I had noticed that, I would have ripped my first board in half before installing it so that the end fraction was a little bigger.

I can’t guarantee this will prevent any awkward slivers in your corners (because I haven’t tried it myself) but I’m fairly confident it would help!

Woman installing vertical shiplap

Once you’ve got everything prepped, your first step is to measure the height of your wall for the first board. You may be tempted to take one measurement and cut all of your boards to that length (after all, the ceiling is the same height all the way around, right?), but don’t do that! Your ceiling (and likely your flooring) isn’t perfectly straight or level and there will be variations.

I don’t recommend cutting more than about 3 boards from a measurement – after that, take a fresh measurement before cutting any more. I found that mine had about a 1/4″ variance throughout the wall – and my house is literally brand new….so I promise just about every house is going to have some waviness to the ceiling!

Once you have your board cut, you can install the first board. When you’re installing horizontal shiplap it’s easy to ensure pretty much every board hits a stud, but vertical shiplap is tricky since most of the boards won’t! One way to combat this is to use Liquid Nails to glue the boards to the wall before nailing them in, but I chose not to use it for this. I skipped it partially because we may end up removing some of these boards when we do the built-ins down the road (and liquid nails will destroy your drywall if you pull it off), but mostly because I wanted to see if it was possible! And, it is!

Instead of using Liquid Nails, when I was nailing the boards in place I angled one nail downwards and placed another nail underneath it angled up – these nails should criss-cross behind the drywall and help hold the board in place. I also took the time to angle some of the other nails at varying degrees so they are less likely to pull out of the wall. Between that and every third or fourth board naturally going into studs, I feel really good about this staying in place for the long haul (but, of course, I’ll keep you updated!).

You can see a photo of what I’m talking about below, or you can click here and watch my Instagram highlight with a closer look at how I installed all of this!

Close up of two nail holes in the lip of a shiplap board

When I’m nailing shiplap into place, I put the majority of my nails in the lip of the board so that they’re hidden when the next board slides on top. But if you only put nails there, the back part of the board will pop right up! So I always put a few nails along the other side of the board and just fill them in later.

When it comes to corners, you can just add trim (that’s what I’ve done in the past), but this time around I decided to see if I could skip it – and I’m so glad I did! For the pieces that meet in the corner, I simply butted them up next to each other and caulked the cap so it’s basically seamless. In the corner where the shiplap ends, we just cut a small sliver to meet the wall, and caulked between the board and the wall. I think it’s a really clean and more modern look, which is exactly what I was shooting for because a lot of the other elements in this room will be more traditional!

Corner of a room with vertical shiplap

After you’ve installed your shiplap, it’s time for the finishing work. This part is the most tedious (and honestly boring) part of the process, but it’s also the most important part for a really seamless and professional-looking finished product!

I used wood filler to fill all of the nail holes in the shiplap. Be sure to overfill the hole a bit so that when you sand it down it’s perfectly smooth! If you don’t overfill it, there will be a little divot where the nail is and you may as well have not filled it at all.

I also caulked all along the top and bottom of the boards, and in the corners. Caulking vertical shiplap is a little annoying because of the gaps – I just kept a flathead screwdriver nearby and caulked each board one at a time. If any caulk got into the gaps, I gently pulled it out with the screwdriver. It was slow-going but not as bad as you might expect!

After you’ve caulked and filled the holes and everything is dry, it’s time to sand! This is key in making your nail holes totally disappear. You can do this by hand with a sanding sponge, but if you have an orbital sander, that will make it a lot faster. I attached my sander to our shop vac to help reduce the dust, and it left virtually zero mess!

Sand aaaaaaaaall of your wood putty spots until they’re smooth, then wipe down the shiplap with a damp rag and let it dry fully before painting it.

Family room with vertical shiplap before painting

Once everything is dry it’s finally time to paint! Because I skipped the step of pre-painting, I had to use a paintbrush to paint inside each individual gap in the shiplap. It was not fun and it took me hours and hours to paint it all – but, of course, it was worth all of the effort in the end!

I found the best method for me was to do one section at a time (so it didn’t get too tedious and I felt like I was actually making progress), and I would paint inside all of the gaps, then go back with a roller and paint the face of the boards. You’ll need two full coats to help cover any brush strokes (the second coat can just be done with a roller!), and then…

Well, I think the finished product speaks for itself, don’t you?!

Wall with green vertical shiplap paneling
game room with vertical shiplap

I’m so incredibly in love with how it turned out and I (half) jokingly told Corey that I want to paint everything in our house this color. It’s SO! GOOD!

We’ve been working on a built-in desk to go in the corner (it’s almost done!), so stay tuned for that tutorial soon as well…and, of course, in a couple of weeks I’ll have the whole room reveal for you. It’s coming together even better than I imagined, and I’m so excited to see how much more our family uses this space once it’s finished!

If you want to see the other shiplap projects we’ve tackled, check out the links below!

  • Shiplap fireplace surround
  • DIY charred wood accent wall
  • Shiplap fireplace wall (apparently we have a type when it comes to fireplaces!)
  • DIY shiplap kitchen island

Previous Post: « 6 Months in the New House
Next Post: Weekly Wrap Up »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Meaghan Easterhaus says

    August 15, 2020 at 9:21 am

    may I ask if the boards nailed into dry wall and not studs are just as sturdy? i’m hoping to do this in my dining room!

    Reply
    • Amanda Hendrix says

      August 15, 2020 at 12:34 pm

      So far, yes! I addressed the technique I used with angled nails to help keep them in place in the post – so far it’s working like a charm.

      Reply
  2. Brittany Sanchez says

    August 5, 2020 at 7:18 pm

    How did you finish along the ceiling? It looks so good!

    Reply
    • Amanda Hendrix says

      August 7, 2020 at 12:17 pm

      Thanks! I just caulked along the ceiling line!

      Reply
  3. Allyy says

    June 10, 2020 at 12:30 pm

    What paint sheen did you use for this project? I am debating between the eggshell and the sating enamel in this color. Would it change the color and how it changes in the light?

    Reply
    • Amanda Hendrix says

      June 22, 2020 at 9:16 am

      Hi! I use matte for almost all of my interior painting! A higher sheen will definitely affect how a color looks when the light hits it, but not too dramatically.

      Reply
  4. Caroline says

    May 28, 2020 at 2:05 pm

    This looks amazing. Great job!!

    Reply
  5. Alvin EZNettools says

    May 21, 2020 at 11:18 pm

    Wow, It looks good. Thanks for sharing this tutorial.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hey, friend!

 photo IMG_5108 2_zpstvngxnnk.jpg

Overwhelmed by DIY? Let's do it together! I'm Amanda, and I live in the suburbs of Austin, Texas with my husband and two sons. I've taught myself how to make simple updates to help make my house a home, and I want to show you how to do it, too. Click here to learn more about us.

Looking for Something?

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 ยท captivating theme by Restored 316