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How to Build a Window Seat

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We built this window seat in our master bedroom from scratch and I’m going to share how we did it here. This is intended to provide general information on how we designed and built this part of our home. I’ve included all relevant sources throughout the post and there’s also a sources recap at the bottom.

This vaulted window wall opposite our bed had been on my mind ever since we first designed our home and I’d been running over possibilities for what to do with this space and I had SO many different ideas that I loved but it wasn’t until I came up with this window seat design that I had my “AHAH!!! moment” and just knew this was what we should do. So, it all started with a little sketch I drew one night…

… which I then then developed into a digital sketch (see below) of my idea to create a long window seat bench with a row of wide/deep drawers underneath it for linen storage. While we have created many storage spaces around our home, we actually did not have a specific place in our bedroom for extra pillows, sheets, etc and from a practical perspective this storage would help our home organization.

On the two sides of the window seat would be two larger cabinets with shelving inside. We also planned to frame out our window with the same wide boards as we use for our baseboard to give it a bold frame almost as though it were wall art. Then, we would add board and batten trim all the way up to the ceiling as a finishing touch. Finally, we planned to paint everything white on white on white (walls, cabinets, trim, window seat) with bold matte black hardware and window accents, and neutrally patterned throw pillows.

Paint color: BM Simply White in matte

So the first step to building this window seat project was to create the under-frame (left pic below). We made this out of 2x8s so that the cabinetry would be raised to the same height as our baseboards.

Next, we built the frames of the two taller side cabinets on either side of the window seat out of 3/4″ MDF. We laid them face down on the floor so that the front pieces would be perfectly flush.

We cut all the cabinet and drawer MDF (not including trim) with a light-weight worm drive circular saw.

Circular saw: Home Depot | Amazon
Brad nailer: Home Depot | Amazon
2x8x8 boards: Home Depot
3/4″ MDF panel: Home Depot

We made an important consideration regarding airflow in our design because we had two floor vents located underneath the two side cabinets and air circulation is very important in our home (since we have a whole-house particulate filter always running to help with cat allergies), so we needed to to incorporate the vents into our cabinets without restricting airflow. We accomplished this in two ways:

First, we created two front-facing vents underneath the side cabinets in the 2×8 frame. But we didn’t stop there. We also built in hidden air ducts in both the side cabinets and later on we used a 1.5″ drill bit to drill holes on the top of the cabinets to allow the air to also flow upward while being aesthetically pretty.

In the left-side cabinet, we brought the back of the cabinet forward by 6″ (see the middle pic above) to allow the air to flow up from the vent behind the cabinet and out the top. In the right-side cabinet, we boxed it in on the side instead of the back. I should note that we built the right-side duct incorrectly at first and then had to move it backwards 4″ because I totally forgot to allow room to hang the door hinges. Oops. You can see it incorrect in the left pic below, but then fixed in the middle pic below.

Once our side cabinet frames were built, we built the drawer frames. Since our window seat was longer than 8-ft, we built them in two sections: a 3-box unit and a 2-box unit. We used 3/4″ MDF for the top and bottom pieces and far left/right verticals. Then for the middle verticals, we layered 3 x 1/2″ pieces to create 1 1/2″ widths (3/4″ for each drawer side). So left to right, the 3-box frame went 1 x 3/4″ vertical, 3 x 1/2″ verticals, 3 x 1/2″ verticals, 2 x 1/2″ verticals. Then left to right, the 2-box frame went 1 x 1/2″ vertical (to get sandwiched up to the other box’s 2 x 1/2″ vertical to create one 3 x 1/2″ vertical section that would secure the 3-box and 2-box frames together), 3 x 1/2″ verticals, 1 x 3/4″ vertical on the right.

Finally, we added a 3/4″ cover panel made from two pieces to create the full 8-ft length. For stability, we staggered the joins so for the boxes, the 3-box frame was on the left and the 2-box frame was on the right meaning the join was towards the right side. So for the cover panel, we put the full 8-ft piece on the right and the smaller filler piece on the left so that the join would be over the left side instead.

Brad nailer: Home Depot | Amazon
1/2″ MDF panel: Home Depot
3/4″ MDF panel: Home Depot

Next I started building the drawer fronts and cabinet doors shaker style out of 1/2″ MDF backer panels with 1/4″ MDF trim pieces glued on top to create an overall thickness of 3/4″ for each drawer front/cabinet door. I went with a 3″ wide strip of 1/4″ trim to create all my shaker panels and just ripped the panels down on our table saw (I think you can buy 3″ strips too but it’s much less cost effective).

