Ghetto Wainscoting

Possible titles for this post: Hodgepodge wainscoting, free wainscoting (which my husband corrected me and said it was actually not free, but prepaid), Prepaid wainscoting, and I don't want to have to load up the kids and go to the hardware store wainscoting. There is also, "Let go of perfection!" Finally I settled on ghetto wainscoting, even though it doesn't look ghetto at all in the end.

This is the wall opposite our washer and dryer. It had some oak peg hooks where you see the blank spots. I wanted to put up something a little special, so of course I turned to wainscoting because I am addicted to it. I decided I would try to use what I had. My hubs loves that.

 

I had some leftover stuff which I think is called hardboard. I believe it was one 4x8 sheet. It almost filled the space. We liquid-nailed it to the wall and nailed it to hold it while it dried.

There was this pesky little space on one side. We had some other material that was the same thickness (luaun) and cut a piece to fit.

 

But it turned out it wasn't the same thickness and stuck out a bit from the hardboard.

So I decided to cut out some of the paper off the drywall. That would give me the few millimeters I needed. I scored it with a utility knife several times.

And then peeled back the paper.

We stuck the luaun back on and while it wasn't perfect, It was darn close enough. We decided we could hide the rest of the imperfection with how we placed the trim.

I had a leftover piece of 1x4 mdf trim so we glued and nailed that sucker up there.

For the top, I found an old piece of oak that was formerly a bathroom backsplash. So glad I kept that darn thing!

I thought I might have to run to the store to get some sashbead trim for the top but then I found several pieces of 1/2 mdf trim. I had enough to do the whole top. I think it took 5 pieces.

 We cut them all with mitered angles rather than butt joints so they would fit nice and snug.

I had some pine boards that were 1x4's that we used the table saw to cut into stiles. They ended up being about the size of a 1x2. They made up the top stiles.

 Here is a shot of the hodgepodge materials....mdf, oak, pine, and hardboard.

 Close up. The oak had a bevel at the bottom and if I could do it over, I might cut a little off the corner of those stiles to ease the transition to the beveled edge of the oak. But whatever. It's fine and no one will be the wiser.

 What to do for the lower stiles? We had enough of the 1x4's turned into 1x2's to do it but we would have to piece them together. So we cut the ends at a 45 degree angle and pieced them.

Here is what it looked like. I cleaned up these joints with spackle and such. Oh...and I should have sanded those before I nailed them up. I ended up sanding them after they were up which was a little bit of a pain. So don't make the same mistake.

 I put the wood pegs back up that were originally on the wall. Trying to be resourceful again, you know....

 Then I spackled and caulked to my heart's content.

And then primed the whole thing. I used Kilz2 latex primer. I should have used oil on the oak because there was some residual finish on it and it didn't take the primer great. But after a few coats it was working out.

 And then we decided that we hated the hooks and took them off. U-turns are allowed.

 Primed over the blank spots.

 And gave it a few topcoats.

Painted the walls (Basketry by Behr), and actually BOUGHT hooks at orange. That was the only thing I bought. But I am glad. We just weren't diggin' the pegs.

Classier, no? By the way, for the bottom piece of trim I used about 5 pieces of 1x4 mdf trim that I scrounged up in my garage. I barely had enough. I had to cut a tiny half inch piece to fill in the end closest to the garage door. I didn't take any pictures of that. Sorry. But we did it!

Farmhouse Bed with new pillows

Here are just some updated photos. I ordered some fabric from fabric.com and made a couple pillows. I didn't have pillow forms so I just took an extra standard size pillow and cut it in half. They aren't exactly the same size and it drives me a little nuts. OCD, anyone?

And I hung my piece of art I made...oh....last year I guess. I got the duvet cover at Goodwill for like $7.99 about 6 months ago. Score. I knew then that I was going to head in a yellow/gray/white direction in the master bedroom so I picked it up.





I need to do something about the ceiling fan and I have to figure out how to make our other furniture look decent. But until then, I am happy with the new look!

Master Bedroom Farmhouse Bed

Last we met I was finishing up the wainscoting. I had no camera to document the progress until now. The wainscoting is done and you will see it in later photos.

While I was working on that I decided to repaint as well. And with all that work I had to move my bed around and such. Well, it is a piece of garbage. It is just a metal frame, no headboard, nothing. And it was propped up on blocks because it was too low to store anything under the bed. And then I realized one of the wheels was busted. I got so ticked that I was having to deal with that piece of junk that I decided I was going to get us a new bed. Well.....make us one.

Enter the Farmhouse Bed from Ana White/Knock-off Wood. I had my sights set on it for a while but finally bit the bullet. The camera was gone for much of that as well, but here are some photos from when hubs returned home.

This is the footboard getting a paint job.
Here is the footboard and a glimpse of the headboard too. I used "rattle can" primer (gray) and then satin black for the top coat (also in spray cans). I also did a couple coats of polycrylic at the last minute. Good thing too 'cause my kids are already climbing all over that thing!
This is with the primer. Headboard.
This is one of the sideboards as it came from the store.
Lots of sanding later.
Setting it up in the room. (See the wainscoting and new gray wall paint?)




Supermodel baby.



That thing is so sturdy. It is unbelievable. It turns out my kids can now get up on my bed with ease by using the footboard as a ladder. Great. As soon as I make my bed they have to climb up on it and jump all over it. Oh well.
The lumber cost about $115. I used the following tools: miter saw, nail gun, palm sander, drill (duh), and at the end I bought a Kreg Jig Jr. ($35) to put the side rails on. I had a lot of paint and poly on hand but I had to buy some extra so I probably spent $25 or so on spray paint.

Master Bedroom Wainscoting

I am prego, y'all. This is one way that my nesting manifests itself.

I had been itching to make a change in our master bedroom. These "before" photos are kind of old but basically show what the room looked like before I started. Different things were hung on the wall and I changed the bedding a bit but you get the idea.



Here is the wall in question. It is the one behind the bed.
In the bathroom redo I used luaun for the wall but this time I couldn't find any at Orange. Even the guy helping me couldn't find it. So I used something new this time. It is 1/8 inch hardboard. One side is smooth, the other rough. I measured where the outlet cutouts needed to be. I personally think this was the hardest part to get right. I measured where the rectangle would be, drew the rectangle, drilled a hole in each corner of said rectangle and then used my jigsaw to cut it out.

I used liquid nails for paneling to hang it. Plus brad nails at stud locations.

Make sure and dry fit before you start slathering glue everywhere.

I used two full sheets (4x8) and then I needed a little strip at the end.


Next I added the top and bottom trim pieces. They are MDF 1x3's. And they are sitting on the hardboard so they are flush with the top and bottom of the sheet.


I used blue tape to figure out how to space my battens. I started with the one that would cover where the 2 large sheets come together and from there went every 14 inches. I made adjustments if it came too close to an outlet. So they are anywhere from 14-15 inches apart.

You really have to measure for each batten separately, to account for slight variances in height. Trust me on this one.

I added an MDF "sashbead" to the top, nailing from the top town into the trim piece.
Here is where we will stop for the day. My hubs took the camera on a week-long backpacking trip. (For some reason he thinks amazing mountain views you only see once or twice in a lifetime is more important than documenting my room redo.) Anyway, from here I caulked all the joints and/or spackled and sanded where needed. Then I primed (2 coats) and painted (2 coats). More to come. Stay tuned!