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How to Install Shiplap

May 9, 2020 by admin 30 Comments

We have shiplap all over our house and its clean lines make it one of my favorite design elements to use! I even used a picture of our shiplap as the background of our website here! Shiplap is visually clean, minimal and simple, but all the lines also add really great interest and texture to any room, wall, or ceiling.

In our house, we’ve used horizontal shiplap in our living room, entryway, mudroom, laundry room, home office room, powder bathroom, master bathroom, and master bedroom, we’ve also used vertical shiplap in our pantry and basement, we have shiplap ceilings in our kitchen, dining room, and basement, and even have done designs with it in my home office. We’ve used it to create small accent features (like in our master bathroom) and at other times we’ve also done almost entire rooms with it (our theater room). So it’s an extremely versatile type of paneling that makes for a beautiful accent or design feature!

Shiplap is pretty easy to install as long as you plan your project out well and have the right tools on hand. There are many different ways to get the shiplap look but my preference is using real shiplap – which means boards manufactured to interlock/overlap in a way that leaves a small even gap between them.

SHIPLAP MATERIALS:

To start, you need to choose a shiplap board. Typical widths are variations of 1x6s and 1x8s. I use 1/2″ pre-primed MDF shiplap boards that I source locally, but I’ve provided a few other shiplap options below.

  • Primed wood shiplap: Home Depot (1x8x8 – this generally looks visually closest to what I use from what I was able to find available online though it’s a different material and thicker board)
  • Pine shiplap (multiple color options): Home Depot (1x6x8) | Home Depot (1x8x8)
  • MDF shiplap: Home Depot (full length) | Home Depot (wainscot length)
  • Cedar shiplap: Home Depot (1x8x8)
  • Nickel gap shiplap: Home Depot (1x6x8) | Home Depot (1x8x8 – this one is also a different material but from the pictures seems visually fairly similar to the type of shiplap I use)

*Note 1: If you’re using wood shiplap, check each boards for straightness before using each one. MDF has some flexibility and is generally easier to install. Real wood requires a greater level of cut accuracy.

*Note 2: If you’re using wood paneling or shiplap, I recommend to let it sit and acclimatize to your interior temperature and humidity for a week or two before using it, so allow for that time.

TOOLS + SUPPLIES YOU’LL NEED:

  • Miter saw: Home Depot | Amazon (for all regular straight or angled cuts)
  • Table saw: Home Depot | Amazon (for “ripping” side boards down to size, meaning to shorten the width of a board – you can technically do this with a jig saw or circular saw too but it’s a lot harder)
  • Level: Home Depot | Amazon (to make sure your boards are installed straight)
  • Measuring tape: Home Depot | Amazon (I hope this one is self-explanatory)
  • Carpenter’s square: Home Depot | Amazon (to draw straight lines where to saw the boards)
  • Nail gun (+ nails): Home Depot | Amazon (to attach boards to the wall)
  • Rubber mallet: Home Depot | Amazon (to tap the boards into place)
  • Paneling adhesive: Home Depot (to attach boards to the wall)
  • Caulk: Home Depot | Amazon (to fill in seams after installation)
  • Caulk gun: Home Depot (for your adhesive and caulk)
  • Wood filler: Home Depot | Amazon (to fill in nail holes)
  • Putty knife: Home Depot | Amazon (to apply wood filler to nail holes)
  • Sandpaper: Home Depot | Amazon (to sand wood filler after nail holes are filled)
  • You’ll also need painting and/or staining supplies but I figure I don’t need to list all that.

