Carpentry and Woodworking - Advice Needed on Installing 1x6 pine wall boards

I would like to install 1x6 pine boards horizontally across the headboard wall of a guest bedroom to add more texture and rustic interest to the room. I'm not sure if I'll stain the boards, paint them or whitewash them. My husband said to use clear pine if I ever want to paint them because I'll have trouble with the knots otherwise. But I like the rustic look of knots, so now I'm not sure what to do. Also, the room is nearly 13 feet wide so we'll try to get boards long enough so we don't have to have any cuts in the boards. Is there any reason why we wouldn't want to do this? Is there a reason we should have staggered boards? I would appreciate any advice you can offer with regard to this project. I don't want to screw it up! Thank you for your help.

Welcome to the forums!

I assume you would want to use tongue and groove pine - that way there are no gaps between the boards. I'm a painter not a carpenter but don't think there would be any issues with the boards being cut at 13' lenght and installed horizontally although often they are installed on a diagonal.

Knots can be troublesome with light colored paint. Usually they will be filled with caulk and then coated with a solvent based primer. For stain or whitewash, I'd leave them alone. Clear boards will cost more if you go that route.

Thank you for your reply. We will not be using tongue and groove. They will be standard 1x6 boards for a more rustic look. I guess I need to decide for sure what I will be doing as far as paint/stain goes before I can choose the grade of pine.