Kitchen Renovation Progress: Board and Batten Wall, Craftsman Style Columns and Railing

An open floor plan of a ranch style home with white craftsman style columns and black modern railing. 

It's coming to the end of the kitchen renovation and it feels so good!   Counters and appliances have been installed and the kitchen has finally been usable for a couple weeks now.   There's still work to be done, but seeing it all come together could not be more exciting.  

The latest project to be completed (well, almost complete) are the columns and railing that we added after removing the walls and opening up the stairs. 

Let's take a look back at how the house looked a few months ago. 

Once the walls came down the house immediately opened up and felt 1000 times bigger and brighter.

Unfortunately, due to the month long hardwood floor disaster, our contractor had to put the stair railing and columns on hold, which meant we lived with the 2x4 columns and temporary railing for quite a while.  

       

Once the floors were FINALLY finished I could get started on the board and batten half wall and the columns and black metal stair railing could be installed. 

Installing board and batten is a super easy and affordable DIY project that makes such a big impact to small spaces.  I've installed it many times in our home and knew I wanted to add it to the half wall in our kitchen. 

I generally use 1/4" poplar boards from Home Depot, which sit perfectly on top our base molding.  To install the battens, I simply measure the wall, cut the boards down to size,  use a level to make sure they are straight, attach them to the wall with a nail gun then fill the holes and seams with painter's putty and caulk.  

After the boards were caulked and the nail holes filled I painted the wall with two coats of Sherwin-Williams Super Paint in semi-gloss white.   

The simple addition of a few inexpensive pieces of wood made such a dramatic difference in the small half wall.

The columns aren't finished yet (I still have some painting to do), but I wanted to share them since they are pretty much complete.  I had my contractor wrap them in craftsman style molding to tie in with the cabinets then I painted them in the same Sherwin-Williams Semi-gloss white. 

If you remember, I originally wanted a black modern horizontal railing for the stairs.  Those plans quickly changed after finding out a custom railing would cost upwards of $2K.  Instead, I went with a simple black level outdoor rail system from Menards.  It was a fraction of the price and I'm really happy with how it looks with the new columns.

There's still a lot of finish work that needs to be completed, but the house is coming together beautifully and exactly as I imagined.

Did you miss any of the previous kitchen posts?  

- Our Next Big Project: Kitchen and First-Floor Renovation Layout

- Kitchen Design Board and Before Tour

- Week Two Kitchen Update: The Walls Are Gone    

- Week Eight Kitchen Update: Week Eight Kitchen Update: Drywall, Paint and Countertop Shopping

- Week 10 Kitchen Update: Cabinets, Empty House Tour, New Paint and Floor Stain
- Week 14 Kitchen Update: Floors, Island and Trim

    

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