If you have to cut around anything (outlets, vents, lighting, etc) you’ll also need:

  • Jig saw: Home Depot | Amazon (to cut around outlets etc)
  • Drill: Home Depot | Amazon (you’ll need this to cut a hole in the middle of your board – drill is needed to make a hole in each corner of your cutout for your jig saw blade. Details below.)
  • Hole saw: Home Depot | Amazon (to cut out recessed lighting holes – make sure you get the right size for the specific recessed lighting you’re planning to use – they’re all different)

IMPORTANT THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE INSTALLATION:

  • Calculate the placement of boards across your wall/ceiling to determine the most symmetrical or aesthetically pleasing configuration of boards. Almost any walls or ceiling you decide to shiplap will not perfectly fit full boards across it. So, for example, if your wall is 114″ wide, and your shiplap boards are 5.5″ wide, that means you can fit 20 full boards (covering 110″), but you’re left with 4″ to cover which means you’ll have to use a table saw to rip that last board down to the right width. So planning ahead allows you to choose exactly where you’re going to have those uneven boards. One option is to just leave the side pieces smaller than the rest, or you can center all the boards so have have evenly smaller pieces on the two ends, or maybe you just want the one side smaller. These are things we take into consideration every time we install shiplap before installation.
  • Get extra boards. When you’re calculating how much shiplap you’ll need for a given project, it’s usually safe to count on about 10% extra for waste – better to have too much material than too little.
  • If you’re shiplapping a wall, consider whether you want a full board to start at the top or the bottom (I prefer at the top). And also consider which parts of your shiplap (if any) will be covered by baseboard or crown molding because that’ll affect how much of the boards will be visible. Note: when doing your calculations, remember to include the gap between boards in your math!
  • If you’re covering an area that is longer than the length of your shiplap board, you will have to hide the seams if you want the look of a continuous board plank from one end of your shiplap installation to the other, so also consider where these seams will be and try to vary them across your wall so you don’t end up with a line of seams all in the same spot. Also, it’s best to plan to always have the seam on a stud so that you can nail both then ends of both the boards butting up next to each other into the stud (if you don’t do this, they can bow outward and your seam will be more visible) so it’s worth it to do this even if you end up losing a bit of length off your board.
  • Once you start installing your shiplap, it is helpful to have the ‘notch’ side facing the direction you want to go because it will make it easier to interlock new boards (see middle pic below). One of the reasons for this is that you can use the rubber mallet to tap against the notch if needed to tap the board into place without damaging any part of the board that will be seen.

GENERAL INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Using your miter saw, cut your board to length. Be sure you cut as you go instead of pre-cutting all your boards – this will ensure the greatest possible accuracy in your measurements and cuts.
  2. Apply adhesive to the back of the board in a wavy line down the middle.
  3. Place the board on the wall, and use a level to make sure it’s straight.
  4. Once you get past the first board, you will need to make sure each new shiplap board you put up properly interlocks with the one before it. You have to really check to be sure that it’s fully locked in along the entire length of the board before you go to the next step. This may require a gentle tap with a rubber mallet (just be careful not to damage the edges of the board when tapping it).
  5. Check again to make sure it’s level.
  6. Nail the board to the wall. If you’re doing horizontal shiplap, you must nail into studs, you can’t just nail it into drywall. If you’re doing vertical shiplap, obviously some of your boards won’t land on studs so for the boards that are on studs nail once per linear foot into the stud because these boards are your anchor, then for the boards between studs you’ll have to nail them into drywall but try to angle your nailer at 45* to give the nails a better grip and do a couple nails into the small overlap between boards to secure them to each other.
  7. When you get to the sides, you will have to rip your final board down to size with a table saw. Note that some homes have slightly (or very) uneven walls and ceilings so be prepared that your side boards may have varying widths along the board so measure them every 1-3 feet.

Possible things you may run into:

  • If you need to shiplap around an outlet or vent, you’ll need to precut the hole in your board. So first, measure where the hole needs to be and draw the lines with a pencil. If the hole is in the center of the board drill 4 large holes at the corners of the box you need to cut out on the inside of the box (don’t drill outside the lines) – the purpose of these holes is to give your jigsaw blade starting point in the middle of your board. Then use your jigsaw to carefully cut out the 4 lines of the box. If the hole is at the side of the board, then you’ll just need to drill 2 holes for the corners of the box that fall in the middle of the board, then cut it out with your jigsaw.
  • If you need to cut a round hole for recessed lighting, measure where the hole needs to be and find the center point. Use a hole saw to cut the hole around the center point (make sure you have the correct size hole saw for your particular recessed lighting – they’re all a little different).

