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I often get asked what beginner-friendly project I recommend someone start with new to DIY projects and think that accent walls are perfect! They’re beginner-friendly, budget-friendly, don’t take a lot of time but do make a big impact, and help you to learn a lot of new skills and little tricks: like using a board and batten calculator for math, or baby wipes for easy caulking clean up! If you’re about to install a board and batten wall, this is the best board and batten calculator to get the job done. It quickly calculates the batten spacing so that you don’t have to do the math!
To use the calculator, there’s a couple of things you’ll need to know before entering your numbers. The calculator is going to ask you for the wall width, the stile width, and the number of panels.
Before using the calculator, the first step is to get a measuring tape and measure the width of the wall that you’re installing the board and batten on.
Once you’ve determined the width of the entire wall, you’ll need to figure out the number of battens you want on the wall and the width of the board. A batten is the vertical piece of wood on the wall. It’s also known as the stile.
You’ll also need to determine the number of panels you want there to be. A panel is the flat part between the vertical and horizontal boards. (Note: if you have textured walls, you may prefer to get hardie board, which you can get at Home Depot or most hardware stores, to achieve a smooth finish on your accent wall.)
One way to get a better idea of the batten style you’d like is to use painters tape to create a mock up of the accent wall you’re installing. This will help you figure out how many panels would look best on the wall.
The best way to determine how many panels needed on the wall is to divide the width of the wall by the width of the panel size you’d like to have. This doesn’t have to be an exact number, just a rough estimate. Then round that number up to the next whole number if you need to. This will give you the answer to how many panels needed for the wall.
After you’ve found the widths of the wall and stiles and the number of panels, you’ll need to determine the exact panel width so you don’t end up with irregular spacing. Luckily, that’s what the board and batten calculator is used for!
Go to inchcalculator.com and use the Wainscoting Layout Calculator.
Once you’ve typed in the numbers into the calculator, it will give you the panel width which will be the distance between each vertical batten board (the stiles). This will also help you determine the number of vertical battens you’ll need for this project.
After the calculations have been made, the wainscoting calculator will provide you with a layout of what the batten wall will potentially look like. On the layout, there will be measurements that will give you the exact spacing distances between each vertical board and the exact distances between the wall and vertical boards.
Now that you’ve determined your board width and board spacing, it’s just about time to build your batten wall. Before installing, you’ll need to determine the rail width and the width of the baseboard. The rails are the horizontal pieces at the top and the bottom of the batten wall. The top rail is typically smaller than the bottom rail.
Once you’ve got all your measurements, you can start installing your board and batten wall.
I’ve created several different board and batten walls and have found the Wainscoting Layout calculator to be extremely helpful. Accent walls can be super modern or have super traditional looks to fit a lot of different style homes. Hopefully this helps with your next batten wall project too!
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