I love these kinds of discoveries.

I'm no expert, but I love it! Save it if you can.

Don't dry wall over it ---noooo way!

Please it is real ship lap rough and not meant to be bare

@Patricia Colwell Consulting maybe it is too late at night -- but I am not following what you mean? Do you mean that it is unfinished and needs to be painted or made smooth somehow??

@megan if you don't want it -- I'll buy it! :)

I think it's very cool looking and I would fill in the gaps somehow then sand it and seal it with a matte finish. It will be a wonderful contrasting texture in your white kitchen!

Just looks like rough wood used for a back wall, not a finished exterior product. We had a back wall like that in one of the places we lived, they put tar paper and shingle over it.

I would prefer it painted.

following

My vote: Sand, prime, and paint it the same white as your cabients.

This was a material used in houses and was to be covered it is a rough board used a lot in outbuildings if you want the shiplap which BTW is now done and over then get something that you know is not full of bugs, chemicals who knows what I agree with grover yuck. BTW it often has no insualtion behind it either.

I don't see how those boards were the exterior. The board shapes are too irregular with too many spaces all around.

Just cause something unexpected and old is uncovered doesn’t necessarily mean “it’s a great find”. It just looks to me like old leftover boards that didn’t have any use in a visible location, but someone was frugal and didn’t want them to go to waste, so the boards were put to good practical use there.

If you like the boards, get a carpenter to pull them out, plane and sand them, and make a table out of them.

Cover it back up. It is just crap wood boards.

When we did a bathroom addition and exposed the 1920s shiplap I was sooo tempted to leave it exposed. However, after only two days of construction with it exposed the rough unsanded shiplap became so grimy my opinion quickly went to dry wall it up!

Aw Mom, cant we have any fun!

Do whatcha wanna. IMHO there is a world of difference between tacking up fake shiplap and just enjoying a find in your house even if its not of huge historical significance. When I was removing all the layers of paper and paint off of my walls, going back to original 1906 calcimine coating... I found an area of cool art nouveau wall paper -gold and brown palm fronds, I saved a small portion 1 sq foot down next to the baseboard, behind entry way door, where you have to look to see it. Im sure someone will paint over it someday, but for now I just enjoy looking at it from time to time. Why not!

Are you sure it was the exterior? If so, then the house must have been added onto at some point. I could go either way on it. I would do as Diana Bier suggested and fill in the gaps, prime it, and paint it. If you don't like how it looks, you can always drywall it at the point. It may turn out to be a lovely architectural detail or it may look like crap - you won't know until you try ;)

It's an exterior wall, but the INSIDE of it.
If it were my house, because I love the look, I'd use a brush to clean it.
Then I'd paint it with paint BASE. You know, the can off the shelf into which they put pigment? Well, without the pigment part. Exterior, Latex, FLAT, DARK (BM 4 or 5) paint base. Dark paint base dries so invisibly you can't tell where you painted it and didn't. Goes on shockingly white, but dries invisible. I've used it on all my stripped antique doors, and my white oak cabinet doors and drawers because I love the raw, unfinished and unpainted look.

There is great grain in that wood.
I hope you keep it (and not paint it), but really, whatever speaks to you.

I don't think it will play well with your crisp new kitchen and kind of odd to have one rustic element in the corner. So I'd tear it out, frame correctly, insulate and drywall.

Wow this turned into a divisive issue! Because there wont be any cabinetry there, I've decided to sit on it until phase 2 of the Reno (phase 2 is just everything after the cabinets are in). See what the whole look is and then make a decision. I will post pictures after we get the cabinets in place:)

Thanks!!

I really appreciate everyone's input!!

I like it! Make sure it is sound then sand it down and put some clear coat on it or a little stain...If over time you don't like it then cover it up

Megan, no, not divisive! people just like to express their opinions that's all. That's the fun of it - otherwise if it wasnt fun, Id have other things to do.... like maybe getting some work done on my own house LOL .

Before plywood was developed, houses were sheathed in rough sawn lumber. It’s nothing special, other than it is part of your home’s history. You could salvage it for some floating shelves somewhere. But you’ll need to plane those down or sand the heck out of them. Roughsawn might as well be sandpaper, and it holds dust and dirt like no tomorrow.

Sorry but i think it would look like you just ran out of money and couldn't afford the drywall. I don't see anything special about that wood at all and I think you feel like it's cool because of the Joanna Gaines effect (which I wish would go away, personally).