Shiplap accent wall

I already did a post on how to make your own shiplap, and the process was really cool. This is going to be more of a picture post about installing it. We wanted to make some upgrades to this bathroom, and add as much storage as possible. So we went from one light to two, and put them on each side of a medicine cabinet. Also while the wall was open, I put in another electrical outlet and mounted the cable tv input on the bedroom side of the wall.

There's only about 17" of this room that is full height. And as I've complained about before, the roof is too low. But after several attempts I was able to mimic the angle and I used the scrap as a template so I could easily cut the rest of the boards I needed. And since I started with 8' long plywood and the wall was 4" short of 8' ride I didn't have to worry about any of the vertical joints.

Pile of shiplap coming off of the table saw

I made a lot of sawdust

First board is installed

Now 2 boards, notice the gap

and now 3 boards. Gap is filled, and I had to notch out for the medicine cabinet

I used finish nails, and I could only put 2 nails in each stud. So that top board only got 2 nails. That first board took an entire work session to get that angle right. Then it took an entire 'nother work session (after work on a Tuesday or something) to get the 2nd board up. Mostly because after I got the 2nd board up I discovered the gap, then got frustrated and walked away. Also, I had already finished the electrical work by the time I started installing shiplap, but didn't get any pictures of that. it's nothing special. But I had the new light fixture boxes installed and the medicine cabinet install locations marked on the studs. So I knew for board #3 I needed to notch out for the top of that. Unfortunately, I thought the medicine cabinet was the width of the studs, and it was actually much more narrow than the stud width.

Shelf supports go behind the shiplap. Notice I marked the drywall so I could remember the location

Getting there!

Cut around the lights, installed the frame for the medicine cabinet

wrapping the other side too

Full view, one shelf support installed

Shiplap is in! For this wall at least

Both shelf supports installed

Full view of the other side

So I had to cut out for the lights, outlet, medicine cabinet, and plumbing. Funny enough, I read the instructions after I installed the frame for the medicine cabinet. They said not to install the frame for a recessed installation. Really should have read those earlier, I guess. I also had to put some extra boards in place outside of the frame. The plumbing connections would not lean out far enough to clear the furring strips and the shiplap! So I had to leave a big hole there. Copper pipes don't bend. It will have to get covered up with a cabinet now.

Be sure to sand the shiplap before you install! There is no sanding here. Sand the plywood to 120 grit after each edge is cut. Otherwise you can get burrs on the edges, and that's a lot of edges.

Do it. Shiplap accent walls are awesome.

Now here's how not to hang shiplap. The drywall went up like shit. It was so bad, Kelley actually convinced me to put up the scrap shiplap over the ceiling in the closet to cover the gap. It may have actually made things worse by exposing how slanted the ceiling is and just how out of square those closet walls are.

Ignore the shelf. that's not a shelf, it's my next post. But that gap in the ceiling drywall

Getting the top of the closet established, and a plywood back

The finished ceiling

Yes, it really does look that terrible. But that's still better than the drywall. And with the shelving and paint, it actually turned out pretty good. Well, decent. but it's up. And that's all the shiplap I can post about.