Easy and Inexpensive Shiplap Fireplace Wall
My husband and I moved into our home a year ago this October! He and I have never been keen on living in what we call a “cookie cutter” neighborhood. If any of you know Seattle very well, you know that it is a VERY expensive city to live in. Therefore after months and months of searching, we landed on this single family house, built by Lennar (an assembly line manufacturer of “cookie cutter” homes) and we are determined to make it our home. Therefore DIY mania has begun.
I have always loved the look of a Boho Modern Farmhouse look, so that is what we have been striving for in our home. Shiplap I believe belongs in every home (not biased at all. haha) but we really wanted to add some character into our new home and make our living room fireplace a focal point. Traditionally shiplap is 1×8″ boards, for this project I wanted the look of traditional shiplap but wanted the easiness of pine tongue and groove boards. Pine is less heavy, also I have been told doesn’t break as easy and is easier to work with.
Shiplap wall supplies:
- 1 x 6 x 8 ft pine tongue and groove board, our square footage for the face of the fireplace and sides is 100 sq.ft. so we bought 25 of these boards. We bought one more than we needed but glad we did because..well..everyone isn’t perfect and needs extra when you cut wrongš
- compound miter saw
- 20v 16 gauge angled finish nail gun We used a cordless one so we didn’t have to find or rent an air compressor.
- 16g 2″ angled finishing nails
- Circular saw or Skill saw for around the outlets
- Tape measure
- Long level
- Behr flat interior paint and primer we chose a white color called Polar Bear. we didn’t want stark/pure white
- Painters tape
- Caulking
All of the power tools for this project were rented from our local Home Depot. We rented ours for 24 hours and had no problem getting what we needed, I would just suggest you get there when they open to make sure someone doesn’t rent those before you!
So our first step might be different for many of you ( if you are doing a shiplap wall or shiplaping only above your fireplace for instance) but for us we were tearing our entire fireplace off. So our first step was to take the tile and existing mantal down and clean up those areas of the wall a little.
Step 1: Using a stud finder ( please tell me my husband isn’t the only one who holds it in front of himself and says ” beep beep beep” š³) , find and mark the studs in your wall with a pencil.
Step 2: Figure out where you want to start. If this was just a plain wall we were doing we would have started from the bottom and worked our way up. For this project we started at the top. With all the cuts we had to make we thought it would come together easier starting from the top.
Step 3: Measure and cut your first board. We did not sand our boards, there are two sides to tongue and groove, one that’s smooth and one that is the rough side. We put the rough side facing out because we wanted that rustic look once we painted. We also were putting shiplap down the sides of our fireplace so we had to cut the corners at a 45 degree and 90 degree angle so it’ll come together like a glove!
Step 4: Place the board on the wall, before you nail this one make sure it is pushed all the way to the ceiling and make sure it is level using your long level! Once you have the board perfect, nail it to the wall using the stud lines you made if possible. If you don’t get it in the stud every single time, don’t worry, it’ll still stay secure.
Step 5: This is where tongue and groove comes in handy, there is no getting your kids piggy bank or rummaging through your purse for coins to make that nickel gap, its already there for you! So keep cutting and nailing away. We checked with the level about every 3 boards to make sure we were still on track. You can do every board if you want!
Step 6: Use a skill saw or circular saw to cut around any outlets.
Step 7: If your wall jets out and you want to continue your shiplap down the sides or you need to cut around an existing mantel just make sure you measure and do one single cut before you do them all!
Step 8: We added a little trim to the corners of where the shiplap comes together on the edges of our fireplace. It looks more finished and you can’t see if the boards didn’t come together perfectly.
Step 9: Time to paint! We used the Behr interior flat paint and primer in one. We chose a color called Polar Bear. We didn’t want a stark white. We also white washed our boards. So we diluted our paint, you can do it by half, we felt that was too much so we did 1 part water and 2 parts paint. I mixed that all together, using a brush I painted it onto each board. depending on the look you are going for you can then wipe some of the paint off with a towel. For us the 1 part water and 2 parts paint was the perfect concoction so we just painted it straight one. Make sure to not do two coats in some areas and not others, you can tell if you don’t do it consistently.
Viola! You have a beautiful shiplap wall or fireplace! We are so happy with how it turned out!
If you have done shiplap walls in your home before I would love to hear how your experience went and if you have any tips or tricks! I hope you liked this tutorial and it has helped you with your DIY project!
LIKE IT? PIN IT!
