How to easily add your own wainscoting

 

Wainscoting, can add a ton of personality to any room and when painted white can make a room feel much larger. Wainscoting can be done in many different styles from painted bead board, to stained crown detail etc. I chose to add a cape cod style wainscoting to a couple of rooms in my home to add some character but also to make these small rooms feel larger.

 

 

 

I used a simple paint grade flat stock trim from Burton Lumber that was the same trim we had used as our homes base board and door/window casing so it was easy to match. You may have to order extra depending on what lengths it comes in. Its very easy to measure, cut and install just make sure you have a good saw and a nail gun and of course a level. We chose to install ours on the studs for durability. We chose about a 6' height in these rooms but you can install this at any height, hallways often have a counter height wainscot but in rooms you can go higher if you want, especially if you have tall ceilings and you can even add a chair rail at the top to lean pictures on etc.

Installing the trim is the easy part, after install you will want to caulk every single crack, edge, etc. before you paint. For paint we chose just to go with the same color we had on our baseboards, if you end up doing your wainscoting white and your baseboards in that room are another color, you may want to paint them too.

I can't believe how much bigger both the rooms feel. We chose to do our mud room and our kids bathroom, they are both very small and needed the character desperately. Below is the finished product!

Mud Room: The smallest room in our home now appears much larger! (and, wainscoting is very inexpensive to add, the hooks cost more than the actual materials)

Main Bath: This room had very little personality before and we spent less on wood and hooks then we would have to re accessorize.