Everyone loves a good before and after, right? I know I do! After moving into our home I knew the guest bedrooms had to be high on the project priority list given we had a lot of upcoming plans on our calendar with friends and family coming to stay. Having visitors gave me a deadline to work off of which always pushes me to hustle hard. Although I completed this makeover in 1 week, it was a makeover that included a lot of collected items over a period of time. I did a lot of the decoration gathering and bedframe searching before I actually started the room which helped me complete it all in 1 week.

The inspiration for this room design stemmed from a few Pinterest pictures I found and then solidified once I found the absolute perfect bed frame for it on Facebook Marketplace. In the past, we’ve always just had one guest bedroom for our spare When I stumbled upon this Pottery Barn bed frame with an Ethan Allen mattress/box spring that was hardly used in a spare room for only $200 I was astonished! This bed frame was the exact style I had pictured in this room and the price was even better.

After that, I moved on to the visual mockup which helps me see my entire vision together and also pumps me up for what I want the end to look like. Since the main design feature of the room would be a board and batten accent wall I knew that’s where I needed to start.

Board and Batten Accent Wall

If you’re also thinking about creating a board and batten accent wall in your home I would suggest that you measure out where your studs are in your walls. Usually, they are spaced out 16”, but sometimes the studs are off a little. Figuring out where your studs are is crucial because this is what you must secure your boards into so they hold. However, if you have a specific space you’d like to have your boards apart and that doesn’t match up with the studs you can also use liquid nails (or any other construction adhesive) to help secure them to the wall along with your nails. Once I had measured out where our studs were, I was then able to map out how many boards I would want to go across our wall and how high up I wanted it. If you’re a visual person and you aren’t sure how many boards would look good, I suggest mapping it all out with painter’s tape first. For our specific wall, I added a footer board that sat right on top of the baseboard. I did this because our boards were wider than our baseboards. I felt this was a great way of making the wall feel finished but also helping with the width issue. Above our vertical boards, I also added a thick board and a shelf.

(Tip: If you’re adding the shelf or ledge on the top, make sure you are securing that with long screws into a stud. I created pocket holes on the top of it and drilled them into the studs to ensure I could place stuff on top of it without it falling down.)

My specific board measurements:

• Raw Common Boards 1x4 (used for vertical boards + Shelf)

• Primed Wood 1x2 (used for foot piece)

• Raw Common Boards 1x6 (used for the thick top piece)

Tools I used:

• Stud Finder

• Tape Measure

• Level

• Liquid Nails

• All the boards listed above

• Brad Nailer with 2” nails

• Compound Miter Saw

• Wood Filler

• Paintable Caulk

• Pocket Hole Jig with Screws

• Primer

• Muted Sage by Behr paint

Since I had used the unprimed common boards for our wall, I had a few extra steps. The first being to sand down the boards so they were super smooth, which took a good chunk of time. After the boards were nailed up I had to caulk/fill all the seams with paintable caulk and wood filler so it would look seamless and unified with the wall (this is a step you should never skip, it makes all the difference). Once that was finished, I had to prime the boards so my green accent wall color wouldn’t soak into them. If I would have been able to purchase already primed boards from the hardware store this would have eliminated these two steps making the entire project go quicker, so if your hardware store has primed boards in the width you’d like I highly recommend buying those.

Paint Time

After the installation and prep came the fun part, THE GREEN PAINT! This Muted Sage color by Behr had me so jazzed! I knew it would make all the difference in the room and really give it a statement that wasn’t too punchy. And boy was I right, it was perfect! I ended up doing two coats of green paint and that covered incredibly. I had purchased a gallon of paint and honestly hardly used any so I would recommend for one wall you’d only need a quart.

Decor Time

Now that the accent wall was complete, I had to paint the wood around our window and install trim around the window, door, and baseboards. Then came my favorite part, adding decor and styling the room. I gathered all the decor items I had collected over time and made a list of things I still felt I needed to hunt for.

That list is:

• Throw pillows

• Comforter and sheets

• Faux floral/greenery

• Pictures/art for inside the frames I had

I wanted to ensure the decor was simple but filled the space in a way that created a comforting thoughtful space. I focused on decorating the shelf on the wall, the corner by the window, and the surfaces like the dresser and nightstands. After that, I added some mirrors (one full length and the other on the dresser) and the curtains.

Over a year later, I can confidently say that this design has aged well and served its purpose of being the cozy & inviting guest bedroom we needed. Our friends and family are always complimenting this room and feel at home staying in it.