Living Room Wall Redo + Shiplap Wall Tips

We turned our living room wall into a rustic black shiplap wall. Minimalist homestead decor and tips to installing a perfect shiplap wall.

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If you know anything about me, you know I love a good home redo. Seeing a space transformed from bland to beautifully designed is like magic. When we first moved to the homestead, the first thing my mind went to was the home design opportunities.

We started with the guest room, just in time for coronavirus to keep guests from using it, go figure. We moved onto the upstairs hallway, my favorite redo so far. Until now! We transformed our living room wall into a rustic shiplap and I couldn’t be happier with the results. It is exactly what I had in mind and I feel even more accomplished knowing we installed the shiplap wall ourselves. Who knows what will be next; the pantry, the bathroom who knows! Stay tuned.

The inspiration for this wall started with my bestie – hey, Cristin! When we first moved in I sent her photos of the house. She asked about my plans for the living room wall. My first plan was to paint it bright white in an effort to bring more light to the living room. Despite a huge window in the living room, the lighting is a little funky. She suggested a rustic black wall and right then and there, my plans changed.

Dark walls can be intimidating and are often avoided, and I get it! My go-to color for walls is a light color, like white or cream. Light-colored walls are easy to decorate and are a great canvas for a minimalistic design. But through this experience, I learned that darks walls are really exciting to decorate. The contrast of the dark wall makes everything pop which made it pretty easy to find decor that complimented the color.

To make the wall feel extra rustic, we chose to install a vertical shiplap wall. The natural roughness and knots in the wood subtly show through the black paint and add to homestead vibe, which is right up my home design alley.

Before

after

The adventure into shiplap wall installation was overall, a good one, but I learned so much. I’ll be honest, guys. I was planning on giving you a full how-to about shiplap wall installation, but as it was my first time doing this I was learning as I went. Instead of acting like I am an expert, I am sharing my living room wall redo for inspiration, plus some shiplap wall tips that I learned along the way.

Home depot has a great how-to guide if you are planning on installing your own shiplap wall.

A shiplap wall can be installed using simple 1×6 boards, but that requires spacing and a close eye with a level. To avoid this extra work, we used these pine shiplap boards that have a joint to fit into each other. I highly suggest getting these boards, they are not terribly expensive and make the installation process much easier. Once we got the hang of it, the wall went up pretty easy. The hardest part was measuring and making intricate cuts. The biggest lesson I learned through this was…

Measure four times, cut once.

We also updated the door trim for almost nothing and it was so easy to install. I used three, 1×3 boards. One for each side of the door and one for the top. To make the two small pieces on the top, I cut a portion of the 1×3 board in half lengthwise. I followed this trim how-to, it is for windows but can easily be used for door trim.

Once the wall was installed, it was time to pick out paint. Is it just me or do you feel like a kid in a candy shop in the paint section?! Black can actually be a pretty hard color to pick out. There are so. many. black paint colors. I knew I wanted a rustic black, dark, but cool-toned, and smoky. We finally landed on Carbon from Behr in satin.

Since black is actually the absence of color, it makes for the perfect backdrop for other colors. Dark greens and purples, golds, and natural wood accents go so well with a black wall. There is a small cushion next to the woodstove that was covered in a simple fabric. For years I have been inspired by Craftberry Bush’s family room. The black wall with toffee leather and natural firewood. Yes, please!

I covered the cushion with this beautiful toffee faux leather that compliments the black wall and the brick. For a little more style and contrast, I added a black and white lumbar throw pillow.

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen me transform a roughed up gold frame into this beautiful gold mirror. It was such an easy project to make and saved me some money. I am a big believer in making something out of nothing. For some extra detail, I added a quaint fox hook below the mirror that serves as decor and a functional hook.

Before this redo, we were storing our firewood in an old wood chest. It was simple and did its job, but often got in the way. I searched high and low for a firewood rack that would store our firewood, but also be aesthetically pleasing. The hoop firewood rack was exactly what I was looking for. The shape is simple and against the black wall looks like the wood is floating.

A few last-minute details brought this wall together. The vintage books, that I may grab from time to time just to smell the pages and the simple potted plant. Oh, yea and that guy on the motorcycle is my godfather. That picture has been hanging on this wall for years so it only felt right to keep it there. Plus, it’s such a cool picture!

Shiplap wall tips

• Spending the extra money for the shiplap boards with the joint is totally worth it and isn’t that much more money.
• You will need some type of saw to cut the boards to the perfect length. We used a combination of a circular saw and a miter saw. The circular saw worked best for corner cuts and the table saw for length cuts.
• If you want a really solid color, prime the wood with Killz 2 primer and stain blocker. I wanted a rustic look, with the details of the wood showing through so I did not prime, but if that’s not your thing prime away!
• If you are painting the wall a darker color as I did, paint the edges of the boards before installing them. It will ensure that the seams of the boards are painted thoroughly.
• Installing trim at the top and bottom of the wall makes it much easier for measurements. If a board is off by 1/2 inch, it’s okay because the trim will cover it.
• If the boards are not as long as the wall, no worries! Measure the difference and add it to the bottom. Spackle the seam and sand so the two boards match. Remember the trim! Don’t fret that the cut is perfect.
• Applying adhesive caulk on the back of the boards before nailing them into place does help secure the boards, but keep in mind if you ever plan on removing the wall, the caulking will make it harder.
• A brad nailer is the only way to go. It makes the install so much faster and the boards are secured. You can either buy one rent one from Home Depot.
• The brad nailer will leave a small hole. Use this spackling paste to fill before painting.
• Fill the brad nail holes as you go as opposed to after they are all nailed. The holes are very small so they are easy to miss if you go back later.
• Paint the wall one more coat then you think you will need. Even painting with black showed brush strokes. It’s best to do one more coat to get a really solid color.