November 25 2022

How to Shiplap Around a Door Frame

If you\’re adding shiplap to your home, there\’s a chance you\’re going to have to shiplap around a door frame. Having just done this, I\’ve got a few tips to make it easy. (And, a few ideas to make it easier than my project!)

1. Cut the Entire Length

Chances are, you won\’t be lucky enough to have the bottom edge of the shiplap perfectly aligned to rest on the top of the door frame. You\’re going to have to notch out the frame of the door, and you want it to look nice. Take the measurement all the way across, so you know how long of a board to cut.

$\"measure$

$\"cut$

2. Mark Where the Cuts Will Be

Once you have your shiplap length cut, you\’ll be able to rest it on top of the door frame and mark the edges. Remember, you can *always* cut the notch bigger, so start by making cuts that you can enlarge if need be.

$\"mark$

3. Find the Depth of the Cuts

Use a short piece of shiplap to fit next to the door frame, resting up against the side of the door frame. With it fit in place, mark the top of the door frame.

$\"hold$

*It would have been smart of me to shiplap the left hand section before getting to this step. That way, I could have done the exact same thing on the other side. Luckily, it all worked out, but it could have thrown things off a bit if my shiplap hadn\’t been pretty level on both sides.

4. Mark the Notches

With the actual piece that will be cut resting on the floor, lay the short \”depth\” piece on top. Draw the straight edge of the vertical cut, just to where the horizontal cut will start.

$\"marking$

Match the horizontal cut line from the short piece onto the actual piece of shiplap, and you\’ve got your notch. Repeat on the other end of the shiplap for the other side of the door frame.

$\"shiplap$

Once the marks are in place, I used a straight edge to draw the line for the top of the door frame.

4. Jig Out Your Notch

With both ends of the shiplap clamped in place, I used my jig to cut out the notch.

$\"use$

I like to tell myself I can cut things perfectly straight…and I cannot. LOL. Clamping a straight edge down against the shiplap to guide my jig would have been a smart idea.

5. Check the Fit.

As you can see, it\’s not perfectly perfect. But, black paint is *really* forgiving, so it looks amazing once painted and put in place. Normally, the wood against a painted door frame will show any and all imperfections. And, keep in mind that before I painted it, I used my palm sander to smooth out the cut edges.

$\"shiplap$

6. Shiplap the Other Side.

If you look to the left of the door frame, you\’ll notice that I added the small shiplap pieces. This is what I did as the next step before installing the top notched piece. I could have done this before even starting this process. And, I couldn\’t install the top notched piece until the lefthand side was installed because shiplap overlaps, so you have to go from the bottom to the top.

$\"small$

7. Nail in Place.

The last step is to nail this bad boy in place.

$\"Nail$

Because we have low ceilings in our basement, you can see that I only had one more length of shiplap to add before nailing the trim piece in place at the top.