Our family is going through a big big change! We are quickly approaching the birth of our third son, yikes! Before our new bundle arrives, we have decided to completely redo both of the older boys rooms. Our youngest son loves shiplap! Last year, we added shiplap to the entire upstairs living room and hallway areas. After the completion of our DIY Vertical Shiplap project, my son insisted on having the same thing in his room! We decided to go a slightly different direction with the vertical shiplap in our sons room. Here is our journey from little boys bedroom to big brother room!
The bedroom before was thrown together with items we had on hand from our other house. We used our Cricut to make some red and blue stars for his wall. I wanted to change his space so he could have something that he could grow into. Shiplap seemed like the right fit for this space!
Design and Budget
Wood is super expensive right now. While I would have loved to do an entire room full of shiplap, it simply wasn’t in the budget. A focus wall behind his bed seemed like the most logical, budget friendly choice.
The ceilings in our house are very tall. The longer the wood the more expensive the pieces are. To save some money on this project, I decided to purchase 8 foot shiplap boards and use a thicker piece of wood to edge the space difference between the top of the shiplap and the ceiling. For the wall edger, I purchased three 1-in x 8-in x 12-ft Square primed pine boards from Lowes. Luckily, I had some leftover shiplap on hand from recent projects. I ended up only needing to purchase 15 8-Foot shiplap boards.
Wayfair had an awesome yearly sale where I was able to find and purchase an amazing bed frame. I utilized the existing Full mattress and transferred it over to the new bedframe. The bed frame we chose was the Aadvik Tufted Upholstered Low Profile Standard Bed by Greyleigh in blue and we paid $147.82 for it.
In order to add more storage to the room, I purchased two large nightstands from Target to place on either side of the new bed. I scored these Mixed Material 3 Drawer Nightstands by Room Essentials on Target clearance for $60 each. While it took me forever to put these nightstands together, it was well worth the time for how great they make the space look.
We went back and forth on the color of the shiplap wall, but ultimately I ended up using white for a number of reasons. The first reason for using white paint was we already had it on hand so we didn’t need to add paint to our budget. Second, I wanted to keep the hanging American Flag banners on the ceilings, so any other color would have clashed with that design choice.
Starting the Shiplap Wall
First, I attached all of the 12 foot edger boards to the top and sides of the focal wall using 1.5 inch brad nails.
Once all of the edger boards were in place, I started adding the 8 foot shiplap boards to the wall. I started the first shiplap board in the center of the wall to ensure the layout would be visually even. All of the shiplap pieces were attached to the wall using my nail gun and 1.5 inch brad nails. After all of the shiplap pieces were in place, I caulked all of the edges and filled all of the nail holes with wood filler. Next, I lightly sanded the boards to remove any excess wood filler.
Finally, I painted the shiplap wall using a foam roller brush as well as a smaller angled brush to ensure the wall was fully covered. I only needed to use one coat of paint because the boards were pre primed.
Finishing Touches
Once the wall was complete, I brought in all of the furniture and accessories I purchased for the room.
My son’s big brother bedroom is complete! Everyone is so happy with how this turned out. Our next project will be my oldest son’s bedroom makeover, make sure you keep your eyes peeled for that upcoming post!