I have a tutorial here for shaker doors: How to Build Cabinet Doors.

1/2″ MDF panel: Home Depot
1/4″ MDF panel: Home Depot
Table saw: Home Depot | Amazon

To calculate the size of my drawer fronts, I just gave them all 1/8″ clearance on all sides. I cut the 1/2″ MDF backer panels to size first and dry fit them in front of the drawer/cabinet boxes to be sure I’d cut them all accurately before moving forward to the shaker trim. It’s easiest to fix the sizing now if needed.

Regarding the trim pieces for the X-detailing on the drawer fronts… I’ll be honest, we’ve built a lot of things at this point, but calculating angles still makes my head spin so I’m not even going to explain how I did it but it basically just involved wayyyyyy more math than I like to do in my day-to-day life.

I also built the 4 tall cabinet doors at the same time but didn’t really take pictures of it because they’re pretty basic shaker panels: 1/2″ MDF backer with 1/4″ MDF trim around all 4 sides in 3″ widths.

I cut everything for all the doors/drawer front before assembling and dry fit them all to make sure that each door/front’s trim pieces fit, then I labeled all the pieces so that I knew which ones went together.

To assemble the drawer fronts and doors, I used construction adhesive to glue the trim onto the backer panels and I literally just used cans from our pantry to weight down every join (so one can over each join) overnight so that everything would dry flat. I did this right in the middle of our living room floor and find this “can-weight” method is much easier than clamping everything down in my opinion.

Once all the doors/fronts had dried overnight, I took the cans off them and instead used the cans as “lifts” underneath the doors/fronts to elevate them. Then I wood-fillered all the seams on the fronts and along every side. After the wood filler had dried, I sanded them all down until they were perfectly smooth.

Construction adhesive: Home Depot | Amazon
Wood filler: Home Depot | Amazon
Putty knife: Home Depot | Amazon
Sandpaper: Home Depot

When I was finished making all the doors/fronts, I took them to the window seat and dry-fit them along where they would eventually go juuuuuuuust to make double sure that everything fit perfectly (because sometimes the wood filler can add extra width to the panels if they’re not sanded down all the way).

Next, it was time to paint. I always brush/roller everything. I have a paint sprayer (a pretty nice one too) but for the life of me I cannot summon the willpower or patience to clean it so I always prefer to brush/roller.

The trick to brush/rollering well is to make sure you never let your brush work dry without rollering over top it to smooth out the lines. So I use the brush to get into all the nooks and crannies, but then roller overtop right away to give everything a nice finished edge. So I use the brush and roller in combination with each other at the same time. My preference is always to use microfiber rollers.

Microfiber roller: Home Depot
Roller refills: Home Depot
Paint tray: Home Depot
Paint: BM Simply White in matte

Another paint tip: paint the backs first, but do not paint the edges when you paint the back! Just paint the flat backs of the panels alone. Then, once the backs are dry, flip them over and paint the edges at the same time as when you paint the fronts. That way you will never have any accidental drips on the front.

Around the same time, we also built the drawer boxes out of 1/2″ MDF. They’re pretty basic boxes – literally just 4 sides and a bottom nailed together. I also sealed all the drawer boxes with my favorite matte top coat use everywhere because I wasn’t planning to paint them and I wanted to seal the MDF.

Matte top coat: Amazon | Home Depot

Next, we cut the cover panels for the two side cabinets and attached them 3/4″ proud of the cabinet frames to allow for the cabinet doors (which are 3/4″) to be flush with the cover panels. We also cut the trim pieces for between the cabinets and the walls. Then I wood filler and sanded all the seams.

Finally, this was when we drilled the holes for the vents on top of the cabinets – because the holes are really only in the cover panels. I just laid the holes out in an even pattern.

I caulked where needed and then painted all the cabinet frames with a brush/roller. Painting is pretty self-explanatory so I won’t go into much detail. I did 2-3 coats everywhere and lightly sanded the final coat.

Paint: BM Simply White in matte

Side note: we built the shelving in this cabinet to exactly fit our various bedroom throw pillows 😀

Next, we pre-drilled the holes for the drawer hardware. I like to pre-drill for hardware before installing the drawers, but do all the door hardware after installing the doors.

