Whew! We did it y'all -- we survived the holiday season! This has been a blur of a season for us, so I know we are both excited for a fresh start in 2019. We moved at the end of October, three days before Halloween, then 3 weeks later had both of our families (and 5 house guests) for a week for Thanksgiving, then crammed out a few projects on the house before leaving town for Christmas and (again this weekend) for New Years. You'd think we'd be feeling pooped, but we're both really energized to keep knocking things off our list so this house can really start to feel like ours.
Now that we've been living here a little over 2 months, we have learned our home's pain points a lot better than when we first moved in! Especially after we had guests, we realized one of the biggest headaches is not having a natural place to hang coats or bags. When we turned our coat closet into the pantry, we lost valuable main level storage, but I knew we had room to add functional storage without missing the closet too much.
I had done board & batten in our last house with our TV mount, and really loved the look of that style, so I knew I wanted to bring it into this home, too. It's fresh but still classic, and really elevates the style of a functional space like a coat hook area. I knew I wanted to get the same look for this project so we got to work.
This project was actually my Christmas present from my husband, since getting this done fell squarely on his shoulders. Anytime we have anything remotely detail oriented, math related, or measurement heavy, I bow out. It's not my strong suit, but it's definitely his, so he takes the lead!
Here's how we did it:
1) First, I mapped out what it would look like with painter's tape. This confirmed for us that we really did have enough space and liked the look! We played with the width and spacing of the boards until we had a layout we were both happy with. Doing this step really helped us visualize the space and get clear on what we wanted before we started attaching anything to the wall.
2) We bought a few 12 foot pieces of lattice molding for this project at our local Lowes. We decided to use lattice because we wanted it to be flush with the baseboard and door trim, which are only about .25" wide. We knew we'd have a hard time finding anything to fit that in standard wood cuts, but the lattice was PERFECT! Bonus, it made this project so much easier because we didn't need to use a big saw! The hand saw we have went through these boards super easily since they're so thin. We really liked the width of these boards (1.5") for the vertical slats, but wanted something wider for the horizontal ones, and since we couldn't find a wider cut of the lattice molding, we decided to stack 2 on top of each other for a 3" wide look on top. It works awesome for us, but even though I caulked the seams you can tell it's two separate boards since they're not completely flush. It doesn't bother us, but something to be mindful of!
Spenser measured out the space we were using, and we made sure we had enough boards. To do board and batten, you typically have 2 horizontal boards, and then however many vertical slats you desire/have space for. For us, we only had room for 2 vertical parts, so we did them on the "rule of threes" and kept them unequally spaced for the most visual interest (thanks, painter's tape!) Once you have your horizontal boards laid, the vertical boards are cut into two - there's one for the upper "box" and then one that goes from the base of the "box" to the floor.
Including getting materials and painting, this project took us about 6 hours, so all in all, it was a fairly quick project with a pretty big transformation!
Already we are loving having a designated spot to hang bags, coats, etc. We still need to work on additional storage, but have plans to make our garage a bit more functional hopefully next year. For now, this was a huge improvement both visually and functionally and I'm so excited about it! For under $100 this project has a lot of bang for the buck.
I'll be sharing a 2018 house update soon, too, but hopefully this project inspires your 2019 house goals list! And, if I didn't get to see you this year, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from the Rubins!
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