Office Renovation with Wallpaper

With our third baby’s arrival fast approaching, I have been working hard to complete house projects! Recently, I finished the baby’s room by creating a Board and Batten Bedroom Accent Wall. Now that the baby’s room is complete I can move on to a long awaited project, the Office Renovation with Wallpaper!

Board and Batten Bedroom Accent Wall

The Office Before

Before starting this project, I realized the office had become a catch all junk room. I wanted to make the office space more visually appealing as well as a more usable space for our families needs.

The Office During Corona At Home Learning!

The office furniture was a variety of free or cheap items we had collected over the years all packed into one space. It had always been my intention to redesign the office at some point to make it a more cohesive space.

During the height of Corona, we invested in a Peloton. While I love using the Peloton on a daily basis, I don’t love looking at it while its not in use. This workout bike eyesore needed to be addressed during the office renovation!

Getting Started on the Wallpapered Office Renovation

The first thing I did was get rid of all of the furniture in the existing office. Next, I went through all of my craft supplies and materials and got rid of items I no longer needed.

After the purge, I focused on creating an accent wall. The office has a double door entry and is right off of our front entrance space. I wanted the entry wall in the office to be the focal point of the space.

I decided to add a board and batten wall with peel and stick wallpaper. Wall paper adds a nice texture and pop of color to any space. Peel and Stick wallpaper is something I have tackled before in my Pantry Renovation and Reorganization on a Budget , so I felt comfortable working with it.

The hardest part about wall paper is picking out a pattern that works for your space! Target offers a wide variety of peel and stick wallpaper options. I purchased 2 rolls of NuWallpaper Cayman Peel & Stick Wallpaper Gray.

NuWallpaper Cayman Peel & Stick Wallpaper Gray

Next, I ordered all of the mdf primed boards I needed to create a 3/4 board and batten wall, similar to the wall I installed in the nursery. For a guide to building the board and batten wall follow the guide in my Board and Batten Bedroom Accent Wall Blog Post.

Board and Batten Bedroom Accent Wall

Creating the Wall Papered Board and Batten Wall

The first thing I did was install the wood for the board and batten wall with the exception of the top edger. I left the top edger off until the wallpaper was installed to maintain clean wallpaper edges. Next, I painted the board and batten wall. Since I wanted to keep the office bright, I went with a white paint I had from a previous project.

After the paint was dry, I hung the peel and stick wallpaper. The most important part of hanging wallpaper is making sure you have enough to match up the pattern and to make it look seamless. Hanging wall paper takes patience and practice but the best thing about peel and stick wallpaper is you can pull it off and manipulate it if there are air bubbles or it isn’t lining up correctly.

Hanging Peel and Stick Wallpaper


To begin hanging the wallpaper, I started on the left side of the wall and worked my way to the right. Make sure to leave overhang to the top and bottom of the wallpaper. Having more wallpaper is better than having less! You don’t want to run into a situation were you are too short and have to recut the wallpaper section. Using a box cutter, cut the excess wallpaper off to maintain clean edges.

Excess Wallpaper Prior to Cutting

I continued the wallpaper all the way to the right edge of the wall.

Once the wallpaper was installed, I added the top ledge to the board and batten wall. The top ledge was a design choice I added to allow me to place plants and decor on it.

Finishing Touches

To create a desk large enough for the space, I purchased three white file cabinets from Home Depot. For the desk top, I purchased a wood butcher block counter top from Home Depot and placed it on top of the evenly spaced out file cabinets.

For desk chairs, I used the same faux leather chairs I have in my dining room. Using my dining room chairs in the office allows me to store the excess dining chairs for holidays while maintaining a cohesive look.

Office Desk and Chairs

To create the light fixture, I found a basket I loved at Home Goods and transformed it into a basket light. For a step by step guide to creating a basket light, check out my DIY Basket Lights on a Budget blog post.

DIY Basket Light

In order to hide the Peloton, I purchased a screen from Amazon. When we use the Peloton, we simply move the screen to the side and when we are finished, we put it back.

Peloton Screen

I created a small seating area with chairs I had in my bedroom. The chairs needed to be moved for the baby’s bassinet, so this was the perfect spot for them!

Office Seating Area

For all of the accent pictures and decor, I took things I already had around the house as well as purchased items from my favorite store Goodwill!

I could not be any happier with the way this room turned out. It went from a catch all room to a fully functioning office/work out space!

