Shiplap.

WE DID IT! We shiplapped our office, we shiplapped a couple of accent walls in our family room, and our laundry room. Scroll down to see the before pictures, details on how to shiplap your own house, and check out our after pictures near the bottom of this post!

It was so time consuming to figure out the cuts around the outlets!

Trimming out the office. I decided halfway through the paint job, to trim all of the rooms out first, then to go back and use a roller. It makes the job go by SO much quicker!!

So here’s the deal. We got our little secret from my sister. Unless you have lots of cash flow to spend on shiplap, you really don’t need to buy real expensive wood, unless you of course prefer that. We purchased something called underlayment. Most DIY shiplap tutorials I read about use 4’ X 8’ sheets of 1/4″ luan underlayment ripped down to 6” to 8” wide planks. You can also use 3/8″ exterior plywood, also known as CDX plywood, if you prefer to have something with a bit more texture (but costs $2 more per board).

Lowe’s is the only store (in our area) that will cut underlayment into six inch strips, all of the rest will not cut them because they don’t have the capabilities or because they cannot allow their employees to do such thing, due to safety reasons. We went to Lowe’s at 7:30 on a Sunday night, and they closed at 8. Not the smartest thing we’ve ever done. Because what happened was, they felt rushed, and the breaker to the saw kept tripping, so they were not taking their time on pieces, and we realized that it ended up ruining a lot of our pieces. So, because of personal preference, we had to spend A LOT of extra time sanding down the boards to make them even. One suggestion? Make sure they are cutting the boards straight & speak up if not!

Anyways, once they were cut, we brought them home and got to work.

Step one– Decide if you want a pattern or if you want the boards to go all the way across, with no splits. We decided to have a pattern. I know several individuals who chose not to have a pattern because original shiplap has no rhyme or rhythm.

Step two- Decide where you want the shiplap to start. Grant started all of the first boards (to each room) on the ceiling. I recently read that a lot of people started from the bottom, and not the top. We found out that it was helpful to start from the top because ur ceiling was slightly uneven, and we did not want our wall to look crooked.

Here are five most commonly asked questions regarding shiplap:

Is it easy enough that we can do it ourselves? Yes. But SO time consuming if doing more than one room. As long as you have someone that knows measurements and has a nice saw, you are good to go!
What length did you cut your boards? I chose to cut mine into 6 inch strips.
Is it expensive? NO. Using underlayment saves you a LOT of money because it looks like wood, but its half of the price.
Is there a specific pattern we should lay it? No. It all depends on personal preference. We chose to lay ours in a stair-step pattern and space each of the boards a nickel apart. (We really used a nickel). Some people choose to have no separation in their boards and have uneven lines (which I think it makes it look more original). I went back and forth, but I went with a “cleaner” look.
Do you fill in the nail holes? I chose not to, especially because I hope to put lottts of holes (over the years) in these walls. I love the character the holes add to the walls!