I Turned Old Barn Wood Into a Garage Accent Wall

I've been putting this project off for long enough and today we're going to put this old barn wood up on this wall. Let's get after it. I got this stack of old barn wood that I got from a friend of mine and uh I like it. There's a bunch of different colors. There's some light brown in here, there's some gray in here, there's all different widths, there's 8-in, there's 6-in, and there's 4-in. Primarily we're going to be using 8-in and 6-in. Now I haven't totally figured out how I want to do this wall yet, so we're going to make some decisions as we go. Let's get after it. So one of the biggest dilemmas that I had the last couple days is trying to figure out if I want to cut these edges off or if I want to keep them rough and I think I decided to keep them rough. Um I asked a couple people, they all said keep them rough. I was going to trim them all at first, but you know what? It is a garage and it is a rough wall. So I'm going to go ahead and keep them. First I'm going to go and I'm going to clean up this wall. I got some screws in here. This could get nailed down a little better. I got a screw here. So I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to start my first course at the bottom and work my way up. Basically I'm going to take this board, lay it down, put a level on top, level this board, and then tack it in. But before I do anything, I'm going to take these butt ends to the miter saw, both of them, and just clean them up. All right, so once we got the board on the wall like this and we got our ends cleaned up, I'm going to go all the way tight to this wall. We want to level our bottom course and I'm just going to go ahead and put a couple nails in here. I'm using 2 and 1/2-in 16-gauge finish nails for this project. Now I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to pop a nail in every one of these studs. And that board is absolutely not going anywhere. Now when we put our second course on top of this, it should be level and we'll check level as we go, but it's most important to get this first course set before you build up cuz one little 1/4-in gap could turn into a whole wavy mess with gaps and a bunch of other stuff as you go. So level out your first course and work your way up. All right, now that we got our next board here, I'm just going to pull a tape and see how long that we need it. Looks like we need it right at about 66. Let's drop this board in here. Just like that, absolutely perfect fit. So, I want to make sure that these boards right here are lined up. So, I could go ahead and I could put a nail right in here. And then I want to level that backside. And I'm going to take my level, throw that on there, and then I'm going to raise this side up to see where it hits, where it needs to hit to level. Oh, and did we get lucky or what? We are right on the money. I mean, I got to come up maybe tad. I don't even want to come up that much. It is really raining outside right now. Geez. We're supposed to get storms, but I didn't know they were going to be this bad. But anyways, so I think we're going to go 6-in next and uh we want to make sure that we want to offset our seams. So, I'm either got to find a longer board or a shorter one. I think I'm going to cut one in half and do a a short, long, short. I think that'll look good. So, now this is like one of the most important parts of the whole build to me is honestly picking what side I want to do. I don't like where you can see there was like a the 2x4s that these are originally mounted on the barn or whatever. So, I think I'm going to go all this side, the outside of the barn. Um I like that more weathered look than uh you can tell where something was screwed to it. So, I don't know, it's just a little tip. It bothers me. Um I like to change up colors, get some grays in there. Um cut the board to where if I like a certain roughness or pattern. Really take your time with this stuff because the more time that you take, the better it turns out. So, I'm going to go ahead and throw this one up on the wall, make sure that it's level. All right, so we're about three rows in now. Everything staying straight, looking good. I'm going to continue up. I'll check back with you guys when I get about uh right here. All right, so I think I'm probably the luckiest guy right now. I have 6-in boards and 8-in boards, right? Well, I just measured up from here and that's like dead nuts on board. Basically, what I'm going to do I'm going to take my board here. And my board kind of kicks up on the end, right? So, I'm just going to cut it to length first. I like this gap all the way down, but right down here it kicks out. So, I have a stud right here. So, I'm going to go ahead and I'm just going to take my Squig Jig. Best best square out there. Use code LLG12, 12% off your order. So, I'm just going to take my square. Make that line. I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to cut this quick. So, now that I got my board trimmed down to what I want I'm just going to take my square. And I'm going to line it up