Finished Office Space!

Board and Batten or Bust!

Board and Batten Dining Room Accent Wall

I wanted to update the walls in my house and add character without breaking the bank. I could have painted the walls and added accent colors but I wanted something with a bit more character. I love the look of board and batten but sadly it was not in my budget. After some research, I realized I can do this myself for a lot less than it would cost me to hire someone to install it.

I told my husband my plan to add board and batten to the downstairs living and dining room and surprisingly he loved my idea. I immediately got down to business and started drawing out a plan. I decided to install board and batten in the dining room first so I could get a feel for the look. My motto for this project is “Start small, dream big.”

Before Picture

I have a small dining area so the space was not that overwhelming to tackle. Here are the tools and supplies I recommend to complete the project with the least amount of headache:

TOOLS/SUPPLIES:

  • Miter Saw
  • Air Compressor Nail Gun
  • 1 1/2 inch Pneumatic Finishing Nails
  • 1x4x8 furring strips
  • level
  • measuring tape
  • paint (I used the Behr Premium Plus Ultra Minimalistic in Satin finish)
  • Hand Sander
  • Paint Brushes
  • Wood Filler
  • Paintable Caulk

*I had the advantage of having flat untextured walls. If you have a textured wall you might want to consider adding full length boards of plywood or MDF if you want a perfectly flat appearance.

The first thing you need to do before heading to the hardware store is measure the space you are placing the board and batten to get an idea on how much wood you will need. My dining room wall is exactly 8 feet in length. I decided to start the board and batten 40 inches high because I didn’t want to have to navigate around the light switches. I ran the boards approximately 15 1/4 inches apart. I ended up needing 4 boards (1x4x8 furring strips) for the entire project. I purchased my furring strips at Home Depot for approximately $2.30 per board (love that price!).

While at Home Depot I purchased the paint for the project. I have two toddlers who are always touching the walls with Mac n Cheese hands so I knew I wanted to buy the more expensive washable paint. I purchased a gallon the Behr Premium Plus Ultra in the color Minimalisitc, which is a fancy name for white. This is where I spent the majority of my money. The paint cost $32 and was worth every penny!

After purchasing my supplies I got down to work. Using my stud finder I found and marked the location of every stud in the area I would be hanging the board and batten. The reason I marked the location of the studs was so I could ensure that when I nailed the wood into the wall at least some of my nails would go into a stud allowing extra support.

I marked the location I would be hanging my vertical wood boards all the way down the wall.

I painted the horizontal top board and the two vertical end caps before placing them on the wall. This is not necessarily something that needs to be done but it saved me the headache of getting excess paint on the wall edges.

I hung the horizontal top board first. My wall was exactly 8 feet in length, which means I did not have to cut this board down (score, one less cut!). I held the board at my desired height. Once the board was in the desired location, I placed my level on top of the board to ensure it was completely level. Using my nail gun, I placed several 1 1/2 inch nails into the board attaching it to the wall.

Horizontal Top Board

I chose to paint the wall below the horizontal top board with a coat of paint before attaching the vertical boards because I thought it would make things easier for myself and it was a task I could do while the kids were napping without waking them.

I measured the distance from the bottom of the horizontal top board to the top of my base board for each desired vertical board location. I used my miter saw to cut each vertical board to its desired size. The vertical end cap closest to my staircase required me to complete a bevel cut so it would fit flush against my stair railing.

Bevel Cut

After completing all of the vertical board cuts, I attached the boards to the wall in the same manner as the horizontal top board using 1 1/2 inch nails in conjunction with my level.

All of the boards are installed….time for wood filler and caulk!

Once all of my boards were in place, I filled all of the nail holes and seams where the boards met with wood filler. Once the wood filler was dry, I sanded down the areas until they were smooth. I also sanded down a few imperfections in the wood.

I caulked around the tops, bottoms, and edges of every board on the wall with paintable caulk to give the wall a more finished look.

Once everything was dry, I painted the entire board and batten area several times with the Behr Ultra Premium Paint I purchased from Home Depot.

The total cost of the board and batten dining room wall was $42. It cost me $10 for the wood and $32 for the paint. All of the other items used in this project I already had on hand.

It took me 2 days of intermittent work (two toddlers remember) and less than $50 to complete this beautifully elegant accent wall. I can’t wait to start on my next project!

The finished product!

 

*I provided buying links to a majority of the tools and supplies I personally used for this project. As an amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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