Drawer hardware: Amazon

There’s a step here I didn’t photograph because… well, it was late and I was tired and just forgot. But next we attached the drawer slides and installed the drawer boxes. Then, we attached the drawer fronts to our newly-installed drawer boxes. And finally we attached the hardware. VERY exciting moment!

Drawer slides: Home Depot | Amazon

Door installation was next. We use this awesome door hinge drilling jig from Kreg Jig which makes door installation pretty easy. Still… SO much math, but it definitely makes it doable!

Kreg Jig hinge jig: Home Depot | Amazon
Power drill: Home Depot | Amazon
Hinges: Home Depot | Amazon
Door hardware: Amazon

Basically, first you drill the holes for the hinges, then you attach one side of the hinge to the door, and the other to the cabinet. Then you attach both hinge sides to each other. Measure thrice, drill once!

Confession: I actually miscalculated the middle drawer handle (I seriously have no idea how – I must have just been sleep-deprived) so I had to uninstall it, fill the holes in, re-drill and re-attach the handle. Even up close you literally can’t tell but I feel like it’s a good reminder that everybody makes mistakes and that’s ok.

Then we installed the door hardware and sat back to admire our work!

At this time, we also framed out our window (see the 3 pics above) out of 1×8 MDF with mitered corners. I set the trim 1/8″ back from the window box to create a little detail and really love how it turned out.

1×8 MDF trim: Home Depot
Miter saw: Home Depot | Amazon

Around our home, most of our windows have drywall returns but the few that have shiplap around them also have this 1/8″ setback so we wanted this one to have the same feeling. Our window was longer than the trim pieces I had on hand, so you’ll notice I had to splice some pieces together at the corners. But by the time I wood-fillered, sanded, and painted the trim, you’d never know just by looking at it.

One of our rescue kitties and Lead Project Snoopervisor, Chai, came to inspect our progress on his new nap spot. He gave everything a thorough sniff-down and also tested our drawers. He was very thorough.

Next, I decided to build a “curb” at the edge of the window seat because I just felt it needed an extra piece of trim to really give it a finished look, and I also wanted a sort of lip that the window seat cushion would sit “in” to prevent it from sliding forward. So I used my table saw to rip down a piece of wood into two strips: a 1/4″ x 3/4″ strip that I attached to the face, and a 1″ x 3/4″ strip that I attached on top of that. Then I wood-fillered, sanded, and painted it. It basically looked like one fancy trim piece in the end.

Board & batten time!

Doing B&B on an angled ceiling involved more angle math (*sobs quietly*) but here’s how I did it: First, I attached the two ceiling trim pieces – fully glued and nailed in. Then I cut short test pieces of trim to move around until I found a spacing I was happy with. Then I started with the middle two pieces and worked my way outward from there. I cut as I went instead of trying to calculate everything all at once. The good thing is that since my vertical trim pattern was an exact mirror image on the left and right sides, each pieces on the left + right sides was exactly the same length as the one on the opposite side (just reversed).

As I cut my pieces, I would dry-fit them into place and once they were good, I used painter’s tape to secure them into place but did not glue or nail them!!! This allowed me to dry-fit the entire wall all at once and be positive I was happy with every board placement before officially attaching them. When I was done cutting and happy with the positioning, I took them down one by one and glued/nailed them.

1×3 MDF trim (for B&B): Home Depot
Miter saw: Home Depot | Amazon
Paneling adhesive: Home Depot | Amazon
Brad nailer: Home Depot | Amazon

Once my B&B trim was installed, I used wood filler between any joins, and caulked every single seam between trim + drywall. Then I painted it all and… all the “major construction” parts of this project were DONE!!!! Chai, our previously mentioned Lead Project Snoopervisor, came in to inspect our work.

Caulk: Home Depot | Amazon

It’s so much fun to see a design that I literally sketched out on a pad of paper come to life!!

Next up: window seat cushion. We made this one using the same technique as the window seat in my home office room that my dad built. Here’s our tutorial for: How to Build a Window Seat Cushion

First, we used steel brackets to attach two pieces of MDF together since our bench is longer than 8-ft.

The cushion itself has 4 layers: a 1/2″ MDF base, then several inches of high-density foam, and a cover layer of dacron to round out the edges that create the cushion, then a separate fabric layer on top.

