Shiplap Wall Project

Are you a fan of Shiplap? We used reclaimed shiplap to create a shiplap wall focal point in our home!

We had a bit of an overlap with our move this summer. Our renters moved out at the end of June and we needed to be out of our apartment at the end of July. That gave us almost a full month to work on the house before we had to move. Working on a house is infinitely easier if you’re not also trying to live in the house. Especially when you’re ripping a bathroom down to the studs and doing other remodel projects.

After starting on the bathroom remodel we decided to do a major project in another part of the house as well. The stairs had gotten really worn in the past few years. Our renters had dogs, big dogs, and they weren’t super gentle on the carpet. My husband, who is also an interior designer among other skills, is a fan of the grunge look. Rather than re-carpet the stairs he convinced me to just rip the carpet up and fix up the wooden stairs underneath. And that’s what we did.

The stairs were pretty dirty under the carpet. There was lots of nail pulling followed by sweeping, scrubbing, and sanding. But once they were all cleaned up I really loved the way the wooden stairs looked! A little clear coat, but no paint to cover them up.

Of course the stairs were just the first half of the grunge look for this part of the house. The 2nd half was to turn the wall next to the stairs into a shiplap wall focal point. Once again, Youngest Twin was on hand to help with the demolition portion. He got really good at ripping walls apart!

Once all the sheetrock was ripped off we could start placing the shiplap. We got lucky that when we pulled the tile off the walls in our bathroom remodel we found shiplap behind the tile. We ripped all the shiplap out and replaced it with cement board. Then we were able to repurpose the shiplap for our focal wall. My husband sanded all the boards down and then measured and cut them one at a time to fit onto the wall by the stairs.

He picked each board deliberately to get the finished look he was going for. Thankfully we had enough!

Lots of sweeping and mopping, home remodel projects make a mess, and we could add in furniture. A small desk and drafting table fit perfectly with our grunge area/shiplap wall focal point. We have the same gray walls that are in the bathroom throughout the whole house. It really gives everything a fresh modern look.

The finished shiplap wall looks great with the wooden stairs! I’m so glad my husband convinced me to think a little out of the box with this project.

Did you miss our bathroom remodel? You can see our Subway Tile Bathroom Remodel here