How to Install Wood Plank Walls
Hello, friends!
Thank you so much for celebrating with me on yesterday’s post. 
I wish I could squeeze all your necks in person. All day yesterday I kept thinking, “I wish they really knew how much their comments mean to me!”, ‘cause I will never be able to put it into words this side of heaven.
God bless you to pieces.
Today, I wanted to share some information about the wood planked walls in our master bathroom makeover.
First of all, we used 1×5 inch tongue and groove New England White Pine from Lumber Liquidators. It ran about $1.09 sq ft.
You could really use whatever type of wood planks you wanted depending on the look you wanted.
Some of you asked if we installed the wood planks right on top of the drywall. Yep, we did!
When installing the wood planks, you need to locate where the studs are in the wall so you will be able to nail in to them.
When you find where the studs are, you can use your level to draw a line up the wall. This will help you to be able to easily locate the studs when nailing the wood planks on the wall.
Be sure to start on the bottom of the floor with your first plank and then move up the wall. Use a level to make sure your first plank is level, then nail it into the studs. Do NOT lay the plank on the floor and nail it to the wall without checking first to make sure it is level because your floor may not be perfectly level. Make sense?
If there is a small gap between the first plank and the floor after you have leveled it, don’t worry. You will be able to cover any gaps with your base board.
The rest of the wall is pretty simple. You just cut the wood planks to the desired length and nail them to the wall. If you want a gap between your planks, just use a nickel to create that space while nailing the planks to the wall.
You also want to make sure you cut around any outlets or plumbing when installing the planks.
Before painting the wood plank wall, be sure to caulk the corners with a paintable caulk. This will give the wall a beautiful finished look.
It is your choice whether you plank your wall all the way up to the ceiling or stop 1/2 or 3/4 of the way up. We decided to stop about 3/4 of the way up the wall and add a small shelf detail.
We also added a white base board after painting our wood plank wall.
Tomorrow, I will show you which trim pieces we used to make the shelf at the top of our plank wall.
If you have any questions about this post, just let me know in the comments.
Have a blessed day!
If this house gets any cuter I am not going to be able to stand it! LOL. Love everything. And girl, you must be so flying high since you’ve been published. And I know your mama is smiling down from heaven at you. Wonderful news!
Ha! Thank you, CaraRose! :)
I am VERY happy about my mom’s story being published. I know she would be so excited for me.
Have a blessed night!
Traci
Okay, it official! Miss Mustard seed is Superwoman, so that leave the Wonder Woman title for you! Now if you could just figure out how to clone your hubby , you could make a mint selling Mr Hunky, Handsome and Handy on Amazon!
Too funny, Mary! I told my husband what you called him, and he was gloating! :)
Thanks for your sweet compliments.
Traci
What a great idea. Thank you.
Hi Tracy,
I just finished reading yesterday’s post…”I’VE BEEN PUBLISHED”…which led me to read your blog about your wonderful Mom and the Easter dress. After I dried my eyes I read all about your Mom and her illness. What a beautiful lady and what a lucky family to have had her as Mom. Her love shines on through you.
I clicked over to my inbox and there was this post from you saying how much you treasure the comments. Well, Tracy, I treasure you and your family and your home and the way you share it all with us. Thank you so much and many hugs back to you. You inspire me to be a better person, wife and mother.
xoxo
Sylvia
Sylvia,
Thank YOU so much for your sweet words! I DO treasure your comments! They are so uplifting and such a blessing. It makes me think during the day, “Who can I bless with my words?” My readers inspire me to be a better person too!
God bless you!
Traci
What a great bathroom idea! The wide planks look “farmhouse” but clean and contemporary at the same time. Thanks for sharing!
–Holly
Thank you, Holly! That is exactly what I was hoping for. I love the feel of an old house, but I still want my home to feel new and up to date.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Blessings,
Traci
Looks so great! I’m loving getting the whole walk-through on this bathroom!
Thank you, Rachel!
We are going to do this to one of our bedrooms. My dad is helping and he will like this tutorial. Thanks!
We need to see some more walk around pictures of your house.
You crazy kids never fail to amaze me. Just beautiful.
thanks for calling me a kid. {wink} :)
Thanks so much, Tracy and Cy! We hope to do this in one of our bathrooms this summer. Your instructions will be really helpful.