We built it upside down so first we laid the dacron on the floor, then placed the HD foam over it, then the MDF. Then carefully folded the dacron over the edges, making sure to pull it firmly to remove any wrinkles and stapled it to the MDF. The order to staple is: first, start with the two short sides, then do the two long sides, then finish with the corners. Next, lay your fabric on the floor with the “nice” side face down, and place your dacron/foam/MDF cushion face down on top of it and repeat same the process of stapling the fabric to the MDF (in the same order as you did with the dacron around the cushion).

1/2″ MDF panel: Home Depot
High-density foam (similar): Amazon
Dacron (similar): Amazon
Heavy duty stapler: Home Depot

Finally, I added in a some fun accent throw pillows to complete this space! I’ve sourced as much as possible below and also found lots of similar available options as well.

Natural rectangle pillow: H&M Home | Similar: Urban Outfitters | Wayfair | Wayfair
Patterned square pillows (similar): Wayfair | Anthropologie | Wayfair | H&M Home
Gray rectangle pillow (similar): McGee & Co | Urban Outfitters

Btw, if you’re wondering why our white paint color varies so much from picture to picture, it’s because I took these pictures at all different times of day over several weeks – some pictures were taken on sunny days, rainy days, morning, evening, some with natural light only, some with interior light… so all the different whites you see in the pics is a great example of how much range this paint color has. The final set of pictures above were taken with natural lighting only on a cloudy overcast day (almost no sun).

The color is BM Simply White and here’s a recap of all paint colors in our house.

Sources recap:

Raw materials sources:

Construction materials:

Tool sources:

Hardware sources:

Pillow sources:


For more of our tutorials, click here.
To explore the other rooms in our house, click here.
For our daily progress, follow us on Instagram @ahousewebuilt.

How to Build a Slat Sideboard

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We built this slat sideboard for our basement foyer and I’m going to share how we made it in this tutorial! The doors of our sideboard were inspired by this Crate & Barrel sideboard and this Overstock console. However, they were the wrong size for our space (one was too big, the other was too small) and both weren’t quite the style we wanted, so we decided to build one that was the right size/style for our home.

Our sideboard is 60″ long x 15 3/4″ wide x 33 1/4″ tall with 8″ mid-century modern legs. The body is made from painted MDF and our slat cabinet doors are made from stained wood over MDF panels.

RAW MATERIALS NEEDED:

  • 4 x 8″ cabinet legs: Amazon
  • 2 x 5/8″x4’x8′ MDF: Home Depot (for the cabinet body – note that you can alternatively use 3/4″ MDF for this part, but you’ll need to just adjust the measurements accordingly as a result)
  • 1 x 1/2″x4’x8′ MDF: Home Depot (for the backer panel and door panels)
  • 7 x 1x2x8 boards: Home Depot (what I used for the slats)
  • ALTERNATIVE A | 11-12 x 1/4″x2’x4′ boards: Home Depot (flatter slat option)
  • ALTERNATIVE B | 11-12 x 1/2″x2’x4′ boards: Home Depot (medium slat option)
  • 4 x inset hinges suitable for the thickness of your doors: see note below

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING HINGES! Seriously, do not go forward with this project before choosing your door thickness carefully. I ended up having to go to a specialty cabinet supply place to get fancy non-standard hinges for extra thick doors because I didn’t consider this before starting. Oops!

My door panels are 1 1/4″ thick (3/4″ from the 1x2s on 1/2″ MDF). If you’re unable to find the hinges for a 1 1/4″ door or just don’t want to go on a wild hinge chase, I suggest one of these alternatives:
A) use 1/4″x2″ strips (Home Depot) on 1/2″ MDF to create a 3/4″ door with these hinges (Amazon).
B) use 1/2″x2″ strips (Home Depot) on 1/2″ MDF to create a 1″ door with these hinges (Amazon).

