And now for a less stressful and more exciting part of this crazy project.  I love doing the elements of the build that will be visible finished products.  Where you can see the inklings of the final abode as it will be when we’ll be living it.  More fodder for the dreams of day-to-day life soon to be (hopefully!).  Much more motivating!  The interior paneling for the walls is definitely that!

We searched long and hard for wall boards.  We knew we wanted tongue and groove boards to cover the walls, but commonly used 3/4″ thick boards seemed much bulkier than necessary, adding unwanted weight (always watching our weight!).  Various tiny house plans called for 1/4″ tongue and groove boards, which we found packs of at Home Depot, but they just seemed so flimsy.  What we really wanted were 1/2″ thick boards… but, that didn’t seem to be a thing…  however, we persevered!  After lots of internet searching and calling around to local lumber suppliers and home improvement places, we found one that had a source for 5/8″ thick pine tongue and groove boards – we’ll take it!  We put in our (tiny) order and shortly after, our boards were delivered.

Eli and I both love the beauty of wood, so didn’t want to paint the boards and hide that character, but we also wanted to have more contrast to the space than everything being normal wood tones.  I also really like how light-colored walls create a more spacious feel in a room – especially important in a tiny house!  So, to try to open the interior of Hygge Hale up a bit, we decided to white-wash the boards.  A little color contrast and a lighter hue, but with the knots and swirls and grains of wood still shining through.  Some internet research gave us the modern take on white-washing of using latex paint diluted with water.  So, we bought some inexpensive white latex paint, and I played around with the ratio of paint to water to get the exact opacity we liked.

Cheap white paint

White-wash testing station

After some trial and error, we decided on a 1:1 ratio of paint and water.  Seemed like good coverage, but also good transparency.  With that settled, the first step was to give the back side of each board a quick coat to help keep them from warping when we painted the fronts.  Then… yeah, you know what’s coming… sanding!  Since these are finish boards, we had to get them all good and pretty.  So, that meant four stages of sanding: 60 grit, then 80 grit, then 120 grit, then 220 grit.  LOTS of quality time with the orbital sander.  Until our hands were vibrating …and remembering that vibrating still half an hour after leaving the sander behind.  But, man the boards looked so good, and the white-washing paint went on so smoothly.

After the white-wash, we again sealed the boards with a finish to protect the wood and paint.  I don’t remember exactly why, but we moved to Polycrylic, instead of water-based Polyurethane like we’d used on the lofts, for the wall boards.  Maybe the internet videos I was watching for white-wash training and tips used Polycrylic?  As far as I can tell, they both have the same application.  Anyway, for whatever reason, that’s what we did.  So, the procedure for finishing the wall boards was a single coat of the diluted paint, and then three coats of Polycrylic over top (with light sanding between each coat) until the boards gleamed (and would be easy to clean).

Master white-wash painter

Drying rack in our barn

Then coat after coat of polycrylic

Must be a first coat – I’m still smiling

Initial boards completed

Boards ready for installation

We quickly learned that stacking the boards once fully finished was a very not-good idea.  The polycrylic was only so protective, so could get scratched when stacked, or worse, the board faces could stick to each other and pull bits of the polycrylic off.  After all that hard work of finishing the boards, we wanted them to look their best when on the walls.  Careful with the placement!

Since the boards couldn’t be stacked once finished, that meant we could only do so many before we needed to start getting them installed as we had only so much space to store them.  So, the process ended up being paint and seal maybe ten or so boards, then install them in the house, then back to sanding, painting, sealing, sanding, sealing, sanding… you get the drift.  I’m not going to lie, just as before with the siding and other various components of the build that got really tedious, after prepping and finishing all those wall boards, I’m soooo glad this is a tiny house.  By the time we got to the last few boards, when a miscalculation meant we came up a couple boards shy, I was not happy when I realized I had to paint/sand/seal even just a few more boards.  I, of course, powered through without harm or affliction, but not without some grumbling. 😉

There are points you have to celebrate, in what can sometimes feel like a frustrating, befuddling, and occasionally demoralizing build.  We had one such moment of triumph as we finished up the painting of the wall boards: That first gallon of white paint we purchased, it just happened to turn out to be almost the exact amount we needed to white-wash our boards!  There was, maybe, an 1/8-inch of diluted paint in the bottom of the can as I brushed over the final feet of the final board.  Those times when the quantities work out to be the Goldilocks amount – not to little, but not too much – feel like a stroke of amazing luck!