You are welcome! :)
I am so inspired by all of your posts and I LOVE all of the pictures that you include! I do have a question that I have always been meaning to ask – how do you cut space in drywall, plank boards, etc for pipes? How do you measure and then how do you cut?
I absolutley love fixing up, re-doing furniture and you are such an inspiration! I am currently overseas in Korea and unable to do such projects, but when I get back to the States I am ready to go!! Thank you for keeping me inspired!!
Hey Lindsey,
Thank you for your sweet words!
Are you wanting to know what type of tools we use to cut openings in drywall or wood for the pipes?
Yes, showing the tools would be so helpful! Also, I meant to ask this when you installed your lovely ceiling in your kitchen. I was curious how you cut out space for the lights. I thought perhaps you drew a half circle using a compass (or full circle depending on the width of the light). If you could show how you cut through the wood for light switches, pipes, etc. that would be awesome!!
Great tutorial Traci! We just installed a plank wall in our Master Bedroom a couple months back! I just love how it turned out & the character it adds to the room! Much like the character in your beautiful new bathroom!! Shared this post! :)
Thanks so much, Tonya! I think I missed your master bedroom wall. I will have to check it out! :)
xoxo
You didn’t miss it! I haven’t blogged about it yet! I’ve only shared a couple sneak peeks! :)
Looks great! Cant wait to try this.
Such a warm and traditional wall treatment…so pretty!
Thanks for sharing how you did your walls! I absolutely love how they look. Your new bath is so pretty — looks straight out of a magazine!
It looks great! You guys sure put in a ton of work! Love “watching” you work together with your man. Love doing projects with the hubs too.
PS-thanks for admitting your struggles in working together the other day. I’m sure I wasn’t the only smiling in remembrance of a similar situation. Made me like ya just that much more. :)
This looks awesome! Absolutely love it =) I was pondering on doing this in our mall bathroom to cover a flaw on the current wall but I’m not sure if the boards will be too heavy.
dear Tracy,
are you o.k. with the fact that the rows in the corner above the vanity do not meet,( they do not continue the line)?
thank’s for posting.
This is really beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Can you share the name of the paint color you used on the planks? I love the way it sets off the white fixtures and floor. xo
This looks great! I am glad that I ran across your blog. We are redoing our bathroom and wanted to do this without any faux paneling, but we didn’t think to use flooring. Also, do you remember the color paint that you used on your panels?
Hi, we are trying to do this in our master bath.. my question is about the subway tile.. we have that in our shower.. what/how do you meet the wood to it? Is there trim?
Thanks!
Traci, super job on this project and really appreciate how thorough the tips and instructions are, along with the great pictures too. Thanks a buncg.
This is helpful, thanks. I’m looking to do this same kind of plank wall on my next project. Wondering if you just painted the wood white or did any kind of special technique to get a weathered/distressed look?
Hi thanks for posting this! I was just wondering, what do you mean by the “studs”?
This looks great! What color did you use to paint the wood planks?
Love the plank wood walls. I have been looking at these online.
I didn’t see your comments on how you finished the wood ledge on top. Is it here some where?
Thanks!
Would love to see the tutorial for the shelf you added above your bathroom planked wall.
Hey! I’ve got that! Check it out here:
http://www.beneathmyheart.net/2013/01/creating-a-top-trim-for-a-wood-plank-wall/
What did you use to transition the wood planks to the tile?
We just used baseboard. :)
What did you use to transition the wood planks and the tiles from the shower, going up the wall?
Fantastic job and detailed instructions. My question is in one of the pictures near the bathroom door. Did you stop short the difference of where you would reinstall the door trim? What size door trim did you use as well. We are installing planks in our kitchen and the back door is the frustration since ware using 1×6 pine installed over sheetrock too.
First off…it looks fabulous! Love the paint color.
Second..Having done this project myself, I prefer to start the first board at the ceiling and make sure and check it with a level. This way if your last board has to be cut to a smaller width..it its at the floor level and not nearly as noticeable. Anyway, it looks great. Thanks for sharing
Awesome.. The main question that was answered Can I use directly on drywall. No one gave me the answer correctly till I came to this website.
Happy New Year! I read all the posts and I cannot find an answer to what color you used on the planks. BTW I love how you incorporated the pic from Lowes for your ledge pieces. That info was incredibly helpful. Could you please tell me the plank and wall colors?
Do I need to install greenhouses or any water proof plastic before installing tongue and groove?