HOW TO DEAL WITH CORNERS:

  • If you’re wrapping shiplap around an inside or outside corner, or down a ceiling-to-wall edge, we always miter all those corners at a 45* angle to ensure a seamless transition and so that it looks like the board is literally wrapping around the corners. You have to to consider this in your board length calculation because the mitered edge will change the overall length of your board. The easiest way I find to do it is to calculate the length of your board based on the space you’re shiplapping, the miter *out* from there for outside corners, or miter *back* from there for inside corners. This is how we make it look like the shiplap wraps around the wall with no capping trim.
  • If you need to terminate your shiplap to an outside corner that you don’t want to wrap the shiplap around (like a doorway or a drywall window return), I make my own trim by ripping a board that’s slightly thicker than my shiplap (so if I’m using 1/2″ shiplap, I’ll make my trim from a board that’s 5/8″) down to about a 1/2″ little strip. (Note: I like to use primed MDF board for this with ever-so-slightly rounded edges but if the board you’re using doesn’t have rounded edges, just sand the outside edge a bit before you rip it down so that if you bump into it it won’t be painful.) I then glue and nail that into place with a setback of about 2/16″ from the actual finished wall corner, then use that edge as the “wall” to terminate my shiplap to. Have this trim in place before installing your shiplap. If you scroll back up, you can see an example of this in the top left picture at the start of this post. I would think you can also buy this type of trim from a specialty hardware store or wood shop but I’ve had no luck finding trim of this exact size in stores so it’s easier to make my own.

FINISHING INSTRUCTIONS:

Note: this only applies to shiplap you plan to paint. If you’re using natural wood shiplap that you’re going to either leave raw or stain, then you may not wish to finish it quite the same way. It’s up to you.

  1. After all your shiplap is installed, run a bead of caulk around all seams where the shiplap terminates to a wall, or along inside corners. Use your finger to run over the bead of caulk and shmoosh it into the seam while smoothing it out. Have a wet hand towel to clean your finger as you go.
  2. Fill in all your nail holes and seams between boards with wood filler and a putty knife.
  3. Sand everything you used wood filler on (nail holes and seams between boards) until smooth.
  4. Now you’re ready to prime/paint.

PAINTING TIPS:

  • My preference is to brush and roller shiplap. Paint sprayers are great in theory but I don’t have the patience to do all the prep-work involved, I don’t like how all the little paint particles that get blown into the air (and then my hair!), and finally cleaning a paint sprayer is beyond frustrating so if you have the patience for that, all power to you. But I like to stick with a traditional, easy peasy brush and roller. If you brush and roller properly, the end result is just as smooth as spraying.
  • If you’re painting your shiplap white (and it’s already been primed), I wouldn’t paint your final white in between the boards. I find the slightly different tone of the primer in the grooves makes the grooves pop and you don’t notice that it’s a different white because it just looks like a shadow line.
  • If you’re painting your shiplap anything other than white, I recommend to always paint between the seams before rollering the boards. Feather your brush strokes carefully to leave the boards smooth and with no paint streak lines or drip marks. I can’t stress enough how important this is!
  • The paint colors we’ve used are posted on the individual room “sources pages” on our website so pick any room you want to know about, go to that source page, and you’ll find the relevant paint colors we used listed at the bottom. If you need help navigating, here’s our website roadmap.
  • Regarding paint sheen, we’ve used both flat and satin on shiplap and love the look of both.
  • If you use un-primed wood shiplap, you also have the option of staining it instead of painting.

PS: If you’re wondering about the wood paneling that we installed in our theater room design (similar to this: Home Depot), that is tongue-and-groove, not shiplap, but the installation method is generally the same. The natural wood material is much more frustrating to work with though, is less forgiving, and requires a greater level of accuracy so if you’re new to this, I would start with shiplap work instead.

