Entry Wall Panels...

As you know, we have started the entry wall...and didn't get that far.

So here is my post regarding measurements, scroll down near the bottom: Entry Wall Measurements

My predicament with this wall, is the location where the panels come together. So I had posted this pic of the 4'x8' panels and how they would lay out:

What I didn't consider at the time is that my 4" strips MUST go over the seams. So OPTION #1 is:
We take the panels down and cut them to small squares. Here is a drawing I made to show where I wanted my 4" strips located (the top strip is actually 6", so when we add crown molding 4" will show, that's why it looks bigger).

As you can see, the dark black lines indicate where the panels are currently laid out. So this wont work.

Each panel measures out to about 25"x18", except the bottom right one, so Chance would have to cut me 24 - 28"x21", so that when we put them on the wall, the 4" strips will overlap the panels by about 1.5 inches on all 4 sides. The bottom right measures out to about 24"x17", so although I would like to also have an inch and a half around all 4 sides, I really need to use my 19" panel from up top so I don't have to buy a whole extra 4'x8' for one little box, so Chance would have to cut this one to 26"x19", so it'll have an inch along the left and right and half an inch across the top and bottom.

With this option, I would have to go buy 1 extra 4'x8' panel ($9.97) to get this many squares:

Or...OPTION #2:
I calculate it out perfectly and go buy new material and have them cut it for us so we can just throw it up there. We have 3 full size panels already, so we can cut those down for the 3 left panels below, but I would need to go buy 3 more panels and have them cut them down for the right side, so $9.97 x 3 more panels = about $30.
It would look something like this:

Looks like we are going with option #1, and we will just have to cut 25 squares. They might actually lay on the wall better since they will be smaller and easier to handle.

Stay tuned to see how this really plays out ;)


UPDATE:
Chance so kindly cut all the squares needed for the wall. Unfortunately, my math above didn't work out quite like I wanted. Above are equal size squares, the reality is....I needed the 1x4 to sit on a stud, so the 3 center squares are larger than I first calculated, and the 2 ends are smaller.

Here are some pics of our progress. He is at home right now painting it for me. He worked all night on it last night, "fixing" my caulk job...umm pretty sure I did an awesome job! And he set all the nails in, filled with wood glue and sanded the whole thing. As you can see in the last pic, I had started to paint but noticed the finishing nails were sticking out too much.