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Architectural Details: Shiplap Paneling

by | Oct 21, 2014 | Decorating Inspiration, Details

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Architectural Details: Shiplap Paneling

One of my favorite architectural elements in a home is chunky wood paneling (known as shiplap or a similar tongue and groove paneling). Sigh. It makes my heart smile!

When we remodeled our kitchen (above), I was so excited to start (slowly) adding the elements of character I really wanted in my new house. I really missed all the chunky woodwork from our older houses, so of course adding more character to this house has made me feel so much more at home! I can’t wait to add more when the budget allows.

I have visions of painted wood walls and ceilings everywhere in ALL THE ROOMS! But for now, I’m happy with my walls through this little hallway and my entry.

Architectural Details: Shiplap Paneling

Our tongue and groove paneling looks like the above photo, before it is installed. You can find it at a lumber yard or your contractor can order it for you. It is long planks of wood (ours is pine) with grooves that fit the planks tightly together. Our planks had additional beadboard notches on the front side, so we turned ours around backwards (as a personal preference) so the front of the wood would be flat in between the grooves.

The paneling can be installed horizontally or vertically and painted or left natural. I love the craftsmanship of it and how solid and chunky it is!

Today I rounded up a few of my favorite shiplapped rooms for inspiration! Do you love shiplap, too?

Architectural Details: Shiplap PanelingMarkalunas Architecture Group

Architectural Details: Shiplap Paneling
Joanna Gaines – Magnolia Home

Architectural Details: Shiplap PanelingWilliam B. Litchfield Architecture via Atlanta Homes – Photo by Erica George Dines

Architectural Details: Shiplap PanelingThe White House – Daylesford – Garden Room

Architectural Details: Shiplap PanelingBHG

Architectural Details: Shiplap PanelingAtlanta Homes – Jamie McPherson – Photo by Erica George Dines

Architectural Details: Shiplap PanelingMuskoka Living

Architectural Details: Shiplap Paneling

Architectural Details: Shiplap Paneling

Related Posts:

Love This Style {White and Wood Cottage}

Inspiration: Adding Character with Wood Plank Walls

6 Ways to Warm Up Your Home with Wood on eBay

DIY Plank Wall Paneling by Sweet Pickins (featured in DIY!)

Click here for more details and the process of our plank walls during remodeling.

39 Comments

  1. Ms Maggie

    We are lucky to have it in our Seattle home on the ceilings with heavy beams that have all been painted or pickled in shades of blue or gray. In our bathrooms we added wainscoting on the lower to continue the ship-like feel. It does give the whole house substance and a generous feel.

    Reply
  2. Seana Turner

    These are beautiful photos. I love the wide wide panels on the floor. I put them in my kitchen when we renovated. There is just something very solid and grounding about this look. You almost don’t need art on the walls when the walls are so decorative themselves, right?

    Reply
    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Right, YES! And I guess that’s what I love about it. I don’t really like a lot of fuss so it just completes the room without many added extras!

      Reply
  3. dawn-Hydrangea Home

    Hi Melissa, LOVE shiplap and how it looks in your home. Definitely going to do some in our next room makeover. And don’t you love Joanna Gaines and her husband! Can’t get enough of their show. Between their farm and style – I’m obsessed!

    Reply
  4. Wendi

    Love this post and shiplap. We moved last month in to a 57 year old home. Not too sure what they did to one wall in the kitchen, it has a weird repeated square box pattern under the paint that shows through. Been trying to figure out what to do with that wall, and this post struck a great brain storm – – shiplap!!!!! Thank you so much.

    Reply
  5. Cristina Festa

    Love, love, love this detail. I would love to incorporate it somewhere in my home. I want to be best friends with Joanna Gaines and her hubby. I love their show ! The do amazing work, and they seem like the funniest people.

    Reply
  6. Diane | An Extraordinary Day

    I love your beautiful painted wood walls, Melissa. And all the other rooms you shared as well. There is something about that little bit of texture that makes a room feel some much more homey and cozy. :)

    When we had our house built, the builders made and installed our pine floors. (It was cheaper than another layer of subfloor and carpeting…and the look I wanted.) They were ship lapped….to allow for more humidity changes…expansion and contraction. Ship lap is more like “L” shaped edges. Your pretty white boards I think are actually called tongue and groove. Kind of like sassy edges with their tongues sticking out at you. ;) Whatever their silly names….they sure make a space happier.

    Best wishes for an extraordinary day!

