Bathroom Board and Batten Tutorial

It's been a crazy week around here and to top it off, our pup got sprayed by a skunk last night. Not fun. I had no idea that fresh skunk didn't smell like skunk at all. My house smells like old greasy chemicals. It's disgusting. Luckily, I think it's going away. It's really not the best smell to fall asleep to though. As for Max, he at least got his much needed bath that he hasn't had in awhile lol. I guess there's an upside to everything :)

I shared with you a few months ago my updated guest bathroom and how I did the top half. Now today, I'll show you how I did the bottom half.

 It's the weirdest thing going into this bathroom now. It used to have such a cramped feeling, but now with the paint and molding, I swear it's grown extra square footage. It's amazing what a few updates can do to do a room.

 I shared with you this tip before. Most base molding pieces don't have a good ledge for the mdf to sit on when you're doing board and batten. So, instead of replacing my base molding...which would be a pain...I just grabbed a piece of decorative molding and placed it on top of my current base molding with the widest edge up. Then when I sit the mdf for the board and batten down, it doesn't hang over :)

 So, after nailing down the new molding to the base molding, I then put up the vertical molding first. I found where I wanted the two tier look to start and end and measured out from there. When putting up the vertical molding, I made sure it was straight with my level and nailed it in where I could into studs. Of course, that's optimal but not always a choice, so on the ones that I couldn't, I used liquid nails to secure into place.

I then topped off the vertical pieces with the horizontal pieces. Nailing each piece into a stud.

 For the top tier, in order to find the length I needed for the shorter vertical pieces, I place the first piece of horizontal molding up. I then found the length of the vertical pieces and cut all the pieces I needed at this length.

 I placed the smaller vertical pieces up next, making sure they were in line with the longer ones.

 I then topped off the vertical pieces with the other horizontal pieces.

For the ledge, which I think makes something good look great, I used a smaller width mdf (1x2). I laid the pieces down on top of the horizontal pieces already attached to the wall making a ledge.

 Instead of putting the 2" side against the wall, it was placed against the mdf as you can see below:

To finish it off even more, I used some decorative corner molding right under the 1x2. 

 Next I filled in all the gaps, joints, and nail holes with some puddy and sanded them down.

 I ended up painting this bottom portion Pebble White by Glidden. It's not a stark white; it has just enough warmth to it.

After painting, I filled in the seams with some white caulk to give it a more finished look.

I can't get over the finished product. I love this bathroom so much. I'd much rather use this one over my master bath any day :) TMI? lol I guess maybe it's about time to do something with my master bathroom then, huh? :)