I Gorilla Glued Wood Slats On My Wall!

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Yes, you heard me right. I literally GLUED wood slats on my wall with Gorilla Glue Construction Adhesive. Mostly because I was TERRIFIED of hitting a water line on my first “real” DIY project. You know, where I was doing something that could go horribly wrong, as opposed to just hanging shelves or painting a room. I knew if I screwed this up and we had to rip out all the drywall because I hit a water line there was no way Tyler would allow me to continue on my DIY home renovation path! At least that’s what I thought in my head.

This is the space that I was planning on putting the wood slats. As you can see, this wall is right behind my toilet and I knew there was a water line back there somewhere. So I didn’t want to risk it.

I did drill into the wall when I installed the floating shelves as I talked about in my last post. But a few drywall anchors was way less risky than a whole bunch of brad nails going in all over the wall. You wouldn’t believe how well that construction adhesive holds! It probably have to take a hammer and a crow bar to them to get them off!

I started by measuring the distance from the top of the top shelf to the ceiling and figuring out about how far apart I wanted the slats. I decided 16 across would be perfect, then I cut them down to size in the length I needed.

I then stained the sides and front in the same stain colors as the floating shelves, Golden Oak by Minwax topped with Dark Walnut by Minwax. I always use these medical grade gloves when staining so I don’t get stain all over my hands. These gloves are very tough and don’t rip easily. I also like to use these blue Scotts Shop Towels because they are heavy duty.

**Just make sure you leave your stain rags spread out to dry before throwing them away because they can spontaneously combust. If you are using water based stain this won’t be an issue.

I then glued the wood on the wall above the shelves. This glue is really thick and sticks to the wall really well without slipping and sliding.

The middle was pretty straight forward as well like the top. Just eyeballed the spacing and lining it up with the top slats. I’d be more exact if I did this again, remember, this was one of my first DIYs so I still had a lot to learn at this point. Like when measuring, a 1×2 isn’t actually 2 inches wide like you’d think, it’s 1.5 inches wide. When I measured this wall I was measuring for 2in. wide pieces, so the left slats aren’t touching the left wall but the right are to make the spacing even. Luckily it’s not something you really notice unless it’s pointed out.

For the bottom I did have to cut around where the water line went into the wall, but it’s behind the toilet so it’s not very visible.

As you can see in the photo above, the slats stick out further than the baseboards. If I were to do this again, I’d bump out the baseboard with a 1X4 (because that’s how tall my baseboards are) so the baseboard would stick out further rather than the slats. You live and you learn. But again, this is behind the toilet in a very small area so it’s not a huge deal, just something I would consider in the future. If this was in a more visible area I’d have to fix it.

I think it turned out pretty great though for a super beginner! What do you think? Would you try this project?