Dear friends, My blog has moved!
Please visit me over at my new site!


I hope to see you there!

~Jenni



Friday, April 15, 2011

Full steam ahead! {The Master Bedroom}

How are you, my friends?

Glad it's Friday, you say? Oh, me too! :) I hope your weekend is off to a great start!

I have had one of the best weeks in a long, long time. Why? One big reason, and I am not just saying this, is because I was actually blogging this week. I am back into the swing of things, having a blast getting caught up on what you have been up to!

It makes me so happy to blog, both the visiting and the writing to you. I have met so many lovely people, and I don't know what I would do without you! So, thanks to each of you for your friendship and constant encouragement~ I am so grateful! :)

Now, about the current renovations...Well, the paint has barely dried on the bathroom {okay, a bit of an exaggeration} and I am working on the master bedroom now...yes, I am crazy. I know my family must think so! ;)

But with only two months now until summer break starts, it really is full steam ahead on all projects. So it's a crazy race to see how much I can finish before June 20. :) I try to keep it simpler in summer, although of course I have a few projects planned...

The main thing I have been doing is researching this week. And going to Lowe's. A lot of Lowe's. I think they are about ready to set up a cot for me to make it easier. ;)

But this is what I have discovered.

{Country Living}

To get these lovely plank walls would be harder than I thought.

I found that unless you were making your plank boards into tongue and groove with a router and lath strips, you have to put up the boards horizontally. {Otherwise the boards have nothing to nail into. Not a good thing.} I wavered on this, because I do love the way they look horizontal, but part of me was just so set on the boards being vertical...I am kind of wavering back to horizontal again as I write this...

But the vertical planks are gorgeous, too.

{Country Living}

See what I mean?

No matter how you toss the dice, there is just nothing compared to authentic plank walls.

But the problem with this is that in order to hang them vertically, we would have to use a router on both sides of each plank. This means using 3/4 inch thick boards. This also means adjusting every single outlet. We've decided we don't want to have to do that. Although we could do one accent wall, and my husband agrees with this idea...

So now I am wondering if I am doing the right thing by going a different way to achieve this look.

This is the 4' x 8' sheets of wide plank paneling I bought at Lowe's today. They cut them to 4 x 4 foot pieces for me.

It is different from the stuff we ripped out of our kitchen and dining room years ago. It has a "thick" look to it, not a manufactured look, and has a deep V-groove cut between each "plank". I know it will look good when I'm done. But it will look more like "fancy" wide wainscotting than charming plank walls, and I am no longer sure that is what I want. Over the past few weeks, I have gone from wanting the streamlined look to that simple plank walls look.

It kind of looks, or could potentially look, like this:

{Country Living}

{Wouldn't this be the cutest room for a little girl?}

So now that I have six 4 x 8 sheets of this paneling in my garage {Only half of the total amount needed} I am second guessing myself.

Maybe I should just just do one accent wall with planks, either hung vertically or horizontally?

One up-side: If I decide not to use the sheets of wide plank I already bought, I can use them in my girls' room, which is the next room on my list to redo.

What do you think? Any opinions? Oh, please save me from myself! ;)

And before I close, I just want to say a big huge thank you to Michelle from Emerald Cove, who has been so sweet about answering my questions regarding plank walls. Have you seen the plank wall she just did above her fireplace? If not, you are missing out! It is simply beautiful. You can see it right here. {And thanks again Michelle, for all of your help!}

So...I hope your weekend is wonderful, and thank you so much for stopping by and for listening to me go on and on. And on.

Much love,

Jenni


14 comments:

marenmat said...

hi,
don't know much about american walls, they are very different from dutch walls. But if planks have a solid ground to nail horizontally, why not take two/three planks that way (one high and one low) and than have that as a base to nail the planks vertically like you thought??
I have no idea if I am making sense here, if you understand what I am saying...

Anyway, It is bound to get so beautifull with so much thought in it! Have fun and absoltely waiting on the result!

Marlies

Anonymous said...

Hi Jenni!

