The truth about faux shiplap / $100 Room Challenge / Week 4

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Want to install faux shiplap at no cost? You've seen people draw pencil lines on their wall and getting awesome results? Here's the truth.

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The original plan

In the first week of the $100 Room Challenge, I planned to cover the back wall with shiplap. I thought I'd find a clever solution between real shiplap and the faux shiplap made with plywood strips that can be seen everywhere lately.

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5

The goal was to hang the TV on the wall and the shiplap would have provided a solid backing. Since my family room is in the basement it's a foundation wall so there's no stud behind the wall, but 1 "x 3" strips.

Once the room was picked-up (see week 2 ), I found a major obstacle for my project: winter!

Yes, we have a lot of snow here in Quebec. Even if the store cut the plywood into strips for me, I would have to cut it to the right length. In other words, I should have done a series of:

Take the measure,
Go up the stairs to the ground floor,
Put on my boots and coat,
Go outside (hoping the patio door is not frozen !!)
Go down from the balcony,
Get to the shed where is my table saw. (in my previously shuffled path),
Come back and
Install the shiplap hoping my measure was right!

And that, for EVERY strip !!! Uh NO!

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The modifications

Not abandoning, I began to wonder what I might do to enhance this space. And that's when it hit me!

I already have a beautiful stone fireplace. Do I really want to divert attention to the TV? Put a white shiplap wall behind the TV of it would only bring it out more.

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It is always important to ask yourself what you want the focal point of the room to be.

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So I did the opposite and decided to paint the top of the wall white and the bottom a dark gray. It's actually the Sico colour of the year 2018: Cast Iron (6173-83).

And voilà, the television is suddenly way less important!

I also decided to install two large shelves in the white part (coming next week) telling myself that I could put shiplap in this section. After a few calculations $$, I quickly came to the conclusion that I had to say goodbye to shiplap!

The truth about faux shiplap

If you do a quick search on Pinterest, you will see that some people have made faux shiplap at $0 simply by drawing pencil lines on the wall.

I thought, great! I'll try!!

Good thing I did not have a big surface to cover because it's the worst idea I've ever had!

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If, like me, you are just a bit perfectionist, don't even think of doing this!

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I started to draw with a pencil, telling myself that I could erase if I made a mistake. Obviously, only a little millimeter of offset and I wanted to erase! Big mistake! It made a "beautiful" smudge! Maybe it's just because my painting was freshly applied, I can't say for sure.

And I worked with a level, so for sure it also left traces, even if it only slightly rubbed the wall. 🙁

The final look is not at all live up to my expectations. I asked my 9-year-old son: "Look at the beautiful planks Mommy installed!" Even he saw it was traced lines. As they say here, it's beautiful from afar, but far from beautiful !!!

I thought to trace back with a black pencil, but I did not have the courage. I was afraid to do more damage to the wall. Maybe I'll try my luck once the shelves are installed ... to be continued!

** UPDATE: Check out my take 2 on faux pencil shiplap

Come back to see the reveal next week.

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Here are again all the post on this challenge

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5