DIY Master Bedroom Feature Wall

March 21, 2020
For the Home

Who has taken this quarantine time in to complete those home projects you’ve been wanting to get at? I know we have…

This might be one of the projects that Greg and I are most proud of. For once, we had a clear plan and vision and executed it together without any snafus. Slowly but surely, we get more capable and handy. It hasn’t come without a history of learning lessons – but it feels good to be getting better.

When we first moved in, I hated the golden master bedroom paint color. Once we got our furniture in it started to grow on me, it is rich and bold and in a world of white and greys I enjoyed the character. I knew however, that a feature wall consisting of shiplap, paneling, or wallpaper was in the future.

I decided to go with a paneling look, found some inspiration and from there, I put the measurements and ideas down on paper!

Here were a few of my inspiration finds on Pinterest:

As you can see, going with a panel wall is not as simple as shiplap or wallpaper, because there are 100’s of ways it can take shape.

I started with the basic measurements of my space, height and width of the wall. And from there, scratched out a drawing, and built on it from there.

Here’s my long winded way in which I got to my plan, yea, it included a bit of math:

I decided to split the middle area by 5, and have the center cover 3/5 and the two outside cover 1/5. I found my measurements by taking the entire area, and dividing it 5. That left me with roughly 5 – 23.5″ sections for the middle. What this didn’t account for was the space between each section, using tape I mapped out what I thought looked right, which ended up being 5-6″ in between each section.

I adjusted my 5 sections to include that, and then filled my middle area with 3 sections in the ratio of 1/5, 3/5, 1/5 , which gave me 2-20″ wide sections, and a middle section of 54″. I roughly mapped it out with tape to make sure I liked it.

I had a much smaller area to work with on the outside of the windows (only 17″w). I thought a 1o” wide section with 3.5″ would look best and a I went with that.

This was 100% the hardest part! Take your time to figure out your heights and widths, and make sure to account for your furniture placement. For example, for the very middle section we only went a few inches below the headboard because we knew it would be hidden.

Next, we went to The Home Depot (Eastyn was a good helper). You’re going to want to come with a list of the section measurements you need to buy so we can remeasure and not overpay for your linear feet.

Here was my list, notice how I named my sections 1-5 to help me remember how they match up:

Middle sections 2/4
4 – 68″
4 – 20″

Outer sections 1/5
4- 88″
4-20″

Middle Section
2- 54″
2 – 50″

We pre-cut all of these in-store, with a few extras inches on each just incase. Our total was roughly 70 linear feet, which came to around 80$ in materials.
We used a nail gun to install the wood pieces, and here is everything we used to complete the wall:

– Nail gun
– finishing nails
– chair rail molding
– white caulk
– measuring tape
– painters tape
– level
– Paint color of choice/painting materials
– chop saw

I highly recommend doing 1 base coat of paint first, followed by the install of the molding, then caulk, and finish off with a final coat to seal everything!

When we got the wood home, I marked all of them the lengths they were supposed to be and where it was for: Middle Horizontal, at 52″.

After Greg cut all of the lengths, we laid everything out on the deck to mark which angle the corner need to be cut at. The chop saw will take care of the angle, you just need to note which direction it needs to be cut.

Once the pieces are cut, roughly lay everything out one more time to make sure it is fitting together relatively flush… pray you didn’t make any mistakes!

When it comes time to install, I would go back into the bedroom and lightly mark your sections with a pencil or tape again so that you can visually see exactly where things should go.

When that is ready, I suggest you start with your middle section with the very top piece. Measure down from the ceiling the distance you want. We went with 6.5″. I then measured so that Greg knew where to position it width wise on the wall to keep it centered. With those markings solid, all he had to worry about was making it level.

We continued this with all of the top ledges only. We then went back and focused on one section at a time. First adding 1 side, followed by the lower section and last side together at once to get it to fit together as flush and straight as possible.

Don’t worry about perfect corners – the caulk will be your lifesaver :). Once everything was nailed in. I went in with the caulk and used a rag and my finger to fill all the cracks and nail holes. This is a very important step that makes the wall look like one solid piece and not floating trim.

Wait 30 minutes or more for the caulk to set, and top with your final coat of paint, we are using White Dove by Benjamin Moore.

In total, this took us 7-8 total hours, and less than $100! I highly recommend a panel feature wall for your master, nursery, dining room, or wherever else in your home you see fit.