Dining Room Beadboard

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My dining room, living room and kitchen are all one big area, I felt like my dining room needed a way to set it apart from the rest of the space. I knew I wanted vertical lines, I was either going to do vertical shiplap, beadboard or board and batten. I chose beadboard because it was the most inexpensive option, plus I had been dying to use it somewhere. Apparently lots of people were buying it around the time I needed it because they only had 2 4×8 sheets left in stock. So I bought those and had to wait until they got a new shipment in before I could get is all finishing.

Here’s a quick video showing the whole process.

I started by testing out some paint colors. I knew Accessible Beige was really popular, but I also wanted to test out some more options before making a decision. I tried Spanish Sand by Behr (top left), Amazing Gray by SW (bottom left), Granite Dust by SW (top right) and Accessible Beige by SW (bottom right). I wanted a color that would look good on both walls and coordinate with my Pewter Green cabinets.

Ultimately I went with Accessible Beige, the other ones were either too yellow, too pink or too dark. I’m really happy with my choice!

I removed the blinds and window sill.

I had some thin plywood underlayment leftover from a different project, I used that to cover the texture on the inside of the window. I ripped it to size and then wood glued and nailed it into place. As opposed to covering the texture with joint compound like I did in my master bath, that was a long and messy process. I had to smear it on, wait for it to dry (which took forever) and then I had to sand it. Repeat 2-3 times until it is all smooth, and it takes FOREVER to dry!

I ripped the ledge off of the window sill and cut a tiny bit of length off of it to account for the plywood underlayment thickness and reattached the sill.

Once that was attached I framed out the window using my brad nailer. I used 1x3s to surround it, and then used 1x2s on their side to surround the 1x3s.

I moved on to the door frame after this. I already had some beadboard up under the bar, which made it a little more difficult. I should have framed out the door first. This was my first time ever removing door trim so I was a little nervous. I scored the caulk line with a razor knife and I was using a large flat head screwdriver and a hammer to get it off. That worked but there are better ways of doing this, like using this handy trim puller tool to remove trim.

Then I took a flat razor to remove the caulk once the trim was all off. This gave me a nice clean surface to work with when replacing the trim.

Because I put some beadboard up already the beadboard was too far over for the size of the new trim I was planning to put up. I had to use my multitool to remove some of the beadboard because I didn’t want to take it down after working so hard to get it on the wall.

I used primed 1x3s on the sides of the door frame and 1x4s sandwiched between 2 1x2s at the top. the 1x2s hang off the ends of the 1x4s by 1/2in on both sides.

Look how gorgeous it looks so far! I was so proud of myself! I did our master bedroom door and the back patio door. Since then I have replaced 13 other door frames in this style so they all match. I have a few more to go.

I continued the beadboard around the dining room. I had to cut around some outlets too. The trick to this is to put your outlet cover on backwards, put toothpaste (or you could use paint or whatever else you have on hand) on the corners and then press your beadboard to it so you know where to cut. You want to cut your hole a bit smaller than the outlet cover.

Then for the last, but hardest cut with the beadboard, the spot to the right of my bedroom door. I got it and I was super proud! Lots of measurements and math.

On top of the beadboard I added a primed 1×3 to give it a more finished look and filled all the nail holes and joints with spackle.

The spot where 2 beadnoard panels go together I just caulked and the seam goes right away.

After I caulked the top where the headboards met the 1×3 some of the caulk went down the grooves of the beadboard and I had to scrape it out with a folded up piece of paper.

Since this beadboard wasn’t just ending on an inside corner I had to figure out what to do with the sides of the beadboard showing on the outside corners, the bullnose corners made it a little more challenging.

I stopped by my local hardware store and found some square wooden dowels. It turns out they worked perfectly!

Then it was time for paint! Pro tip: wrap your roller in painters tape and then remove it to get all the loose fuzzies off, especially when painting such a smooth surface like this where it would be noticeable.

Once it was painted I started on the baseboards. I cut them, test fit them, then I painted them before I attach them to the wall so I wouldn’t have to get down on the floor to get them painted. I used solo cups to prop them up to paint because we had a lot in the pantry. Whatever works, right? You can also use these painting triangles.

I attached the baseboards to the wall with my brad nailer and then filled the nail holes with more spackle.

Before I touched up the paint from the nail holes I taped off the floor and the baseboard to get the perfect caulk line. I caulked the floor line and then caulked where the baseboard met the beadboard and then did another quick coat of paint once that dried.