DIY Shiplap Kitchen Peninsula

Chandley Green
Aug 2, 2020
3 min read

Super affordable shiplap project using a sheet of plywood! Try this on your Kitchen peninsula like I did or do an entire wall. Either way, this method is a great way to bring texture into your space without breaking the bank!

Materials & Tools Needed:

4' x 8' plywood boards stripped down to 6" wide boards
Wood filler
Nail Gun
Caulk
Caulk Gun
Sander
Paint
A handful of nickles (for spacing the boards)

Step 1: Measure & Cut.

Measure the space you will be covering. For reference, we used one 4' x 8' sheet of plywood and it was more than enough. I had Home Depot cut our boards into 6" wide strips and we kept them at 8' long. We did this because we have a miter saw at home to use if we needed to cut the strips shorter. If you don't have this, no worries! Just be sure to measure your island to determine the specific cuts you will need before heading to the store. Note that if you need Home Depot to make all the cuts for you, you will need to be sure that the height of your wall is divisible by 6". If not, your top or bottom board may need to be cut to more or less than 6" wide. Because our top board hides under the lip of our counter, we weren't too concerned about it being narrower than the other boards.

Step 2: Paint the wall.

Be sure to paint the wall that you are covering BEFORE putting up any boards. It can be tricky to paint in between the cracks so, just save yourself the trouble.

Step 3: Sand and make any additional cuts.

After sanding the boards, we started with the corners of our peninsula. We chose to do vertical boards for the angle on the front of the wall and left them all horizontal on the other angle.

Step 4: Install time!

We started from the bottom and worked our way to the top. We used a nail gun to attach the boards. Between each board place a few nickles as spacers. One of our walls had an outlet to work around. To combat this, we cut the boards shorter so they would meet up with the sides of the outlet. This left gaps above and below the outlet, which we filled like a puzzle after the fact. It's not perfect, but perfect isn't my priority!

Step 5: Caulk and fill.

Once your boards installed, you will want to caulk any corner pieces and fill in all your nail holes with wood filler. Fill your nail holes with a dab of wood filler, let dry, and sand down smooth.

*Beginner Tip: When caulking your corners, do a fine line across with the caulk gun and then go back over with your finger to smooth it out.

Step 6: Finishing touches.

Now it is time to paint or stain, whichever you have chosen. I painted my shiplap with an oil-based paint in the color Inkwell by Sherwin Williams. I was terrified to commit to this color because it is SO dark. I ended up loving it but the beautiful thing about paint is you can always re-do it so just go for it!

I went with oil-based paint because it recommended for use in kitchens. To finish off the look, you can add quarter round along the bottom.

Best of luck,

Chandley