Easy Shiplap Wall DIY

Our love of shiplap knows no end.  Thanks Joanna Gaines.  I’m no stranger to trends.  If you look closely, you’ll see a wall of wallpaper that I HAD TO HAVE.  So, when I was researching shiplap wall DIYs, I came across people that were doing the shiplap with plywood underlayment.  This is awesome for several reasons.  First, it’s so lightweight and easy to handle that anyone can assemble it.  It’s way cheaper than traditional shiplap AND it’s not permanent.  Which means when the shiplap trend is over I can easily pry these off the wall and move on to the next big thing.  And I know they’re easy to rip off because we accidentally installed on the wrong way and it was easy to use a screw dry and pry it up.

Shiplap Wall Supplies

• Plywood Underlayment
• Sand paper
• Stud finder
• Nail Gun
• Pennies
• Wood Putty
• Circular saw or jigsaw
• Paint

Shiplap Wall Instructions

We took a trip to Home Depot and purchased two plywood underlayment boards and paid to have them cut into 8″ strips.  The width of the boards is 8 feet, which happened to be the length of our wall.  #winning  But, if you have a smaller wall, have them cut to the width of your wall as well.

You’ll need to sand them down just a little.  They are already pretty smooth, but you don’t want splinters.  Then, you’ll need a way to adhere them to the wall.  If you have access to a nail gun, that will make your life a whole lot easier.  Simple mark the studs and use brad nails to attach the board to the wall.

In order to create the look of shiplap, you’ll want spaces.  We glued 2 pennies together and used that to space out each board.  (See the photo.)

If you have to work around light sockets and switches like we did, it’s helpful to use a circular saw or a jig saw to measure those out and cut them before nailing them to the wall.  You’ll also need to cut the last board to fit evenly on the wall.

Once the boards are installed, use wood putty to fill in the nail holes and go over it one more time with a piece of sand paper.  We had to go around a corner, so the corners were also filled with putty and sanded smooth.

Painting underlayment is a bit of a pain, I’m not gonna lie.  The wood is porous, so it soaks up paint.  I used Swiss Coffee by Valspar and paid extra to have paint with primer mixed in.  I did two coats with the brush (so it would have a more natural look) and after a few days it was looking yellow.  I applied one more coat with a mini-roller (because I was over it!) and that did the trick.  It still looked naturally and stayed white.