DIY Board and Batten Staircase Makeover

When a magazine emails you about your house being featured in one of their issues, you do all the projects you planned to do in the past years in under a week :) That's just what you do...or at least what I did. I imagine that is what most would do. One of the projects I have been putting off doing is the wall along my staircase. I just couldn't make up my mind on what to do. I had three options, two of which were super hard and had me teetering on a ladder on the staircase. The other option was simple and quick, but just not what I had really wanted. So, since I had like 2.2 seconds to get this project done, guess which one I picked? The easy one! And I'm so glad I did it. I just wish I had done it years ago.

The poor wall along the stairs had been completely neglected. This wall was just a huge blank eyesore. It doesn't help that the entry way is a two story entry, so it's just lots and lots of beige everywhere. Here's a few before pictures below. If you look really closely you can see all the dings and horribleness of it all :) I'm pretty sure that spot in the middle is where my pup chewed. Yeah. ...

I always wanted to hang pictures on here or something, but never got around to doing it. 

Here's the much improved after:

 Before...again:

 After:

So, the first step in doing this was deciding how far apart I wanted the slats and how tall. I already knew I wanted to use 2.5" mdf boards for the vertical pieces and 3.5" for the top ones. I decided to do every other step for the slats. So, this made them 18" apart. Next, I found the angle of the stairs and cut the mdf to that angle on the top and bottom. I secured these to the wall using 2" nails with my nail gun.

 Next was trying to find that angle for the top pieces. I cut an approximate size of the horizontal piece (the area at the top landing and bottom landing). I placed this level where I wanted it to hang. I then drew a line along the top and bottom of this piece onto the wall.

 Next, was doing the same thing for the angled top piece. I placed the piece onto the vertical slats going up the stairs to give the me the correct angle that it was going to hang. I then pulled it down past the marks I made for the horizontal board. I drew lines on this one as well.

 This is what the wall looked like to give you a better idea of what I just did :) As for the angle cuts, I placed a mark on each molding piece where the other piece intersected it on the top and bottom. I then took off the molding and connected these dots with a line. This gave me the angle for each piece.

 Here's the angle for this horizontal piece.

 And then the other piece connected to it. I did the same thing for the top landing also.

 When all the molding was secured to the wall, I then went through and painted it with Swiss Coffee by Behr in a satin finish. I finished it off with some light weight spackling compound, filling in the holes, lines and gaps.

I did this all within a day, you guys...like 12 hours. Yes. It started at night, worked until about 1 am and then finished with a final coat of paint in the morning.

Here's another before picture:

And the after. It's amazing how much this space transformed with just a little paint and molding. My stairs even look cleaner! ha!

It took me some time to figure out what to put as my decor above the board and batten until I realized what a plethora of mirrors I had in storage. I actually have about 10 more mirrors just decided to try to keep it simple :)

  One of my problems with deciding on how to do the molding on this section of the wall came from what would go with the square board and batten molding at the bottom of it. I couldn't find any inspiration pictures to go off of so I had no clue if the square board and batten would jive with just horizontal board and batten. But, I think it totally works!

This brightened up my entry way also. This poor wall at the bottom of the stairs had been so tired looking and abused by the use of baby gates.

I moved into this house hating the knotty alder finishes. I wanted to paint or stain all of it. A few years ago I realized I didn't hate it, it just looked horrible against the beige. Updating my staircase with the white paint has made the wood pop and look amazing! I am so so glad I lived with it for years and never painted it.

 Next project for this area....which will be way down the road when my kids are a little older...I'll be pulling up this carpet off the stairs. I have always envisioned staining it darker to match our wood floors, but now I'm afraid that would take away from the banister. So....I'm thinking white steps are in the near future :) Maybe I'll add a runner so I can do it sooner than later :)

This area has taking on such a transformation since we moved in here 10 years ago. Here's a picture of this space before:

New floors, paint and molding. Simple (ish) changes for a big change! See how bad that knotty alder looks with the beige?

If you walk through my house we will see I have a love for board and batten. Here are some tutorials on all the ways I've done them. 

My bedroom:

Small bathroom:

Guest bathroom:

Nursery:

Hallway:

Kitchen Island