How We Installed Cedar Shiplap Above Our Fireplace

Share this:

When we started on our living room makeover I didn’t have any idea what I was going to do above our fireplace. I knew I wanted the actual brick on the fireplace painted black but wasn’t sure what to do with the vertical planks above it that were in place when we moved in. They didn’t look good at all. We considered ripping them out but weren’t certain what was behind them. Then we considered filling in the gaps to have a smooth surface but that seemed like a lot of work for very little return. Finally, we decided on cedar shiplap above the fireplace.

I wasn’t crazy about some of the cedar I was seeing online because it had such a red/orange tint to it so we went to Home Depot to walk around and see what we could find. We stumbled on these Cedar V-Groove Planks. They are less than $20 and each pack has 6 planks in it. Each one is 8ft long and best of all, they were not red/orange. They are much more blonde, like pine with lots of color variation. Perfect for leaving raw for the cozy, rustic, modern look I was going for in the living room.

How To Install Cedar Shiplap

First, we opened all of the packages of cedar shiplap and laid them flat wherever we could find a place in my living and dining room so they could acclimate to our room. If you’re following me in Instagram you may have seen this picture, when we were laying the boards outs.

After 48 hours of that we found the center of our fireplace wall, measured that and cut each board to size using my miter saw. I wanted the boards to meet in the middle for a cleaner look. I didn’t prefer the staggered look but you could certainly do that as well.

After all of the boards were cut we checked to make sure the fireplace mantle was level all the way across, woohooo it was! That never happens in this house!! Luckyyyy!!! So we loaded the BEST. NAILER. EVER. and attached our first two boards, groove down, lip up. After that it was just a matter of clicking all the boards in place and shooting a few nails in each one. So easy! This project seriously only took about an hour. Once all the boards were up there was about a one inch gap at the top where the wall meets the ceiling. To fix that we bought a 1/4 inch thick and 1 inch wide strip of pine trim that matched and nailed it in.

Done!I love the look the cedar shiplap gives to the whole space!!We bought 4 packages and have 2 long pieces left and all of the short pieces we cut off that are going to be perfect for an upcoming bathroom project.