An Easy DIY Faux Shiplap Entryway Tutorial

I have been wanting to do Shiplap in our home foreeeever! Well we finally did our first faux shiplap wall and I am absolutely in love! Besides being very affordable, it was actually very easy as well! The wall we had been planning to shiplap is in our entryway, which happens to be a huge (9 foot) wall. With hardly any light, and being such a huge space, we knew we wanted to do faux shiplap to brighten and bring character into the space. After readying many, many tutorials, we came up with the best plan and materials and got to work! Here is an easy DIY faux shiplap tutorial that I hope helps inspire and guide your own DIY project!

If your looking for home decor inspiration check out this post for my favorite decor!

Before & After

This wall was yellow when we purchased the house, and painted grey when we moved in.

This is the wall after adding faux shiplap and after painting the shiplap white.

How to Install Shiplap

Materials

• Underlayment sheets cut into 6″ or 8″ boards
• 18 gauge, 1 1/4″ brad nails
• Subfloor adhesive
• 1/8″ spacers
• Electrical box extenders

Tools

• Brad Nailer Gun
• Air Compressor
• Oscillating multi-tool

Step 1 – Cut shiplap size boards from underlayment sheets

After 3 years in the home and many, many projects completed, this wall finally got upgraded with DIY shiplap. To begin, you need to purchase your faux shiplap, otherwise known as underlayment. You can have the board cut to size at most local hardware stores, or you can cut to size at home. Faux shiplap is usually either 6″ or 8″ wide. Because we have tall ceilings, and the wall is such a large, focal point, we decided to do 8″ boards. At under $15 per sheet, you can shiplap your wall for very cheap. We used 5 sheets of underlayment for our 9′ tall by 20′ long wall.

We have done shiplap a few times in our home and found that ordering cut pieces from Dunn Lumber is the easiest route to take. They charge 50 cents per cut.

If you cut the underlayment yourself, you will need a table saw to ensure very even cuts along the long boards to get straight pieces of shiplap.

Cut as many boards as you think you will need for your project. Sand them with a fine grit piece of sandpaper around all the edges quickly, so that you don’t have any splinters or rough edges.

Step 2 – Mark the wall at all stud locations

Once you have all your boards ready, line them up in the space you are working in. Find your studs using a stud finder, mark where each stud is, and then using a chalk line or another long tool for measurement, draw a vertical line from floor to ceiling marking the entire stud. This is an important step as your boards should all be nailed into studs if possible.

Step 3 – Attach boards to the wall

Starting with the top corner of your wall, you will lay the boards one board at a time, horizontally along the wall. You will want your cleanest board side facing out (less knots and defects) if your looking for a Shiplap look. If you want a more rustic wall, either side will work. Once you have selected a side, put a light line of the subfloor adhesive along the other side of the board (as pictured) and then immediately place on the wall. You will be able to move the board initially to wiggle it into place, but once it dries it will not move.

When you have finished one row, place spacers and then begin your next row below. As this progress photo shows, you can work on a layer below even if you haven’t finished the row above completely. But you need to have the board above in place before you do the board below.

We used 1/8″ spacers for our wall. We did not paint the wall before doing the shiplap because the grey shows through as a shadow which looks subtle. If you have a bright wall or a color you do not want to see, you should plan to paint the wall white before laying the shiplap.

When you stick the board to the wall, you need to nail it in before moving to the next board. If you don’t, it will move and sag. We placed a board, put the spacers in, moved the board into the perfect position, then nailed the board in. We did this for each board, one at a time, as we moved down the wall. We used 18 gauge, 1 1/4″ brad nails with our brad nailer gun and air compressor.

As you move down the wall, you will want to avoid any obvious pattern, and make sure that none of your boards seams line up above or below your row. You just need to make a judgement call as you go. Use as many full length pieces of wood as you can, only staggering the length by cutting shorter lengths on the ends. You do not want short pieces mid-wall.

Step 4 – Cut around outlets, windows, and doors

If you have electrical outlets or light switches, you will need to measure them and use a oscillating multi-tool to cut out the small area around the outlet. You will also need to use an electrical box extender to bring them flush with the shiplap before replacing the plate on the outlet.

Here’s a look at the completed wall before being painted.

How to Paint Shiplap

Materials

• Benjamin Moore Advance paint (Dove White) in Matte
• Killz Primer
• Paint roller and tray
• Paint roller extension pole
• 2.5″ Angled cut-in paint brush
• Paintable wood filler
• Caulk

Once your wall is done, you can begin prep for paint! I used the same paint as we used to paint our kitchen cabinets. Benjamin Moore Advance has self-leveling properties that makes it great for painting wood. I choose the matte finish in Dove White. Our cabinets are Dove White in satin because they are in a more high traffic area. I wanted the shiplap walls to have no gloss, so matte seemed like a great choice. I would probably should have used at least Eggshell though so it would be easier to clean. 

Step 1 – Fill in nail holes

Before you begin painting, you need to use wood filler to fill in the nail holes (an optionally, the seams between the horizontal planks). Once this has dried, sand them flat by hand with a fine grit piece of sandpaper.

Step 2 – Caulk seams and edges

Using paintable caulk, fill in the seams around doors, beams, and the corners of the walls where the planks end. When you paint the shiplap you can paint over the caulk and you will hide any imperfections such as unevenly cut or placed wood, large seams and gaps, etc. Wait 24 hours for the caulk to dry before painting.

Step 3 – Prime and paint the shiplap

You can start with your finish paint or use primer. We opted to do a layer of primer, and used Killz. Because our finish paint is water-based, we used a water-based primer. Make sure whatever primer you use is the same base (water, latex, etc) as your finish paint. You can see below, the primer on the left, and our finish paint on the right.

We rolled the boards vertically, using a light amount of paint on the roller. We used an extension pole to reach up to our 9′ ceilings. You do not want to use a heavy amount of paint. By rolling vertically with minimal paint, you will avoid getting paint drips between the planks. In the end, you will have a very clean wall with nice sharp edges on your wood! Carefully use a brush to paint the edges and around the doors and trim with a quality cut-in brush.

This self leveling paint is amazing because once it dries you do not see any brush strokes or any difference between the roller and the brush.

Once the wall is dry, put your covers back on the electrical outlets, and replace any trim if necessary. We did not need to replace trim because we simply cut our bottom board to fit right into the trim.

Here is a look at our entryway now that the DIY faux shiplap is complete!

I am so glad we finally made this transformation. The entryway is so much brighter and more inviting! The whole project cost just about $100 (except the power tools which we already owned). Now that this wall is done, I can plan for the next wall to shiplap. I hope this tutorial was inspiring and helpful to your own DIY faux shiplap wall!

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