It's fun to blog with you too. I'm happy to hear you're having a good week. I never thought that hanging walls vertically would be such a challenge. It only makes sense when you don't have studs to support them. I like the look that you're going for. I say keep with it and use it in your room first. I think they will be beautiful and add a lot of character. I love how Michelle has added them through her house. She is such a sweet friend to boot, as are you!

Have a wonderful weekend! I hope you can come to a decision. I don't want to see you spending the night at Lowe's :)

Hugs,
Michelle

. said...

Yikes! I'm not really sure that I have any 'real' advice. But I say go with your gut! The gut is usually right. :)

If you do an accent wall and decide it works, you could always continue on with the rest of the room.

Unknown said...

Have you seen this? http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/2010/04/exposed-board-wall-tutorial.html
I don't know if it would help, but it can't hurt! :o)
~Terry

An Oasis in the Desert said...

Sorry, I don't have any idea what to tell you. I'm sure you will make the right choice.
CAS

Burlap Luxe said...

I love it all girl! I really love the horizontal look!

Jenni you can run strips of wood like a 1x1 hard wood down your walls and then you screw the planks to the strips of wood that you ran first on the walls horizontally. You make like top bottom and two in the half way points on all 4 walls these strips of wood act as anchors for you now to place the planks on the wood strips and then screw them in.

You can go get some T 1 eleven ply and pannel the walls and then screw it to the studs, after that you can do planks in any direction you want drywall screwing them into the ply wood. This extra wall covering will make for the best installation and sound proof no outside noise will get in from late night TV watchers when hubby wants to sleep :)

Again ask the lumber yards they can show you easy way to hang planks!
xx
Dore

Unknown said...

Hi Jenni!
Love your plan. Not sure if you still read my blog but I just posted a home tour recently with the same wide plank paneling, vertically, on one wall. I have the old paneling in my office and...yuck. But I LOVE the wide planked paneling. Of course, I would prefer the real deal but this is MUCH more affordable & not as difficult. I plan on running it horizontally on one wall in our family room but I'm afraid that's a few months out. (The end-to-end seams will be hidden.) Whatever you choose, I'm sure it will look beautiful!

xoxo
Jami

Unknown said...

Oops...forgot to mention. To me, in my home, it looks like cottagey, charming, wide planked panels not fancy wainscoting but I guess it just depends whose looking at it. lol I hope that helps.

Erin said...

I do love the paneling vertically...and I think a whole room or just one wall would look smokin! I love Michelle's, I love Jami's and I know that I will love yours too. You all have different styles and I think yours will be gorgeous, whatever you decide...helpful I know, but you know I think you can do no wrong!!!

michelle said...

Hi Jenni! I love what Dore said. If you only go half way up you can almost make a little shelf out of that as well depending on the thickness of the horizontal boards. I hope that made sense. :) Whatever you decide I know that it will be beautiful!!!
Thank you so much for the shout out, you are so sweet and I am happy to help out anytime. :)

Tiff said...

Hello lovely Jenni, I totally understand that second guessing... I just bought some new furniture (that never happens) and suddenly freaked out, will it fit? will it look ok?.... so much expense, do I really need it? A shop lady said to me recently (choosing paint) go with your first instinct.... but having said that you will make the right choice, be it first second or third choice! I love the vertical planks and once they are painted who will be able to tell exactly underneath anyway? I am not going to be any help because I can recall visiting a friend in a Blue Mountains cottage and they had absolutely beautiful wide horizontal ones! Can't wait to see what you choose! X

Anonymous said...

I know these decisions have to be so hard! I couldn't imagine! Whatever you decided will look great, I'm sure!

My Dad was able to obtain my Grannie's 100 year old home and he has sooo many ideas for it's remodel. I think about you every time he talks about it. Her entire upstairs is plank walls. Some of the planks have rotted but he plans to replace them. He wants to keep as much of the original look as possible. I pick on him because I'd be putting up sheetrock...LOL!

Amanda@RelovedRubbish said...

Hi Jenni, I like the wide plank paneling you bought and I think it would look great if you put that on the wall from floor to ceiling rather than halfway up.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a happy Easter too!

xoxo
Amanda

Karen Tufty said...

I'm doing wide wood planking on my wall in my foyer it looks awesome
Check out my site
http://thecottagefarmhouse.com