There is a huge cost savings to use plywood strips to create a shiplap wall instead of true shiplap boards. Faux shiplap is easier, and way cheaper!

Buying pre-cut shiplap can be super expensive. Why not learn to cut your own shiplap, and save your money for other renovations? This is an affordable way to get the look you want, without breaking the bank.

Prep the Walls

One piece of advice is when you are prepping this space be sure your walls are the same color as your planning on painting your shiplap. You may want to know why, am I right? See when you place your shiplap there will be small gaps between each board. You can see the wall behind the wood, and if another color is showing through, it will not look the best in the end.

The Space

When Mike and I moved into our forever home last year after retiring from the Army, we had a ton of projects we wanted to start out of the gate. We recently remodeled our living room and thought this would be the perfect time to share how we do it!

Do the Math

Be sure you make all your boards the same height. You will have to do a little bot of math at this point. Trust me you don’t want to get to your last board and realize you need an award size board to end the space with.

Be sure to measure the space between your baseboard and ceiling or molding if you have it. Find a good height so you will fill the entire space. Be sure to account for the spaces between each board as well. We used our Ryobi Miter saw to cut down our shiplap.

 

Let’s Get Started

The underlayment did not need to be sanded down, therefore it was ready to begin nailing it on after we cut it into our desired width. You can start at the ceiling or from the floor (which was what we did.) I would recommend taping 1-2 coins thick between slats before nailing them otherwise your lines are not going to be consistent. You can also pick up a metal flat slat from Home depot to place between shiplap sections.

We chose to cut the underlayment into 5″ thick slats but you can go as wide as you like. Four random lengths of plank were cut and just rotated the pattern on each level up. We had to get creative and cut specific sizes for around the outlets and window pane (this can be super tricky and its ok if they aren’t perfect I think that adds character.) 

Finish Wall

There is usually a small gap at the ceiling or toward the baseboard depending on where you start your planks. Our baseboard and planks were flush since we started at the bottom and moved upward. You will learn as you go when it comes to cutting your shiplap.

Painting the Shiplap

It took us about 3 hours to get the boards up (with cutting the custom pieces and taking some breaks in between.) At this point I would recommend to fill in the nail holes, before painting. Once you sand down the filler you are ready to paint. We used BEHR MARQUEE Ultra Pure White Paint and I love the quality and finish.

Total cost for this area was about $120 if you consider wood and supplies. We only needed 2 coats of paint, since this was a bright white so we used 1/2 gallon of paint. We used about 2 Sheets of the underlay material for this area.

Finished Project

Seeing the end result could not make us happier with this affordable DIY Shiplap (other than the spacing) which we will use on our next project. We were in such a hurry to get this done that we totally missed this step. It looks amazing and the slats are already starting to space on their own so I am sure over time that each slat will start to show itself.

Materials

• Plywood (Common: 7/32 in. x 4 ft. x 8 ft.) $13.98 per sheet
• 18 Gauge 2-in-1 Air Nailer/Stapler $22.99
• Paintable wood filler
• 1/2 in. x 1/4 in. Crown 18 Gauge Staples 5000 PC $6.99
• Coin or Spacers for between slats
• Ryobi Miter saw, Ryobi table saw, or Ryobi jig saw
• BEHR MARQUEE Ultra Pure White Paint

Be sure to check out our DIY peel and stick shiplap project!