I LOVE farmhouse style interiors…
Farmhouse style is all about white, cream, and gray colors mixed with raw wood. Mixing the white/creams and wood to create shiplap walls is the perfect union!
Isn’t it amazing how all of this combines to create a clean & fresh look that begs to be lived in?
I know farmhouse style has been in for a few years…but I like to sit with an idea to see if it’s really something I love or if it’s just a passing phase.
If I redid our house every time I fell in love with a new style it would change every week!
To me, the use of color is appealing, so the main farmhouse style feature of white walls has always felt bland and sterile.
But I’ve always loved the decor!! You can find my favorite Farmhouse Style Amazon Decor here
That is until recently…Do you ever get the itch to mute everything and make it more calm?
Our House
Over the past year our house has been slowly transitioning to a more neutral and rustic farmhouse style to better fit our lifestyle.
We have white slipcovers, bleached jute rugs, white linen bedding, and cream stripped runners.
I’ll let you in a dirty secret…we aren’t clean freaks but I’ve always felt its better to see the dirt (and clean it) instead of acting like it’s not there.
The house sees a lot of dirt, sawdust, paint, dog hair/slobber, and general abuse.
Since everything is a temporary fix that will change during the remodel I haven’t wanted to spend a lot of money or shop for furniture.
A lot of the stuff in our house comes from estate sales, upcycles, CL, and hand me downs. I love everything I bring home but the mixture of styles is bothering me.
Lately I’ve been craving more simplicity and peacefulness so we can come home and feel like the house is a relaxing retreat. Hence my love for farmhouse style!
My plan
I’m working to update everything from the walls to the floor with neutral colors, a lot of texture, raw wood finishes, and simple decor to tone everything down and achieve a raw rustic farmhouse style.
I feel like nothing is working and just want to throw it all out and start over!
Does anyone else feel that way sometimes?
The living room is the most heavily used but the only windows in the room don’t get direct sunlight due to the overhang porch that runs along the front of our house.
No matter what I do this room always feel dark.
It will be awhile until we can add more windows.
So…
What do you think about mixing white Shiplap and Board & Batten (or Wainscoting)?
Luciane shared this amazing space over at Home Bunch. The two wood styles on a stairwell built by Millhaven Homes in Utah is similar to what I’m thinking.
They don’t share an adjoining wall….and ours would but I imagine these two walls would look great together. What do you think?
The idea of adding wainscoting to the lower half of the dining room walls was already floating through my head….
Then I noticed a shiplap breakfast nook on Instagram and had a lightbulb moment.
What if I mixed the two with shiplap in the living room and board & batten in the dining room?
To me, shiplap feels like an old farmhouse while board & batten is more classic or formal.
Is it crazy to combine the two?
Here are some examples I found…
Shayna at The Wood Grain Cottage did an AMAZING job of combining the two in their home. Our ceilings are only 8 feet and I wouldn’t be taking the board & batten all the way up but she definitely makes me think its possible. The only issue is our entryways current beadboard backed board & batten would add a third element to the mix….
I think if I use the same paint color in a flat or satin sheen it should make the two different styles blend together!
The living room and dining room have a large doorway and both rooms can be seen from almost any spot in the house.
Our entryway already has board & batten with beadboard backing. I don’t want to use headboard in the dining room since it’s not a formal space (plus beadboard is difficult to keep clean).
Instead, I’m thinking of doing shiplap in the living room and board & batten in the dining room with a flat back panel like the room above.
The added benefit is that it would cover our wonderful textured walls!
I hate the knockdown texture used to finish homes the 70s!
And trust me, if the work required to skimcoat the walls didn’t make my skin crawl I’d be doing that instead of writing this post!
So, covering the texture wouldn’t make me SO happy!
Love this! I definitely prefer the board & batten half wall with shiplap on top. The two full walls next to one another at the corner looked odd. The stairwell with the two both within sight is also lovely. Another pic on Pinterest had subway tile as a kitchen backslash & above the cabinets board and batten with a nearby accent wall full of it. I was already going to do this accent wall so tying it in above my cabinets would be perfect and maybe a shiplap backslash? The height might be to narrow to pull it off…either way so glad to see the compilation of examples, thanks!
So glad you liked it and it’s helpful…they are both so stunning but I agree the corners can get a bit tricky and start to make it seem cluttered. The subway tile with board & batten above the uppers sounds like perfection! I love the idea of shiplap as a backplash with the cabinets breaking it up in the middle to create a bit of a break for the eyes. I think depending on the height of your upper’s you could make it a bit more narrow to at least get in 2-1/2 widths without looking too skinny although I’d prolly make a sample base board first and lean them up against the wall to gauge the result before doing anything permanent. If you’d be willing to share the result of whatever you chose I’d love to see it and share with everyone 🙂