I received product from Plank & Mill for this post in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

When we moved into our house, I knew I wanted to do something about our dated fireplace wall. There was nothing wrong with it, it was just very 1994. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with it yet, especially because I’m limited by my husband’s GIANT t.v. that lives on the wall above the mantle (ugh, men). But then I discovered a product that inspired me and I knew exactly what we were going to do to give our fireplace wall a bit of an update.

Y’all. I have discovered one of the coolest and most user-friendly products I have had the pleasure of working with in a very long time! Have you heard of Plank & Mill yet? If not, you have to know about this company and their product. We were able to add real reclaimed wood to our fireplace wall and create a stunning feature in our living room in UNDER FOUR HOURS! Here’s a rundown of how we (with the help of Plank & Mill) made it happen.

The first thing we did was remove all the mid-90’s chic decorative trim. We used a straight razor to separate the paint of the trim from the wall behind it. Then we used the Red Devil 5-in-1 Painter’s Tool and shimmied it behind the trim and pried it away from the wall. As soon as we were able to fit a few fingers under the piece of trim, we gently pulled each piece out of the wall.

We then peeled off any leftover paint and scraped away any rough spots. Then I dusted the wall with a microfiber cloth to make sure it was clean and ready for the planks.

Next, I busted open my box of peel-and-stick whitewashed wood planks that the kind folks at Plank & Mill sent me. They have all kinds of styles and varieties, but I chose the whitewashed wood because it reminded me a bit of shiplap. This product is so amazing: it is real wood and it is beautiful. It is cut very thin, so it is lightweight. On the back of each plank are two super sticky adhesive strips. This is what allows you to place these planks on the wall without using any nails or glue. It’s amazing, you guys!

The instructions on the box say to start in the middle of your wall and draw a level line and this is where you’ll place your first plank. We decided from the get-go that we weren’t going to remove our t.v. mount from the wall; we would just work around it. Lucky for us, the top of the t.v. mount is pretty much in the middle of the wall and it was perfectly level. So we just used that as our guide and slapped our first plank right above the mount. 

The next step is to fill in on each side of your first plank with more planks. We took a plank and dry fitted it in place, made a mark with our pencil where we would need to cut it, and then hubby took the plank outside and made the straight cut with our miter saw (you can use a hand saw as well). We continued on this way and just worked our way up and down from our starting point. Be sure to step back and look at your work before you start a new row of planks to make sure you’re keeping your patterns random.

Finally we were done with the wall except about an inch of space on the top and the bottom. I know it’s tempting to start from the top or the bottom of your wall so you don’t have gaps to deal with, but the problem with using a ceiling or crown moulding as a level guide is that very rarely are those perfectly level. And if you start using a guide that’s not perfectly level, you will end up with a crooked feature wall. No bueno. So, we decided we’d deal with the inch-wide gaps at the top and bottom of our wall (even though it’s a pain in the butt to make such small cuts) rather than stare at a crooked wall for the rest of our lives (my OCD perfectionism would LOVE that). 

So after we finished all the planking that we could, we started making small inch-wide cuts about 10 inches long (we did this because our miter saw only cuts wood no longer than 10 inches wide and we don’t have a table saw to rip longer pieces of wood). At first, I thought having a bunch of smaller pieces filling in the gaps at the top and bottom of the wall would be a glaring inconsistency, but I am happy to say that you can’t even notice it. We were able to finish our feature wall this way and it turned out amazing!

Here is the finished result…and all under four hours of work! Can you believe it? My husband was so impressed with this Plank & Mill product he asked where else we might be able to use it! When my skeptic of a husband approves of a product, I know it’s a keeper!

What do you think of our wall? I can’t get over how much better it looks and what a statement it makes. Now I just have to paint my living room walls and I will be done with this part of my house!

Have you ever used peel-and-stick reclaimed wood in your home?

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