Office Project: Plank Wall

I already showed you the map wall for my front-room-turned office project…but that is not the only wall that got a makeover!

Were you able to guess what I did from this picture?

Probably not!

Well, let’s back up a little bit.  This is the wall you see when you walk in my front door (remember…no “entry” in our house).  Not very exciting, is it?

Well, inspired by Miss Mustard Seed’s guest room

and Thrifty and Chic’s dining room,

I decided to plank it!

Here’s a brief description of what I did.  I used a lathe strip (leftover from my “green tree” sign project) to define the left edge of the wall.  I decided not to mess with planking the overhead beam for the doorway.  But you know what?  Right this minute—I think I just decided that I regret that!  I may have to go back!  Yeah, like that will ever happen.  I also marked every-other stud line on the wall with a pencil.

I purchased three 4’ x 8’ sheets of 1/8”-thick hardboard from Lowe’s.  They were about $8.50/sheet, making this a very inexpensive wall treatment!  I had the nice man at Lowe’s cut them into 6” x 8’ strips.  He was able to do all three sheets at once, so it really didn’t take as long as you might think!  Note:  In my experience, Lowe’s has a much more liberal cutting policy than Home Depot does!  But I love both stores.

Then I simply butted the left side of the boards against the lathe strip, and nailed the boards into the studs wherever I could.  I did NOT choose to use any glue.  That way, this is only a semi-permanent wall treatment.  I don’t like to think of how many nail holes I’ll have to fill when I decide I’m tired of it…

I know it’s silly, but I was exceedingly proud of myself for notching out the spaces for the light switch and electrical outlet.

Almost done!  I had to rip the last board down to fit.  I didn’t even have to take off the baseboards!

I covered the right end with another lathe strip, to hide the uneven ends. 

Then I painted the wall with one coat of primer and two coats of Behr Ultra paint (color match to Sherwin-Williams Creamy).  Another note: the nice thing about the 1/8”-thick boards was that I was able to use the same switchplate and outlet plate covers.

Planking that one wall (it’s about 10’ wide x 8’ tall) took about three hours in the morning—and yes, I did it ALL by my lonesome.  Those kitchen chairs that keep appearing in the pictures are what I walked across from one side of the wall to the other!  The painting and priming were done by the time my husband got home from work, so it isn’t too bad of a project. 

I also put up the wall mural on the same day, also before my husband got home from work! 

But when he did get home…I sent him to KFC to pick up dinner

There will be some more things on the wall eventually—but I always knew I wanted this great metal clock in there, so it went up right away!

Next installment:  installing the desk!