Welcome back to our One Room Challenge room for Fall 2019: our mudroom! So many things have happened this week. And the frustrating thing about home projects… is that you can’t actually see them. I changed my vision this week for our mudroom about… eight million times. Not exaggerating, because I NEVER exaggerate.

But in all seriousness, This week our main goal was to get the board and batten done. And we did! It took most of our weekend, and I think now that we’ve done it, we could do it again in half the time. It took a while to find the right wood, sand down the bench, and frame it all in.We *loosely* used the Young House Love board and batten tutorial. I say “loosely” because we used all the same tools they did, but ended up using some different sized boards to fit our space better. Rather than using lattice, we opted to keep everything flush and use 1x2s for the center pieces, a 1×4 for the top piece, and a 1×5 for the right side to balance the existing doorframe.

One of the main things that made it take longer was that our house is almost 100 years old, and there are no straight lines left at this point. Everything is just slightly crooked, which is something I love, and what gives the house character, but it also means that we have to get a little creative. For example, when the bottom piece wasn’t lying flush with the wall and the other boards because apparently the door frame is slightly crooked, we made a little 1/16″ shim to support it from behind. Once we caulked it in, you couldn’t see it at all.

Here’s what we learned:

• Take the time to tape out your board and batten so you can decide how far apart you want to space the boards.
• A power sander is a girl’s best friend for this project. I’m so glad I didn’t have to sand every nook of that bench by hand!
• Caulking seams is a lot like meditation to me.
• Even if you use a level, if your house is old, you’ll have to get creative.
• A miter saw and a jig saw are definitely necessary if you’re also cutting around trim (see crown molding below)

And that brings us to where we are today:

Caulked, sanded, and ready for paint!

This weekend we’re building our cabinet to go between the washer and dryer, and then we’ll paint everything. All a bright white with modern black hardware–I can’t wait!