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS NEEDED:

TOOLS NEEDED:

DESIGN:

INSTRUCTIONS:

BODY | The body or frame or shell of this sideboard is created from 8 pieces of MDF – essentially 2 rectangles inside each other or doubled up. If you have access to thicker MDF (1″ or 1.5″ thickness) then you could use this instead but I was working with 5/8″ MDF and I wanted a thicker shell than that so I decided to double it up to create a shell that was 1 1/4″ thick (which is 5/8″ x 2). Here’s how to make it:

  1. Cut your 5/8″ MDF to size for the box. You will need:
    – 2 pieces 15 3/4″ x 60″ (outer box, top/bottom)
    – 2 pieces 15 3/4″ x 24″ (outer box, left/right sides)
    – 2 pieces 15 3/4″ x 58 3/4″ (inner box, top/bottom)
    – 2 pieces 15 3/4″ x 22 3/4″ (inner box, left/right sides)
  2. Cut your 1/2″ MDF to size for the backer panel. You will need:
    – 1 piece 22 3/4″ x 57 1/2″
  3. Create the outer box as per my design template. Use constriction adhesive and 1″ brad nails to attach the MDF and make sure your box is square using a carpenter’s square as a guide.
  4. Create the inner box inside the outer box as per my design template. We started with the long sides, then did the short sides. Use construction adhesive across the whole panel to laminate the inner and outer boxes together and nail it (1″ nails) from the inside so the holes don’t show from the outside. Use clamps if necessary to hold the sides together (we only needed them in one spot).
  5. Attach the backer panel inside your box with construction adhesive and 2″ nails.
  6. Allow the box to dry overnight.
  7. Wood filler in all the seams between board and nail holes.
  8. Allow to fully dry, then sand all the wood filler smooth.
  9. Paint the box black. I also ran a line of painters tape inside the box 2 1/2″ in from the edge and painted that too because the doors will be inset 1/8″ and they’re quite thick so I wanted to create a nice clean line where the paint ended. You could also paint the entire interior if you choose.
  10. Allow to fully dry, then as an optional final step, I (matte) top coated the top only since our cats are probably going to jump all over this and that will make the finish more durable.
  11. Attach the legs to the bottom of the cabinet wherever looks best to you. Mine are placed at 12″ in from the sides and 2 1/2″ in from the front and back.

DOORS | The doors are two panels of the same size with reversing horizontal and vertical slats. So they’re kind of opposites of each other in many ways. Here are the instructions to create the doors:

  1. Cut your 1/2″ MDF panels to size. You will need:
    – 2 pieces 28 1/2″ x 22 1/2″ (creating 2 door panels with ~ 1/8″ gap on all sides)
  2. Paint the two door panels black on both sides and all edges.
  3. Stain your 1x2x8s and allow them to dry.
  4. Cut your 1x2x8s to size. You will need:
    – 2 pieces 28 1/2″ (Door A horizontals)
    – 10 pieces 19 1/2″ (Door A verticals)
    – 2 pieces 22 1/2″ (Door B horizontals)
    – 8 pieces 25 1/2″ (Door B verticals)
    – use the cutoffs to make 18 small spacer pieces (approx 1-3″ each)
  5. Dry-fit slats over both door panels as per my design template to be sure everything fits.
  6. Glue and nail your slats to the panels. Start with the 4 perimeter pieces, then use the many little cutoff spacer pieces to separate your slats evenly across the whole door panel. Remember, the two doors are opposites of each other so Door A has full-length top/bottom horizontals with verticals in between them, and Door B has full length left/right verticals with horizontals between.
  7. Top coat the slats at the end to seal the stain. I just did the flat surface on top, no sides.
  8. Decide which way you want to hang the doors. There are two options:
  9. Hinges. Attach as per manufacturer’s instructions. We use this Kreg Jig to drill the holes in the doors for the hinges. I recessed my doors 1/8″ into the cabinet.
  10. At the very end, I decided to add a support piece in the middle which doubled as a doorstop and also prevented any sagging. I didn’t think the top would bend, which is why I didn’t do this earlier, but it did sag about 1/16″ so the support piece did help. Mine was 13 3/4″ deep x the full height of the inside of my sideboard. I probably should have done this earlier but hey it all worked out!

And that’s it! Here’s our finished sideboard:

SIMILAR OPTIONS:

If you don’t feel like making one from scratch but you love this look, here are similar options:

And just for fun, here’s our new sideboard all styled:

Sources:


For more of our tutorials, click here.
To explore rooms in our home, click here.
If you liked this project, check out our Slat Wall Tutorial and Rustic Sideboard Tutorial.
To follow our daily updates and home progress, follow us on Instagram @ahousewebuilt.

How to Stencil a Wall

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I stenciled a wall in our basement bathroom and it was SO EASY! The whole project took me only about an hour to do and quickly transformed an otherwise blank background wall into something really fun!

