The One with the... Entry Way Makeover

They say that first impressions are important.  Other than curb appeal, the entry way is the first thing that guests see when they come through the front door.  Although I had painted the entry way a light brown/tan color, I still felt like it needed some "umph."   Here's what our entry way looked like: 

 

Here's another picture with the table that's usually in the corner: 

Another view of the side wall: 

For inspiration and ideas, I turned to Pinterest, where I found this pin:  

And this pin: 

Both of these entry ways feature "board and batten" wainscoting   This is exactly what I was looking for for our entry way!  Thanks to the many other bloggers who have posted  detailed instructions for how to install board and batten wainscoting-- like this blog and this blog -- we were able DIY it! 

Not only did we decide to add the board and batten to the main entry way, we also thought it would be nice to go into the adjacent hallway that goes to the half bath, future home office/craft room, and the stairs to the basement.  This is what that hallway looks like: 

The first thing that Dave did was sketch out a 3D drawing of the entry way and what the board and batten would look like.  He's gotten really good at using the Google Sketchup program.   Having a 3D drawing really helps visualize what the final product might look like.     

Here's the 3D drawing of the hallway: 

When I saw the 3D drawing, I thought the height of the board and batten was a little low. So I made Dave hold up boards to different heights so I could decide how high I wanted it. 

In addition to the board and batten, there was the issue of the eyesore -- the return vent.   It is the original vent cover that has been painted over many times.  Unfortunately it's also a weird size so I couldn't find a replacement at Home Depot. 

Although there are lots of companies online who will custom make a decorative vent cover, they all cost at least a few hundred dollars.  Not wanting to spend that much money on a silly little vent cover, I looked to trusty Pinterest to see if others had any creative ideas.  Lo and behold, I found this blog where they made their own vent cover out of sheet metal and molding!  

Off to Home Depot we went to buy all of the supplies (SUPPLIES!).  We ended getting 1" x 4" MDF for the battens.  While we had the option of getting real wood battens, it would have been more expensive and wood can expand and contract depending on the temperature and moisture in the air.  The MDF came in 12 foot lengths and in order to  easily transport them in our car, we had Home Depot cut most of them in half and then a few in 8 ft and 4 ft.  

The first thing I did was prime the bottom half of the wall. Once the primer dried Dave marked horizontal lines for the top battens.  Obviously we wanted the top to be at the same height around the whole room, but we couldn't just measure from the ground up because a 40 year old home isn't exactly level anymore.  Our only option was to use a level and chalk line to draw out the lines.  From there, Dave measured out the lengths of the top boards and cut all of the pieces using his miter saw.  He even mitered the corner pieces so they would flow nicely and not end abruptly.    

Here are some in progress pictures with the battens up:

Angling the battens in the hallway was probably the most difficult.  There was a point where Dave took out his graphing calculator and started doing trigonometry.  Being the perfectionist he is, Dave wanted to make sure that he was cutting the battens at the correct angle.  I would have just eyeballed it, but that's why he does the measuring and cutting and I just paint. ;) 

Usually in a board and batten project most people also replace the baseboards, too.  However, we didn't want to replace the baseboards because it runs into the adjacent rooms and it would look awkward if there were two different baseboards.  To maintain the flow and continuous look of the baseboards, Dave cut the batten pieces at a 45 degree angle:             

For the vent cover, we picked up a sheet of aluminum in the "union jack" design and some simple molding at Home Depot.

  

After filling in the nail holes, using joint compound to cover up the seams, and about 4 coats of white paint, the board and batten was done!  I also had to touch up some of the light brown/tan paint on top and paint two coats of it in the hallway.  We borrowed our neighbor's nail gun for the job, without which this could have been a very difficult project. The whole project took us about 2.5 weeks total, which included working two weekends and in the weekday evenings when we had time.  It was actually a lot more labor intensive than we had expected and planned for, but in the end, we're really happy that we did it!    

Here's the finished project:

View of the side walls: 

Views of the hallway:

Here's the new vent cover: 

It looks so much better than what we had before and we can still take it off to clean the vents when needed!  

Now the door jams and doors look dated and dirty next to the bright new white painted board and battens. I guess I know what project I'm doing next...