the great board & batten project - an empty wall becomes useful and beautiful!

It's official...the great board and batten project is complete!
and can I just say I'm in love?

This post will just be a description with some before, progress, and after shots.  The full tutorial including materials list and cost will be up soon.  [Update: here's the promised tutorial!]

While I'd dearly love to have a proper mudroom [ha, maybe in the next house!], right now all I have is this super long wall as you come in from the garage.

After 9 years of walking in the garage, turning the corner into the dining room and dumping my...
purse
keys
sunglasses
scarf
jacket
maybe a hat
...on the poor dining room table, I finally decided to transform that super long wall into a beautiful and functional space.

[before]

Now you see what I mean, right? That wood door is the entry from the garage so this long wall was the perfect spot for the board and batten storage wall.

I went back and forth on whether I wanted to take the time to install the smooth backboards and in the end I'm really glad that we did.  Lots of people either have smooth walls [not us] or don't want/need the smooth look between the battens. I've seen tons of walls that don't have the backboards and they look just wonderful but I decided I wanted the whole thing to be really smooth.  So backboards it was!

Here's a shot after we completed the physical construction:

[in progress, physical construction complete]

Already I could see that this was going to look amazing...
Fast forward a couple of days when all the caulking and painting and hook-hanging was done and we were here:

[caulked, painted, and hooked!]

oh boy oh boy I couldn't contain my excitement!
I raced around the house shopping for goodies like baskets and decor...because of course this functional wall *had* to be lovely too, yes?

[basket for keys, sunglasses. and flashcards!]

[small hanging basket: Betty Coin Weave Seagrass Basket, brown - small, World Market]

ok, ok. yes I use it for jackets and stuff too! but I do admit that it's really tempting to just decorate it.

[with wonderful Cost Plus World Market Everett Foyer table, great buy].

joy!

I hope to get that tutorial written up very soon.  Thanks for reading!