Thursday, March 24, 2011

My Love/Hate Relationship with Paneling

I've always thought that I had a love/hate relationship with paneling. Well, if we're being honest here, it's more like just a hate/hate relationship with paneling; but recently, I may be warming to the thought of letting some paneling back into my life.

DH and I live in a home built in the 1920's. When he moved in, saying that some of the decor was outdated was an understatement.

A. Serious. Understatement.

He worked on updating things here and there before I moved in, and after we got married, we've continued to work room by room to remodel much of the house eradicating all forms of the horrible paneling.

Remember my 70's era kitchen before photos? Okay, this isn't really my kitchen, but it looked a lot like it. I almost shudder just thinking of the old kitchen.

If you wish, you can read updates on my kitchen here and here.


Recently, however, I have really been getting into wainscoting.... and it scares the living daylights out of me.... because it's PANELING! I just tell myself that it's refined paneling and not the gross 1970's paneling that we had everywhere in the house not that long ago. I am really falling in love with it. 

We have a bathroom that we'd like to remodel and I think I'm going to incorporate wainscoting into the redesign. The bathroom has a multitude of sins that come along with an old house like slightly uneven walls and sloping floors. We need to cover these things up. Enter the solution to messy walls.... wainscoting. 

How could you not love this stuff? 





From what I have read, it isn't even that hard to install. Given that, and the fact that I have a pretty handy husband, I think we will okay with this remodel! Fingers crossed, of course. If the bathroom goes well, I like the stuff enough that I would put it in other part of my home, too. Look at this gorgeous entryway. This just screams my taste. We of course do not have an entryway like this, but a girl can dream, right?


Does anyone have any experience with wainscoting? Let me know, send me links, school me on your wonderful ways! I can't wait to tackle this project. 

3 comments:

  1. I love the look of wainscoting but I've never had any experience with installing it. But I've also heard that it's easy - don't worry, you'll do great!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love those photos. We call it beadboard and it's very easy to install and creates a refreshing look in the room. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  3. My wife and I used wainscoting in our family room because we love the look and it was more pratical with the abuse the walls might get from 3 kids. We stained ours to a golden oak shade. I did the installation myself. Since part of our FR is below grade we had to install onto concrete walls. Which forced us to use a glue on application. But if your going into drywall it can be nailed on.

    ReplyDelete