I wasn’t planning to do a tutorial for this project. The wall I stenciled is not a feature part of our home, it’s just a “background wall” that otherwise wouldn’t really be paid attention to (and hardly seen in my pics) so it seems odd to focus on it. Also stenciling a wall is so easy that it almost feels weird doing a tutorial for it. Kinda like I’m sharing a “recipe for avocado toast” lol. But stenciling is very versatile and I previously expected it would be wayyyyy harder so I just hope this tutorial helps you see how fast and easy it is!

The best thing about stenciling is that it transforms a space with JUST PAINT! No power tools, no cutting, no nailing, no “building” required… if you change your mind in a couple years, just paint back over it! It’s versatile, easy, and honestly it’s the type of project most anyone can do even if you’re not very handy.

STENCILS | Stencils come in all shapes, sizes, and styles. You *can* do this without a stencil by using painter’s tape to tape off a pattern or even free-handing your pattern, but I wanted an even pattern I could repeat quickly and easily so I decided to use a stencil. Here are some of my favorite herringbone looks:

  • Large herringbone stencil: Amazon (what I used)
  • Smaller herringbone: Amazon (alternative option)
  • Brush strokes herringbone: Amazon (alternative option)
  • Vertical wall herringbone: Amazon (alternative option)
  • Straight lines: Amazon (so many fun possibilities with this)

If you’re wondering how I chose this pattern to do, I’ve just always loved herringbone and chevron patterns as shown in both our barn doors in our basement hallway, and my home office desk space.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

  • Stencil: Amazon
  • Painter’s tape: Amazon
  • Small microfiber roller & tray: Amazon
  • Matte wall paint: just a sample-size bottle. I used BM Simply White on BM Classic Gray wall

HOW TO STENCIL:

  1. Use painter’s tape to stick your stencil to the wall, starting at the ceiling. You can either start it in the center of the room and move outward to the two sides, or start at one side and stencil your way across. I recommend measuring your wall-to-stencil dimensions to be sure you are happy with where your stencil pattern ends, then adjust where you start your pattern accordingly.
  2. Using a very, very, very dry microfiber roller, roll over your stencil to imprint the pattern on your wall. Seriously, you just need the tiiiiiniest amount of paint – like so little paint that it dries in less than a minute. Using a dry roller also prevents bleeding when applied to a smooth wall/surface.
  3. Wait about 1 minute, then gently remove your stencil and reattach it to the wall below the first one – it will have little guides to help you repeat the pattern. You basically want to overlap it slightly so that your next stencil section is a proper continuation of the first section.
  4. Stencil a column down the wall, then move to the sides and cover the rest of your wall.

A FEW TIPS:

  • The surface you’re going to stencil should be smooth. Stenciling does not work well over textured walls as the texture won’t allow the stencil to sit flush on the wall and the paint will bleed.
  • Use a matte paint to stencil with. You really only need a tiny amount of paint – like a sample size paint can would have been enough for a wall many times the size of the one I did.
  • I recommend using a roller, but you can also use a paint brush if you don’t have a roller – just again make sure it’s very, very dry. I did try using a sponge too in one section and it did not work well.
  • If you’re wondering like I did about how to keep reusing a stencil that has just been painted over, don’t worry. If you’re using a very dry brush, the paint dries in less than a minute so pretty much by the time you’re ready to move the stencil, it’s already dry.
  • Before you start, test the stencil somewhere other than your “good” wall just to get the hang of it.
  • The type of stencil I used was simple straight lines but it was hard to get into the corner with it so I just used painter’s tape to tape off the last part of the pattern manually rather than bend my stencil.
  • Cleaning the stencil is very important. If you take good care of them, they can last years. The best way I found to do it was to take a damp cloth and wipe the whole stencil down just to get it wet, then use a putty knife (like this: Amazon) to just scrape it down. This technique removed all the paint very quickly and just needs a final wipe down after to remove all the paint scrapings.

This was such an easy project that I wasn’t planning to do a tutorial for it so I didn’t take many progress pictures. But I hope these tips help answer any questions or give you the nudge to try stenciling!

Other sources from this bathroom:

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To explore the other rooms in our house, click here.

Paint Colors and Stain Recap

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Here’s a list of every single paint color, finish, and stain we’ve used in our whole house. You can also always find our paint colors listed on each individual room sources page and/or all of our tutorials.