BONUS TIP:

In our theater room, we had this white exterior door in the middle of all our shiplap whose location we couldn’t change (for reasons) so my goal was to visually minimize it while keeping it accessible. Originally, I considered hiding it behind a barn door but the door handle didn’t allow for that. Finally, I decided to simply hide it in plain sight by painting gray shiplap lines onto it continuing the shadow lines of the real shiplap boards surrounding the door! Super simple solution!!! I used frog tape (Home Depot), which is better than painter’s tape, to connect the shiplap boards on either side of the door (including the trim to keep the lines seamless) and then just painted the lines gray. I mixed different grays I had lying around my house so I don’t have a specific color to share but this project was low-risk since I could always paint it back to white if needed. Luckily though, my idea worked! Here are the before, during, after pics:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

  • Do you constantly have to dust between the boards? I’ve never had to (not even on the black shiplap that would really show the dust if it were there). If you live in a really dusty climate and have your windows open a lot, I suppose that might change things, but it hasn’t been an issue for us.
  • What type of shiplap is easiest to install? Horizontal shiplap installed on a wall with two perpendicular walls on either side (meaning that each side can terminate to a 90 degree wall without wrapping around a corner) will always be the easiest type of shiplap to install.
  • How do you decide between vertical or horizontal shiplap? How do you pick what parts of your house to shiplap? This is 100% personal preference. There are no rules here – in your house, you should choose whatever you love most. I make my design decisions based purely on what looks good and feels right to me. Horizontal and vertical shiplap have very different feelings to me so it really depends on what look you’re going for and what makes you feel warm and fuzzy when you look at it. Not to be cheesy here but just let your heart decide!
  • How do you have shiplap around your fireplace? Our fireplace is electric so the surround and front of it don’t get hot like a gas/real fireplace so it’s not an issue.
  • Is it trendy? What if it goes out of style??! Personally, I don’t care. I don’t follow trends or care what’s “in style”. I choose all my design elements based on how much I love them. Shiplap has been around for hundreds of years so while it may be having a moment in the spotlight, that’s not why I love or or the reason I chose to use it in my home. I strongly advise making design choices for your home based on whatever truly makes your heart happy instead of based on trends.

If you want to follow our daily progress, come follow us on Instagram @ahousewebuilt!

SOURCES:

  • Light fixture (black/gold): Build.com | Wayfair | Gold version: Overstock | Black version: Wayfair
  • Gold drawer pulls: Amazon | Home Depot | Schoolhouse
  • Brick wall tutorial: How to DIY a Faux Brick Wall with a German Schmear
  • More sources from our basement: Basement Sources Page


For more of our tutorials, click here.
To explore rooms in our home, click here (most have some kind of shiplap).
To follow our daily updates and home progress, follow us on Instagram @ahousewebuilt.

Filed Under: Tutorials

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dela says

    June 15, 2020 at 8:15 pm

    Hi!
    What width did you use on your ceiling for the shiplap? I live in a small town and widths only come in 5 5/16 or 7 1/4 I love your look so am hoping it’s one of those! Thank you!

    Reply
    • admin says

      June 15, 2020 at 9:56 pm

      Hi 🙂 The first shiplap link in the post is the closest in look/size to what we used.

      Reply
  2. Ivette Morales says

    December 13, 2020 at 3:59 pm

    Hi! Is the shiplab behind the bathrooms vanity treated for water damage? If so, what do you used? Thank you!

    Reply
    • admin says

      December 13, 2020 at 5:03 pm

      No, but neither is the drywall used in most bathrooms, nor the cabinets, etc… 😉

      As long as you don’t have it directly in the line of water it’s usually fine. Although I do always recommend at least an eggshell paint finish for bathrooms or satin.

      Reply
  3. Renee says

    December 18, 2020 at 12:04 am

    Hi- how do you trim around the windows that don’t have any window casing/trim around window?

    Reply
    • admin says

      December 18, 2020 at 4:19 am

      We did returns on all our windows instead of trim. It’s a technique and we chose it for aesthetic reasons. It’s more work though – trimming windows out is easier overall.

