Do-It-Yourself Wainscoting

Home Coach Frantz Ostmann walks us through how to tackle this home project.

Taking a room from Bland to BAM!!!

Installation order list.

Once you have decided to change up a room in your home. You have a few things to do. After deciding what type of bead board you want to use, (the 4′ wide sheets or the smaller tongue and grove) I suggest that you clear out the room and take accurate measurements to determine how much you need. You will want to have a little extra to account for a mis-cut and/or a change of mind, but there is no point in buying too much extra. So take your measurements and get what you need.

Ok, let’s get started.

1. Determine if you will keep the existing baseboard and get the room painted.

2. Find the center of each room, mark it and pull off all your electric cover plates. Fur out your electrical outlets equal to the thickness of your bead board.

3. Make sure that all your pieces are the same height and trim if needed.

4. Find the center of your first piece and line it up with the room center mark.

5. Find your studs and nail up your first piece of bead board.

6. Continue nailing up your pieces in both directions until your reach the end of the wall.

7. Make sure you are maintaining a level line along the top of your bead board.

8. Continue along all walls.

Next take a second to step back and look at the line that has been created at the top of the bead board sheets or pieces. You can absorb a small amount of difference in the board heights with the top rail, but you have to plan ahead. Mark areas that have some height difference so you can adjust the top rail.

9. Make sure you have your top rail ready to go and decide if you are going to cope cut the corners or cut them on the 45. Most contractors use a cope cut as most walls are not perfectly square. A wall that is not a perfect 90 degree angle will have a gap when you put two 45 degree angles together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4gs1Zattcs&feature=related

10. Don’t get too upset on the corners. Remember you will be caulking all this before you paint. (There is a reason that caulk was invented) This is one of these applications!!!!

11. Cut your top rails being careful to avoid small cuts and the ends, etc.

12. Nail your top rails in.

13. Caulk everything in and make sure everything looks good before paint.

14. Paint

15. Replace your electrical plates.

16. Step back and admire your room.

These sixteen steps are very easy to type in and it

takes a little more time to make you room look beautiful.

You can fire off any questions to us at HomeCoach any time at www.homecoachforum.com with fears or concerns. We will be glad to help. Keep in mind for every step above there is a video on youtube that you can watch to walk you through it as well. Take the time to do it right. It will get easier as you get more comfortable with these little projects.