    Reply
    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      That’s true, Diane, you are absolutely right. My boards are actually tongue and groove style, I’ll make that more clear. Today I just lumped them all in together in the inspiration photos and called them shiplap I guess as a more general look. I think tongue and groove boards might be a little more expensive, but I’ve heard it is also a little easier to install. But for our purposes we just love the look of shiplap and that’s what our contractor calls it so whatever it is, you are right, they sure make a space happy!!

      Reply
  7. Cheryl

    Picture One — heart draw. That wood beam makes everything cozy. I have had some bids on doing one beam in our house, amazingly expensive! You can get faux wood beams to lower the cost as real ones are heavy heavy. Those beams need to be anchored very securely in place.

    On a smaller scale, even a wood cutting board with lots of grain can warm up a room. I’ve been eyeing the Paola Navone wood tray, for example, to set on the kitchen counter for display (and is useful too).

    I usually start small and then research my contractors and see if I can find someone who offers an excellent price and is excited to do the project.

    Reply
  8. Barbara (WA)

    Oh, I adore ship lap – I want to open up a wall in an old house and find the original, oy! But I do have two places (at least) where I dream of installing it in this new-ish house if I can get my hubby-who-can-build-anything to move a little faster, heheh!

    Reply
    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Oh yes, original would be amazing! That’s what I love about older houses, all that built in character. You are lucky to have a live-in carpenter :-) but I know how that goes trying to get work done on your own house isn’t as easy as it might sound. Heheheh.

      Reply
  9. teresa

    You are giving me so many awesome idea….now I just need to getting building already…we are in the permit stage. =/
    Thanks

    Reply
  10. Carole @ Rustic Artistry

    I love the rustic white rooms you’ve shown here. They combine my love of rustic with the soothing and refreshing appeal of white.

    Reply
  11. Tamela

    Melissa, you never ceases to amaze me with your selection of wonderful pictures of decorating inspirations. I never knew that it was called “shiplap”. I have always referred to it as bead-boarding. Just goes to prove that we never stop learning something new…LOL! Thanks for sharing Melissa and you have a blessed day!

    Reply
  12. Leah: )

    How ironic – we just did this on a wall in our family room!!!
    Love it.: ) And I always love the inspiring photos that you post!!!
    Thanks!
    Leah: )

    Reply
  13. Kath

    Oh, how I LOVE shiplap. Joanna Gaines turned me on to it, and oh how lucky are the homeowners that find it already installed under sheetrock in old homes!

    Reply
  14. Gracia @ Gracious Offering

    Melissa, I love the rooms with painted woodwork you featured. We covered the walls in two guestrooms with tongue and groove boards and painted them white…just love them! Our 100 year old craftsman house already had two bedrooms with wide tongue and groove and a kitchen nook with board and batten…all painted white. So love the look and the timeless appeal of it all! We are actually planning to do this in our master bedroom as well. Thank you for the beautiful images…such lovely eye candy.

    Reply
  15. Jeannie

    I am redoing an old Victorian and we found shiplap under most of the the old paneling and wallpaper. The only problem I am running into is some of it is covered in nails where they had nailed cloth up over it before they wallpapered. I don’t know if paint would cover all of them. The living room however has two good walls that I will just sand down and poly over.

    Reply
  16. Rebecca @ Hello Creative Blog

    I soooooo love the last photo – mostly because of that door! Gorgeous! All of these details are amazing and add so much to a home. Great inspiration (and yay!! that you are able to add some to your own home!!)!

    Reply
  17. Karina Clark

    Fabulous post! These are my style of rooms; I could live in all of them! We bought a 1905 cottage a few years ago and renovated it. We used pine tongue and groove (shipshlap!) throughout the interior and painted it white. We left one wall which was in good condition and is the original tongue and groove in dark wood, I love it!

    Reply
  18. Loran Polder

    I always swoon over your gorgeous ideas and photos that you share. You’ve made me fall in love with white and wood and chalkboard signs! There’s just something so peaceful and clean and bright about it. Love, love, LOVE that ceiling in the fourth pic!

    Reply
  19. Kathleen Whitmer

    Love, love shiplap! What price range per sq ft is wood in? Just finished framing our new home and would love every room done, but I have to convince my CFO(my husband) it is worth the cost. Any creative budgeting ideas would be appreciated!