      Reply
  4. Maxine Goldner says

    December 28, 2020 at 2:41 pm

    Good morning,
    I am very happy to see your excellent website. I love shiplap. I have a question that is troubling me ver much. We are building a home and have shiplap on the fireplace wall. Not finished yet and the fireplace is not completed with surround and hearth yet. But, many of the shiplap board have cracks and splits.
    Also, the builder did not wrap the shiplap, only used moulding at the edge. Not so great looking.
    Anyway, my main question is…..is this typical for the boards to crack/split?
    Thank you so much for your advice.

    Reply
    • admin says

      December 28, 2020 at 7:14 pm

      Hi, well I’m actually not a shiplap expert as I’ve only ever worked with one kind – MDF. I don’t believe MDF should/would ever crack or split as that’s not something that the material really does. If your shiplap was wood though then I suppose cracks *could* happen, but I would not say that’s typical of wood shiplap based on what I’ve heard of it from other people. I don’t believe that the corner wrap (or lack thereof) is related to the cracking though – that seems a separate, aesthetic consideration which is really personal preference. Shiplap is not all that hard to install though so if you plan to re-do it, I would suggest MDF as (in my opinion) it’s a better material to work with. You should just note though that if the material is surrounding a gas/real fireplace, you need to take code into consideration unless you have a proper surround in place (our fireplace is electric so it isn’t an issue). Hope this helps.

      Reply
      • Maxine says

        December 28, 2020 at 7:47 pm

        So kind of you to reply. Very helpful, indeed!! Thank you so much!
        Maxine

        Reply
        • admin says

          December 28, 2020 at 9:04 pm

          One more random thing I thought of – when working with wood paneling (or shiplap), you have to let it acclimatize to the interior temp/humidity before working with it. We did that with all the wood paneling in our theater room – we actually let it sit untouched for weeks before using it. That way the material has a chance to get all of its warping/movement out of the way before you work with it. If you don’t allow this time and you have a big change in temp/humidity, that’s when cracking/warping can occur.

          Reply
  5. Craig says

    January 5, 2021 at 2:51 pm

    Nice! Can you share the material used on brick wall?
    Thanks, Craig

    Reply
    • admin says

      January 5, 2021 at 3:36 pm

      We have a tutorial for it: https://www.ahousewebuilt.com/faux-brick-wall/

      Reply
  6. Mikah Diehl says

    January 15, 2021 at 3:30 pm

    We are putting new flooring in along with adding ship lap to the walls and all new trim work. From your experience what order do you believe is best to install and complete this project? In the past we have not removed trim and put ship lap up and just installed the shiplap tight to the trim and baseboards and I think it looks fine doing that with some caulk. I am worried about putting shiplap up first and trimming over that specifically around doorways assuming the shiplap is installed to the edge of the door way and you trim over that does this make the edge look too thick or can you see the shiplap sitting between the trim and the door jam? I hope this makes sense. I was hoping to find a zoomed in picture of the doorways so I can visually see this.

    Reply
    • admin says

      January 15, 2021 at 4:07 pm

      Around doors you may need to take into account the size of your door frame to be sure the width of the shiplap is accounted for. If you don’t have that extra width on your door frame, then around the door, have your shiplap butt up to the trim instead of putting the trim over the shiplap. In areas where it’s just wall + flooring (no doors), then the order really doesn’t matter – it’s just about the look you want. In those areas we typically do floor first, then shiplap, then trim.

      Reply
  7. Kendra says

    January 24, 2021 at 5:05 pm

    We’re getting ready to install this as an accent wall that has two windows (no trim around the windows just a sill) and wall butts up against other walls. Do you recommend trim on the sides of the walls that the shiplap dead ends into? What type of trim would you use around the windows as well? Thanks for your help!

    Reply
    • admin says

      January 24, 2021 at 5:39 pm

      The answer to this is absolutely personal preference – there’s no right or wrong way. We have windows done both ways in our home. If you choose not to trim your windows, our tutorial above addresses how we terminate shiplap to outside corners. Best of luck!

