One Room Challenge Fall 2019 – Week 2: Shiplap Ceiling

The One Room Challenge continues! Welcome back to Week 2! If you missed Week 1, you can take a look here. While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out the other guest participants on the ORC Blog.

shiplap ceiling moodboard

Last spring on a wild hair, we decided to add tongue and groove paneling to the ceiling in our kitchen and enough boards to also do paneling in our powder room. So this last weekend we finally got after it! And by “WE” I mean, my husband.

Here’s what we have been up to this week:

Step 1: Take Down the Crown Moulding

First on our list was to take down the existing crown moulding. My husband used a metal crowbar to carefully pop the old moulding off and put it off to the side. We’ll be putting it back on later. I suggest marking which board goes on which wall as you take them down so that putting them back up later goes smoothly.

Step 2: Cut the Boards and Nail Them to the Ceiling

We debated back and forth for the direction we wanted the boards to run and settled on the short (?) way. He measured and cut each board using his chop saw. Before he put them up he found where the ceiling joists were and put marks on the ceiling so he could see where to nail the boards into. 

The boards that we used are the 5 1/2” Polar White pre-painted shiplap from Metrie. What is amazing about this is they’ve created the boards with built-in spacers – so there’s no need to figure out spacing! It makes it so easy. So, basically; cut, nail, nail, nail, cut, nail, nail, nail. We installed a new ceiling fan too, so once he got there he cut the boards to fit around the fan. 

Step 3: Reinstall Crown Moulding

This step is always a little tricky because it takes a little bit to line them all up again. Using the nail gun, nail them back into the ceiling and wall. 

reinstalling crown moulding

Step 4: Apply Caulk to the Holes and Fill in Gaps

Using a white paintable caulk, go around and fill the nail holes and gaps that are now showing on the crown moulding.  I’ve seen some tongue and groove ceilings where they like to keep the nail holes visible for a more authentic look, which I like, but I wanted to keep my ceiling looking a little cleaner.

List of Sources

  1. Metrie Shiplap // 2. Stanley Wonderbar Pry Bar // 3. Ryobi Nail Gun // 4. White Lightning Painter’s Preferred Acrylic Latex Caulk

And since progress photos are never the prettiest, here’s a photo of a powder room that has inspired me to go for the moody green paint color!

Thanks for following along! You can check out the rest of the guest participants here and the amazing featured designers here. You can also follow along on Instagram by following #oneroomchallenge.


  1. I love where this is going! I’m doing a moody green in my entire basement. It will feel so cozy. Can’t wait to see your progress and finished space!

  2. Kel says:

    I love your the green and it looks like it’ll turn out amazing!

  3. Love the shiplap ceiling! And that inspiration room is gorgeous!

  4. Nicole says:

    Loved this tutorial! I’m doing a tongue and groove ceiling as well so this was very helpful. I can’t wait to see it come together!

  5. […] One // Week Two // Week Three // Week Four // Week […]

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