What We Learned About Installing Beadboard

Adam and I recently completed our half bathroom remodel!  We added beadboard to the walls and it looks pretty darn fancy.  Any time you add a little beadboard to a space, it ups the wow-factor rather quickly. 

It wasn't an overly complicated project, but it did take some time.  We managed to figure out some tips and tricks that helped make things easier.  We also made some mistakes.  So I thought I would share it all with you today, in case you ever plan to tackle a beadboard project of your own.  

Tips & Tricks

• One of the first steps you'll need to take when installing beadboard is to figure out where the studs are in your walls.  You'll want to attach the beadboard to the studs in the wall to make sure it is nice and secured.  We used a stud finder to help us, but wanted to make sure the stud finder was accurate.  So, we used some straight pins to double check that there were actually studs were the stud finder said there should be studs.  Just stick the pins into the drywall where you think there might be a stud.  If there is a stud in that location, the pin will stop when you hit the stud and it won't go in all the way.  If you don't hit a stud, the pin will go all the way in. And if you test this out in the space that you will be adding the beadboard, you don't even have to worry about fixing the pin holes because the beadboard will cover it up!

• Chances are, there will be some spots where you will have to join two different pieces of beadboard, which will result in a seam.  We found it best to join the two pieces of beadboard on the flat part of the beadboard and not the indentation, like the first picture below shows. Even though it looks really obvious now, it's nothing a little caulk and wood filler can't fix. Adam ran some caulk down the seam first.  He ran his finger down the seam to push it into the crack and wipe off the excess.  Once that dried, we used a sander to smooth things out.  Then I went over it with a wood filler to make sure there weren't any nooks and crannies left.  Once the wood filler dried, we sanded once again.  You might have to repeat this step if it's still not smooth.  To test if it is really smooth, close your eyes and feel the spot where the seam is.  If it's smooth, you are ready to paint.  If it's not smooth, put another coat of wood filler on.  It will be more work, but you'll be happy you took the time to do it now.  The second photo shows the seam after caulking, adding wood putty and painting. 

• Caulk is your friend!  Although it can be messy and a bit cumbersome to use, it really does help hide lots of imperfections.  Adam went through many tubes of caulk in our small half bathroom.  He ran a bead of caulk along the floor and baseboard to cover up a tiny gap.  He used it in the corners to hide the places where the two pieces of beadboad met.  He used it on top of the chair rail to make it look more finished.  He used it around the window to hide the tiny seams.  Basically, anywhere there is a little gap or ugly part, put a little caulk on it!  

Don't Make Our Mistakes

• We knew it was important to label our studs so we would know where to attach the beadboard to the wall.  However, we didn't give much thought to where we should label the studs.  We ended up labeling the studs on the wall where the beadboard would cover it.  Whoops!  So, make sure you mark the studs above or below where you will be putting beadboard.  If you don't want to write on the wall or floor, you can always use painter's tape to mark where the studs are located.

• When you cut beadboard, you will want to cut on the back side of it.  That will help prevent the front surface from getting torn up.  That also means you will need to reverse any measurements you have.  When we went to cut out the piece that went around our window, we forgot that the board was flipped over and that we would need to have the opening on the left side of the board, as opposed to the right side of the board.  Luckliy, we figured this out before we cut.  Good thing we followed the whole measure twice, cut once rule!  

• We looked around Pinterest and on other blogs in preparation for this project.  Some of the blogs we looked had gave some helpful hints, while others just created more work for us.  One example was when we decided to follow the advice to put a mound the wood filler over each nail hole instead of using a putty knife to remove the excess.  This was a big mistake.  When wood filler dries, it is super hard and dense.  So, we had a ton of sanding to do.  Adam eventually got out his random orbital sander to finish the sanding job so our arms wouldn't fall off and our fingertips wouldn't be rubbed off by the sanding blocks we were using.  So, take our advice instead:  Don't mound the wood filler!  Use a putty knife to wipe off the excess before it dries.
• One other mistake we made was to measure up from the floor.  Floors are notorious for being wonky and un-level.  We knew this, but just didn't really think things through.  Since we measured our beadboard from the floor up, the top of our beadboard was all different heights because our floor was not level.  This resulted in more cutting to even things out.  If we could go back in time, we would have snapped a chalk line on the wall and measured down from that.  That way, the top would be nice and even the first time around.  It's not as big a deal for the bottom to be uneven because the baseboard will cover up those size discrepancies.  The chair rail we chose had a lip on it, so it needed to sit on top of the beadboard.  If the beadboard was un-level, then our chair rail would have been un-level, too.  So, save yourself some time and a headache and just start with a chalk line and measure down from that.  

There you have it!  All we know about installing beadboard in one handy post.  Good luck if you decide to tackle a beadboard project of your own!