Making a House a Home - Wainscoting & Trim

There are so many options for wainscoting! I searched the Internet for pictures of all the different types of wainscoting, learned about the history and went with my gut on what I like and what took my breath away. I know I'm a little cottage with a whole lot of farmhouse so I definitely didn't want anything too formal. Here are a few AMAZING inspiration pictures I was able to drool over along the way.

Love this idea for the bedroom...

Miss Mustard Seed's Guest Room looks so inviting and comfortable! I fell in love with the wide plank look.

And I just love Sarah Richardson, record all of her shows on HGTV's Sarah's House and basically stalk her. Here's a picture of one of the room's in her cottage...

Kim at Twice Remembered has a great tutorial on bead board wainscoting and trim work - check it out, she's got a great break down. She's even got it on the ceiling which I would love to do in our living room and master bedroom! How cute are those red cabinets by the way?!

We looked at Home Depot for our wainscoting and picked up some 4'x8' sheet mdf panels. We could have splurged on pine tongue and groove boards, but for the price and because its not really our house we went with the cheaper and easier option...which hopefully will look just as good. Sorry Molly.

The first thing we did was have Home Depot cut the panels in half for us. For one thing, they will fit in our Jeep better. Secondly, it's totally free and less work for us because we would have to walk each panel across the street to use Chris's table saw. (Santa please bring me a table saw for Christmas!) We started on the long wall first to avoid making cuts and getting around the outlets. That didn't last long. We have exactly 8 outlets in the front room and hallway. They only put 2 in our living room. Too bad we're not installing them in there. Is it ok to do the entire house by the way?

First thing we do to make our outlet holes is to get the measurements and transfer them to the panel. Down and across...

I've seen some people mark the outlets with lipstick and press the panel against it to mark it. Brilliant! If my super skilled husband wasn't there to help me get the dimensions I would have totally done that. If the fractions aren't on the tape measure, I'm counting lines. Two lines past a half....

Once we had our marks down we layed the outlet cover down and traced around it to get the exact size we needed.

Next step is to drill some holes so you can insert your jig saw to make your cut.

Next step is to get your jig saw out and connect the dots...la la la

The thing about mdf paneling is it marks so easily! Don't worry though, it will all go away once you paint.

Next step, apply some construction adhesive and stick it up on the wall and get your nailer out.

Goodbye blue paint. We used a 16 gauge brad nailer with 2" nails, but you could probably use a smaller gauge finish nailer. I wouldn't go too much shorter in length though because you're going to be going through at least 1/4" panel plus the drywall which is typically 3/4". All the holes will be filled so I didn't worry too much. Make sure you try to mark and hit as many studs as possible. The invention of the stud finder was genius...

The level is another awesome tool. Once we glued the panel up, we put our level on top to make sure it was straight before we nailed. Another cool thing about wainscoting is not having to paint all the way down the wall! Just cover it up! Not that we were lazy or anything...

Picking the trim was another problem for me. Decisions decisions... We ended up buying a package deal that came with the base molding and the chair rail. It was nice because it already had a groove cut out, so it was specifically made for paneling plus it was primed and ready to go. Score. But once it was up on the walls, I wasn't loving it. Maybe it was because the awesome groove on the baseboard created a huge gap and I wasn't sure caulking would cover it up. The style just wasn't matching to me...it almost looked too formal for the paneling and I am definitely not formal so that's just not going to work.

So the paneling just sat. For almost eight months it sat on our walls with no molding. Then I had an idea. Well actually Chris gave me an idea. He tackled his own crown molding and just used regular boards and types of molding to create what he wanted. I held up some 1x3 and 1x4 pine boards and it looked awesome!!!! Simple and country, it sorta took my breath away.

Off to Home Depot we go, return all the other molding and get some pine boards for less than $2 a board. Sweet! Nope, not that easy. Have you ever tried to pick a good board from the lovely pile of boards at Home Depot or Lowe's? Not an easy task, in fact, my Hero, Ana White has some great tips right here about the picking process. So after arguing carefully discussing with my husband about what to do, we decided to grab some mdf boards that are already straight, primed and don't require any sanding, and we don't have to spend forever looking for boards that aren't warped and don't have huge gouges and knots in them. Score.

 

 

Looking better all ready! We are by no means professionals so we just did what we thought would be the best. Have you ever watched the show Renovation Realities on HGTV? Just saying...

Seriously, Paul and I argue the ENTIRE time we do any project. So that video is just a little glimpse into what our DIY adventures are like. Xanax anyone?

The base molding was trickier for us because we put the paneling up first so we were overlapping just a bit with the top of the molding. Because we overlapped, the bottom half pushed in and even if we nailed the top portion, it would take one kick happy child accident to push it in and the nails would just come away from the wall. Ew.

So back and forth we went to borrow the table saw from Chris AGAIN. Good thing he's family and he like us ;) We cut small 2" strips of 1/4" plywood to lay beneath the molding to hold it flat. It works so don't laugh.

It's looking awesome and we're finding out how crooked all the walls are. Ew. Now we just have to fill all the holes, gaps and paint. I hate painting. Yippee....