      Reply
  8. Cory says

    March 7, 2021 at 2:40 am

    Sorry if the answer to this should be obvious, but I’m new to this stuff – do you install boards from bottom to top, or top to bottom? (I’m planning to do a wall and have the boards horizontal)

    Reply
    • admin says

      March 7, 2021 at 3:08 pm

      You can do it either way. We usually start at the top for horizontal boards.

      Reply
  9. Vince says

    March 15, 2021 at 12:24 am

    Hi quick question,
    To join two pieces of shiplap side by side do you mitre the joint or butt the joints and fill with dap/filler?
    Thanks
    Great read!

    Reply
    • admin says

      March 15, 2021 at 12:38 pm

      You could miter them but we’ve never needed to. Butt joints (and filler) work fine as long as the surface you’re installing over is even.

      Reply
  10. Neha says

    March 23, 2021 at 3:14 am

    Is your the chevron design behind your desk in your office shiplap as well? If so, do you have any tips for stacking shiplap in a chevron layout? Thanks!

    Reply
    • admin says

      March 23, 2021 at 11:55 am

      No, my office chevron is not shiplap. Though to install shiplap in a chevron pattern would really be the same as straight shiplap, just with angles on the ends and then you’d just treat the middle join as a butt joint and fill it accordingly (as shown in the tutorial ^)

      Reply
  11. Nash says

    April 5, 2021 at 11:16 am

    Great Article! Thanks for all the helpful tips!
    However my walls are so horrible that my inside corners still came out horrible. Too much gaps in between the 45 mitre cuts.

    Not sure if I should go back in with Wood filler or caulk…? I want those crisp inside joint lines!

    Wish me luck!!!!

    Reply
    • admin says

      April 5, 2021 at 12:10 pm

      Working with uneven walls is definitely tricky. However, on an inside corner, caulk should fix that! It’s harder to repair on an outside corner, but you should be able to successfully fix it with caulk on the inside corner. A trick if you have a larger gap is that you can layer the caulk so do one line and let it dry, then go back and do another. Best of luck!

      Reply
  12. Nita Schutt says

    April 11, 2021 at 1:17 pm

    We are going to follow your tutorial on the Shiplap for an accent wall as well as a wall of the faux brick tutorial. Can I please ask do you paint the shiplap and brick wall the same color as my trim but only a different sheen? I have SW Pure White semi gloss on all of my trim and cabinets. My walls are SW Worldly Gray. Just not sure what to do with them once they are installed. Thank you Nita

    Reply
    • admin says

      April 11, 2021 at 1:49 pm

      It’s totally personal preference as to what colors you use and I don’t think there are any right or wrong decisions. In our house, we did not paint our our brick at all – we were just happy with the color our mud dried.

      Reply
  13. CAT TAYLOR says

    April 11, 2021 at 6:15 pm

    I think our shiplap is slightly bowed — unfortunately the 45’s arent meeting up.
    We will need to use rip trim for the door jamb.
    Oh well, thanks so much for the tips.

    Reply
    • admin says

      April 11, 2021 at 7:23 pm

      Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, if you’re using wood shiplap and it’s already installed, there’s not much you can do about bowed wood. MDF (the kind we use) is quite flexible and can be wrapped around most wall unevenness. For next time, I’d recommend checking each piece of lumber before installation for straightness and ideally let it acclimatize to the temp/humidity of your room for a week or two prior to installation.

      Reply
  14. Tom says

    April 12, 2021 at 8:39 pm

    Hi! My wife and I want to shiplap a few of our bedrooms, but we do not have enough studs in the wall for shiplapping support. What would you recommend?
    Thanks!

    Reply
    • admin says

      April 13, 2021 at 2:56 am

      Hi! For vertical shiplap, check out point #6 under General Installation Instructions in my post ^^. For horizontal shiplap, it’s almost impossible not to find studs somewhere in the wall (unless you have a very unique situation?) and you only need a couple anchor points to nail the shiplap into.

      Reply

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