Advice on planking my wall?

[Michael Yadfar]

Sorry for the sideways image, but that's the wet bar I plan to redo. This came with the house, and was never ever used once as a wet bar. The cabinets are just cheap venered cabinets that I don't even think have real wood venere, and the wall behind is just drywall. I plan to redo this area by redoing the cabinet face, doors, and top with solid Walnut, and putting vertical planks along the wall behind that I will paint white.

Now my question comes in planking the wall, which I've done before with the box store tongue and groove sheets, but I want an authentic look of real planks. What I was thinking of doing is buying 8/4" poplar, and resaw it into four 3/8" pieces. Then I was going to glue the planks to wall vertically, spacing them a penny's thickess apart leaving a 1/8" space at the top and bottom, then paint. My questions of concern are whether the way I'm doing this is efficient material wise, whether or not I have to tongue and groove, and how I'm supposed to secure it to the wall properly. Since im going vertical, I can't really secure them to solid 2x4s

[roger wiegand]

I'm guessing it's cheaper to saw 4/4 material in half than 8/4 in four, price per board foot is usually higher for thicker material. Construction adhesive should be fine for sticking them to the wall (though you'll need to replace the drywall if you ever decide to pull them off). It's not as though they have to carry any load. You could also use 3/8" MDF or plywood in strips, though I wouldn't advise MDF if there's water in the area.

[John C Bush]

We redid a powder room in mission style panel wainscot. The old pro finish carpenter used pre-finished MDF trim, construction adhesive to the drywall and used pin nails at opposing angles to hold the trim in place while the glue set. The paint crew puttied any gaps at the drywall surface--not much-- and painted. Looks great!! Now that I've seen how simply it was done I would have tackled it my self and would likely just be finishing it now--three years later.

[Bradley Gray]

I did a commercial interior that called for rough sawn barn siding. i used rough 4/4 oak vertical boards and nailed them to 1 x 4 horizontal strips 32" oc. The wall and strips were painted black before the KD planks were applied with a 1/4" gap between.

[Pat Barry]

I don't think you need tongue and groove but I do think shiplap joints would be a good idea

[Bill Orbine]

Perhaps you want to prime and paint one coat on before install. And then do a final coat after installation! Unless you don't mind what you see after the wood moves. You get the idea...