If you don't know me personally, you may not know that my husband is a big bow hunter. He always has been. And, as many hunters do, he's collected a lot of taxidermy over his lifetime and will continue to. But, we both agree that we don't want our house to be a taxidermy display showcase.
So, he came up with the idea to consolidate most of his mounts to his office: euro mounts on a deep green wall (Sherwin Williams cast iron) and shoulder mounts on a stained, shiplap feature wall.
Normally, we try to hang the shoulder mounts from a stud, but we're not limited to that with this design. Because the shiplap boards are attached horizontally and anchored to studs, it allows us the freedom to hang heavy mounts at virtually any location on the wall.
Here's how we did it:
Figure out the square footage you want to cover.
Decide on wood type, style, and stain.
We chose poplar because it has a grain similar to walnut and stains most closely to the tone of walnut, while a lot less expensive than walnut.
Poplar shiplap boards. This is where we bought the wood panels from:
Cox’s Interior, Inc.
Indianapolis - Indiana - COX INTERIOR
It took away weeks to order and be delivered to the warehouse, so plan accordingly.
There’s shiplap and nickel gap. Shiplap has an overlapping edge; they don’t lock together. Nickel gap has a tongue and groove design where they lock together. We went with shiplap.
We went with Minwax, Special Walnut color. It gave us a stained color similar to walnut: mid-brow, neutral, not gray or orange under tone.
Determine if you’re going to remove drywall or apply to the drywall.
Only remove if you need that extra room or if the drywall is uneven.
Remove the trim and outlet covers.
The trim may be unlevel. If you do want to continue the trim along the wall, add it on top of the wood panels, rather than butting the panels up to existing trim.
This is a good time to change outlet colors, if needed. We changed ours from white to a bronze color, to better blend into the wall after it’s stained.
Brown outlets and covers. Similar to this one: https://www.amazon.com/shop/whitewalnut_co/list/X4YPNY4G29Y?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_HZ7NRKNPJ4FPAG4KK6MD
Locate the studs and map
Draw vertical lines from floor to ceiling, mapping where the studs are located. When nailing the boards to the wall, I recommend hitting a stud.
The prep: samples paint color and studs traced on the wall. Our intention was to hang taxidermy, so hitting a stud was preferable. It created more structural integrity and flexibility in hanging locations, rather than having to hang them only on studs.
Cut the boards to start and end at the studs.
Randomize the board lengths.
Level the boards as you nail them
We used 16 gauge nails, 2.5” long, and this 16 gauge straight finish nailer: https://amzn.to/3WGRKYX
Use caution, as the nails can hit another nail or screw already in stud and twist back out.
Run the level across the entire length of the board, as some of them are warped – they may curve. Or use a laser level. The key to making it look professionally installed is leveling and keeping it level all the way to the ceiling.
Have you ever seen an amateur tile job? I’ve seen a lot showing houses. One of the keep giveaways, is it becoming unlevel at some point and that carries up the wall, gets worse, until you see an unintended wave in the tile patterns.
If you don’t want that to happen with this, level the entire time. We did encounter a few warped boards but were able to bend them enough to force them level and nail multiple times, securing them to the stud so they remain level.
Place nails in less noticeable locations
Knots, dark grains, the beveled edge. All of the nails can be hidden in the shiplap edge. Additional nails can be hidden in the other locations. The holes can be filled with Minwax hole filler. We didn’t need to do this.
Stain
Use gloves! And to apply the stain, we used t-shirt rags you can get by the bag, like these: https://amzn.to/3CzUJLW
Minwax, Special Walnut stain applied with t-shirt rags. You can stain the boards after application to the wall or prior.
Trim out the edges of the entire wall
The trim adds a nice, finished border to the whole wall. We added trim to the ceiling and sides, but not the bottom. It didn’t seem like it was needed.
Top trim = 3.5” x 1”. We laid boards from the floor to the ceiling, ending with a partial width board at the top. The 3.5” top trim covered the partial boards at the top. So, I would recommend adjusting this trim width to cover a partial board, whether that’s 2 - 4”.
The side trim = 2.5” x 1”. Adding the trim on the sides makes it where you don’t have to line the boards up perfectly with each bordering wall. Choose what trim width you want and keep that in mind as you’re ripping boards for each row. We left roughly a 1” gap or less on each side between the end of the board and the wall.
Stain these trim pieces before you secure them. It will make your life a lot easier, so you’re not trying to avoid getting the stain on the ceiling or bordering walls.
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