Any new construction home you go into has the same look. Boring. zzzz……. So why not take a plan wall and turn it into an architectural feature! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know if I would really call this board and batten, or judges panels, or craftsman style trim, or what… But I don’t care what you call it, is really pretty \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before starting this project for the homeowner, I did a bunch of research on how folks added the trim when there was existing baseboard and crown molding. I could tell by a lot of the pictures that people hadn’t really considered how it would look when you have a 3\/4 inch board ticking out against the top profile of baseboard. Especially since it is very thin at the top. The look was really boring me. It just didn’t took right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I took to the big box home improvement store to find a solution. See, I could live with the new trim protruding a little bit, but if you look at the profile of most new construction baseboards, the profile at the top is something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It gets pretty skinny up there! Here’ was my solution and I think it gave a great effect to transition smoother to the skinny top of the base and crown molding:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

• <\/figure><\/li>

  <\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

  I added a piece of trim called “stop” You can see its skinny on one side, but gets thicker on the other. This way, when I put the Board and batten pieces up, although they would still protrude a bit, its a much less drastic transition! you’ll see \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  OK- so, I am not the best at math, or calculating, so I drew up a rough sketch and hit the lumber aisle. Of course, always buy extra! I used 1×4 primed MDF. That boils down to 3\/4″ x 3.5″ actual measurements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  After I got the “stop” pieces installed on the top of the baseboard, and then flipped over and installed against the crown molding, I was good to get started!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  <\/figure>\n\n\n\n

  I used my DeWalt brad nailer for this job. I couldn’t imagine using a hammer. It would take forever!! I installed the two vertical end pieces first. OK, so here’s where you need to use your noggin…. This wall was 16 ft long. Therefore, I couldn’t run one continuous piece horizontally, I would have needed to cut and seam them. So instead, I did my vertical pieces first so they wouldn’t have seams. If you wall is 12 ft or less, you can do the opposite and go horizontal first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Also, learn from this: Before you do anything, figure out a height on the wall where you want the lower pieces of trim to run vertically. The second one from the top. then make a pencil mark along the entire wall before putting up any vertical rails. I’ll explain in a minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  After you get the two end pieces up, measure from the interior edges of each piece of trim and mark the center of the wall. Make a mark on your next vertical board so you can line them up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  <\/figure>\n\n\n\n

  Now, continue that same process and you will have the wall divided again. and then do it again! Here you can see 1\/2 of the wall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n