with my outlet right there. So, I'm going to go here and then I'm going to bring it over. And I'm going to go there. Now, I want my my gap on the bottom to be roughly three. So, we'll take our lines that we just made. And we'll run this down to the three. And we'll run this down to the three. And then we'll just put a line across the bottom. Just like that. So, we're going to cut this out. Now, we're going to go over to our panel. Come over here and we'll do the same thing, right? So, we'll go right here. Go right about here. We want to bring it to the four. Right where I had it. Right where I had it. Wow. Am I good or what? And that'll be our bottom cut line. All right, there's many a different ways that you can cut this out. You could do a jigsaw. You could do a bunch of different ways. My favorite way, my quickest way is with this multi-tool. Go ahead and just cut on your lines. All right, so we got it cut. And as I was cutting it this piece decided to break on me a little bit. Um it was probably previously broken. It's older wood. It is what it is. Um we're going to keep it cuz we're going to nail this anyway. So, we'll just press it together when we nail it. We'll pop some nails in there, it'll be fine. Let's see if it fits. Bang, just like that. We're perfect around here. Man, did I get lucky? I'll show you guys how lucky I got here. Look at this. This is going to come right on top. We'll add our box on there. That'll be It'll be perfect. So, yeah, let's pin these up and we'll keep going. All right, so the same idea that we did on the bottom here, we're going to do on the top. First, we're going to take our square here, the best square that there is, and I'm just going to butt that right up. And I'm just going to draw a line 2 and 1/4 up. I'm going to go 2 and 1/4. We'll take our level, we'll make a straight line. We'll take our multi-tool, we'll cut this out, and we'll nail this up. Let's tack this up. All right, we're getting so close to finishing this wall up. We just got one more board, and then we got to rip a row. Um but I got to cut around this gas valve here. So, basically, what I did was I don't know if you guys can see or not, but I pushed this board up tight, marked center of my gas valve, and then measured in from the wall, and it gave me 4 and 1/2. This X right here, I'm going to drill a 3/4-in hole in it. Hopefully, that will fit right in here. So, let's see. Oh, 7/8 is all I could find. Um I broke most of my bits. Most I'm going to go ahead, I'm going to take some channel locks. I'm going to take that valve off and see if this board fits. That fits. I got to just get it in there. Now, we got to re-pipe dope that and get our valve back on. Got our thread sealer, Loctite thread sealer here. I got freaking dope all over the wood. What an idiot. But, I'm going to tighten this up. I'm going to go turn the gas back on to my house and get this nailed up. All right, now I got some soapy water. And I'm just going to put soapy water on there. See if anything bubbles. It all looks good. I'm going to put this top piece on. All right, now it's time to use the table saw. We got one more row to go. So, I'm just going to measure as I go. So, I'm going to do 2 and 1/8 there, and then this one will be 2 Uh 2 and 1/2. I don't know if I can just go with 2 and 1/8 cuz I'll have a ceiling up here anyway. So, 2 and 1/2 would look a lot better. So, I'm going to go 2 and 1/8 and 2 and 1/2. We'll cut it at 48. So, we'll cut our first one at at 48. And we'll do 2 and 1/8 to 2 and 1/2 and I'll rip it. Now, we're going to see if it fits. I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to finish up the rest of the top row here and I'll catch back. All right. So, I got the whole wall done. I cut the strip on top. It actually turned out pretty well. Um it was 2 and 1/2 like all the way across after I got a little eighth on the bottom, but uh trim this window and then I'll come back. So, I went ahead and I did the inside of my window. Put some casing on there. Now, I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to frame the outside of my window. And I found some gray pieces and I like how the gray looks. So, I'm going to do gray all the way around this window and I'll caulk that side of it. But, uh yeah, I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to finish this window here and then I'll show you the whole thing when I'm done. And there you go. The barn wood wall is done. I I shouldn't really say done yet. I do have to finish up my outlets, get those flushed, and I do have to figure out some way to cover my electrical panel over here. Um but, I went ahead and I just took some gray boards that I had, barn wood, same style, but I had them in gray. Probably it's sun weathered or whatever. And it went really smoothly. Um I think it looks really good. The only next thing I got to do is add a bar to this wall. So, I'm going build a bar right here. We'll hang some signs and some shelves, get some liquor bottles out of here, and it'll be a good time. But anyways, I got more stuff to do. I'll catch you guys later. Peace.