    Reply
  20. Louise

    Woodwork–the more, the better. The thicker, the better. The higher, the better! I’ve loved the old homes in my life where the woodwork, instead of being some little cosmetic strip of an afterthought, was substantial, part of the very infrastructure of the home, and where the quiet gleam of oil-based paint let you know you were in the presence of enduring quality. Those homes had strength and character, seemed to project a sense of safety and security onto their inhabitants, and where within those places small children felt the immensity of the world beyond them yet the space inside to grow into it. All that, of course, was part of another age that included no distracting electronic devices, the comfort and security of adults’ rules, proscribed dinnertime behavior, a slower pace, etc. In MHO. That aside, the fact is that there are ways of adding strength and character to our homes, with the ideas and how-to’s provided for us on the Internet, and happily, through Melissa’s beautiful selections. The shiplap is really great looking, as are — as I’ve seen here –board and batten, beadboard molding, tongue-in-groove paneling–they give back a little of what’s been lost in the home-building industry over the years. — ( I always write so much!!–my apologies, if needed! )

    Reply
  21. Joy

    These rooms are so beautiful–I love all the white! I can’t remember how I came across your blog, but I’ve been enjoying it very much! Your hallway is lovely by the way.

    Reply
  22. Glenda

    Very beautuful!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  23. Luisa

    I must have shiplap in my life!!
    haha…:-P

    Reply
  24. Karen on Bainbridge Island

    Huge fan of this look. I especially like that wood walls can take a beating…even if they get dented or chipped they look good. You can’t say that about drywall. I have wood trim everywhere, but not as much on the walls as I’d like. In my next house, I want pine, whitewashed or painted, everywhere!

    Reply
  25. Gretchen

    We are planning on using ship lap paneling in our bathroom. The bathroom has original subway tile but so much of it is damaged we are going to try and remove it from one wall and replace all the damaged ones. The plan is to cover the one wall with ship lap and paint it. I love these pictures, thanks for sharing.

    http://www.houseonthefritz.com

    Reply
  26. Michael

    I’m trying to research the value of 120 year old shiplap planks. I have a building full of it and I need to know it’s value. I’m looking for suppliers of such material and possibly buyers.
    Thanks

    Reply
  27. cathy

    I love the look of shiplap! When we built our lake home 5 years ago we couldn’t find a picture to show our contractor. He installed it vertically and after painting it has some problems. Some paint sticks in the grooves while others doesn’t so it looks messy; as well, some boards are smooth and some are not after the paint. As well it make our rooms look very very vertical. Do you have any advice on how to fix this? Thanks!!

    Reply
  28. Kathy Harris

    Is there a way to do ship lap in a rental space? I would love to have this even if I ever moved, and once I removed it, I might have to scrap shorter pieces, well, it would be worth it. I’ve thought about using supper strength Velcro, but that stuff costs almost as much as a board! I did use this Velcro to attach a mirror I created out of 6 cheap KMart long wall mirrors, adding extra mounding cut from extra mirrors I purchased for that purpose. Looked amazing! But, I had to patch the Sheetrock when I moved as this Velcro pulled off part of it item patches! So, any ideas on applying ship lap in a rental space would be appreciated. [email protected].
    Long

    Reply
  29. Patricia

    We just started a master bed/bath renovation. We are definitely doing a wall in both rooms in shiplap. We have a 17′ cathedral ceiling in the bedroom that we want to run a beam lengthwise at the peak with possibly cross beams. They would be painted not stained and everything will be color coordinated. I’m incorporating a bit of farmhouse & industrial with just a hint of french country in bed and furniture. I’ve got a pretty decent eye for decorating and many ask if I had a designer do our home so I don’t think I’m too off base. When I mentioned beams to my contractor he said in a nice way that was an old 80’s style. We think it looks great, so warm, cozy and yet casually elegant. I told him I have seen it all over on TV, in magazines, Pinterest and other places that were up to date publications. He shook my confidence a bit and I’d like to know what others think. Thank you. I love all of the above designs.

    Reply
  30. Corinne

    Hi
    Just bought a cottage in Maine its small . But we want to ship lap the kitchen and living room what width boards 6-8-10 to appear larger ? We have cathedral knotty pine ceilings please I really need help.
    Thank you Corinne

    Reply
  31. Janelle Lunney

    Hello! Can you please tell me where your interior door came from that opens to under your stairs of your ship lapped area?

    Reply
  32. Emily

    I just found shiplap in my 1940s bungalow. Any ideas on sealing it before painting? I don’t want to caulk between the grooves and ruin the look !

    Reply
  33. amy

    I LOVE the look of shiplap and have been wanting to add some ‘chunky’ wood to our house for awhile now! And that door in the last picture!!!

    Reply

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