Board & Batten Accent Wall Tutorial

Our living room is rectangle shaped, and the main wall in the room houses two vertical windows.

Ever since we built this home 7 years ago, I have always had this one wall as an "accent" wall to break up the room a little.  Previously, it was just a different color than the rest of the room- 

However, I felt the need to leave the "colorful" paint tones behind and venture off into the soft, relaxing, refreshing, and soothing ones.

Since I am in l.o.v.e. with board and batten, I decided this would be a perfect opportunity to still keep my "accent" wall, soften the room, and continue the brown on the existing walls throughout. 

After seeing Watch Me Daddy's post on how they created theirs, I felt confident enough to give it a try.  I implemented most of their directions with a few exceptions.  Theirs turned out so beautiful, how could one not be inspired?! - 

I wanted the boards wide and chunky, but did not want to replace the traditional baseboards our builder put in throughout the room.  I also wanted the boards to flow and not look like I just threw random boards up on the wall to accomplish the look I was going for. 

I wanted my base to be tall and not have much board sticking out farther than the board below it.  So, I started by purchasing the same baseboards that I already had, and installed them upside down...right on top of the existing baseboards:

Next, I placed a 3/4" by 3 1/2" primed rounded edged piece on top of the upside down baseboard.  I also used 3 1/2" boards vertically and spaced them 13" apart.  Due to the windows there are a few spaces that are more than 13"; however, I tried to make them blend.  Hopefully, you cannot tell!

 I used 2 1/2" nails to nail all the boards to the walls.  Frustrating enough, the vertical boards hardly ever matched up with a stud.  I ended up using Liquid Nails to attach those boards with a few finishing nails to keep them lined up while the glue was drying.

After the vertical boards were added I placed a 3/4" x 2 1/2" primed rounded edge piece horizontally on top.  Next, I added a 5 1/4" base molding on top of that.  I also loved the look of the shelf; however, only wanted it for decoration purpose not functionality.  I laid the 3/4" x 2 1/2" rounded board flat on top of the baseboard and added a quarter round piece to fill some of the gap between the two boards:

And...after a TON of filling holes, gaps, sanding, and painting...it was complete!