PAINT COLORS

PAINT FINISHES

  • Ceilings/walls: flat.
  • Bathrooms: eggshell.
  • Trim/shiplap/interior doors/built-ins: satin.
  • Cabinets: custom lacquer paint finish, close to flat/matte (with the exception of our master bedroom window seat cabinets which are flat regular paint and pantry cabinets which are satin regular paint).
  • Windows/exterior doors: custom finish on fiberglass, close to flat.
  • All our drywall is smooth with no texture.

STAINS

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How to Build a Slat Wall

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We created this bold slat accent wall at the top of our stairs and I’m going to share how we made it here! I’ve loved this wood-and-black slat wall look for a long time and was eager to find a spot in our home to do it. I love to go bold in small nooks because I feel like they’re the perfect place for a fun accent!

The general concept of this paneling style is created by painting a wall black and attaching boards to the wall with even spacing. However, you can get really creative with it so there are many possible variations. For my wall, I did a mixture of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal narrow boards and I mostly spaced them evenly apart, except for a few spots where I left one board out to create a separation pattern.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

  • 1x2x8 boards: Home Depot (Note 1: you can create a slat wall with any size boards you prefer and you can even vary the sizing as you go, but I chose to use only 1x2s. Note 2: I suggest getting a good grade of lumber for this project because you really need the planks to be straight and not warped to achieve even spacing between them. Note 3: my wall design required 21 1x2x8s. Note 4: be sure you check your boards for straightness before using them, they cannot be warped.)
  • Paneling adhesive: Home Depot | Amazon (and adhesive gun)
  • Painter’s tape: Home Depot | Amazon (if you’re using 1x2s like I did, then I suggest getting ~1.5″ painter’s tape as it is close to the size of the 1x2s and you can use it for templating)
  • Black paint: I used BM Black Panther (matte), but you can use any background color you like
  • Stain: I used Special Walnut (Home Depot), but you can use any color you like

TOOLS NEEDED:

  • Nailer: Home Depot | Amazon (I used 1″ nails (3/4″ into the wood + 1/4″ into drywall). With a slat wall, there’s no way to get all your slats over studs and I made sure my nails were short enough not to puncture straight through the drywall so that they wouldn’t hit any wires or plumbing)
  • Miter saw: Home Depot | Amazon
  • Measuring tape: Home Depot | Amazon
  • Carpenter’s square: Home Depot | Amazon
  • Level: Home Depot | Amazon

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Design your wall. There are no rules to this step, just create whatever you love. You can do all vertical, all horizontal, all angled, or a mix of all 3 as I did.
  2. This is an optional step, but since I was doing a small wall, I found it helpful to template out my wall with painter’s tape just so I could see my design from different angles and make adjustments easily. Tip: All my angles were 45° so a way to ensure that your tape follows the correct angle is to simply fold a piece of paper and use that as a guide. Templating is very helpful because as you can tell from the end result of my wall. My final design changed quite a lot from my original templated idea.
  3. Paint your wall black (or whatever background color you choose).
  4. Stain your 1x2s and allow them to dry overnight. I always apply stain with a rag: bunch the rag up to create a firm bundle-o-rag, dip it in the stain, rub over the board until evenly coated. I use just enough stain to create color, but I do not do the whole “wipe-on-wipe-off” thing. I also did not end up sealing my stained boards but you can if you want. It just didn’t feel necessary to me here.
  5. Cut your 1x2s to size and attach them to your wall using a combination of paneling adhesive and nails. I recommend cutting as you go instead of cutting all the boards up front to ensure the most accurate measurements. Use small cut-offs of 1x2s as spacers between the 1x2s you’re attaching to the wall to create a consistently even spacing between boards. I attached my 1×2 flat to the wall and used another flat 1×2 between them. So my spacing went: 1×2, 1.5″ gap, 1×2, 1.5″ gap, etc. I recommend starting with verticals or whatever your primary main board style is. (Note: there is an outlet in the lower part of my wall so I designed my paneling around the outlet so that no board crossed the outlet, then painted the outlet black to make it disappear.) Finally, always remember to constantly use your level as you build your wall to make sure that your boards are always straight! The pictures I’ve shared below chronologically show my progress and process creating the wall.

FINISHING TOUCHES:

I also like the idea of maybe doing a potted (faux) tree in a basket for the corner:

BEFORE & AFTER:

If you liked this tutorial, you may enjoy some of our other similar tutorials:

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