Oppa Lodgeum Style

Soooo I’m finally sharing a project I’ve been wanting to do for MONTHS! And no, it’s not the painted chair (which is almost done, by the way…not that it should take this long, I’ve just been putting it on the back burner).

Back to the project that inspired my witty post title- The Plank Wall! I’ve been doing a lot of research on the best/cheapest way to accomplish this which is why it has taken me so long to execute. Ideally, the perfect situation would be that hoards of pallet wood-already broken down-would be delivered to me by some DIY angel in the sky. Don’t get me wrong, I love pallets…but I’d need a lot of planks to do a whole wall. Then I considered another option which is pretty popular as well- using sheets of mdf or hardboard ripped into planks. But, I knew I wanted a natural wood look, which wouldn’t be possible in this case (although I am considering it for another application). So, I looked into the often-pinned  product from Lowes called EverTrue Economy Plank Paneling. It’s a tongue and groove product that comes in 8 ft lengths, covers 14sq ft, for less than $10.

Except it doesn’t exist anymore.

I didn’t find it in the store, or online. I believe that it’s been re-packaged as “Stain Grade” paneling and now costs almost $16 per pack. In any case, I was very disappointed 🙁

But, I still really really wanted a plank wall in the guest room. So I went to Home Depot and found pine plank v-groove paneling, it cost me a little over $100 for the 6 packs I needed. So yeah, not that cheap but hey…you do what you gotta do 🙂

I got the Ryobi One Plus brad nailer/stapler for Christmas, which made this job pretty easy. The hubs helped me install it because the planks were long (not heavy, just awkward), but you could really do this yourself if you needed to. We started at the top, nailing each piece as we went.

It’s important to nail near the top of the board, so that you still have some leeway to line up the tongue/groove in the next row. This stuff is pretty flexible and easy to work with, but feel free to use a rubber mallet gently if needed. It also helps to check level every now and then, especially if you live in an older home as the walls/ceiling are not always square. Make sure your first row is level at the very least!

I used a miter box and hand saw to cut the wood, not that you need the miter part. When we got to the outlet, I just marked on the piece where some material needed to be removed, then Mike took a hammer and chisel to it. A utility knife will also cut this stuff pretty easily, so don’t be intimidated by notch cuts.

Finally it was time to lay the last row, probably the most time consuming part because a whole board wouldn’t fit. We started with the utility knife, but Mike found it easier to use his hand planer (it shaves off pieces a little at a time).

Last piece!!!

After all the wood was up, I stepped back to admire my our work. I thought to myself, “dang that’s some yellow pine.”  It was a total flashback to the 70s-and not in a good way! As hard as it was not to get the stain out STAT, I took some time to test out a few colors first. It is a large wall, and I only wanted to to this once.

I used some of the stain Old Masters sent me, specifically their Wiping Stains and Gel Stains (like I used on the front door). I thought it’d be easier to do a vertical surface with these because they are a little thicker than average wood stain. I tried 5 colors, with and without a grey wash, and ultimately I decided that I liked the look of #5 (Spanish Oak) which is almost black with some (#2) Provincial on top. Here’s how the Spanish Oak looked after I applied it by hand with a rag:

Oh and that outlet is getting replaced soon….

After the Spanish Oak was dry, I washed a light coat of Provincial on top to warm it up a bit.

Here’s the final result, which is rocking my socks off.

It’s looking mighty lodge-y in there! What do you think?