House Tour: DIY Wainscoting with Heather & Brad

 My incredible friend, Heather has a cool new look going on at her place, and she's been gracious enough to share pictures! She and her husband have survived a major dining room transformation. It took them 7 days (and nights) to install new floors and craft these molding and wainscoting.  They did everything themselves! This was not their first DIY...let's just say that Brad is handy with a tool belt. He's tackled renovation projects including wainscoting and molding before...but their smart approach lets me believe that even someone with only a tad bit of actual installation experience could do this. I died and went to heaven when I saw their summer DIY project: their laundry room. (see below). This is super inspirational for me because I love wood work.  I think it fits just about any design style.  In most new house construction they tend to skip 'add ons' like molding and paneling, built in bookshelves, etc. and it is quite rare to even have a window sill, let alone wood paneling.  This adds INSTANT CHARACTER to your home.

I really have to applaud Brad for making some smart decisions (here he is not far from his level)...knowing which decisions were worth the time and which ones weren't.  In the above pic, you can see the original chair rail mark.  They bumped the height up by a few feet, to make sure that their new paneling has maximum impact. You don't have to do this. If you already have a chair rail, you can easily go off of that...but look at the difference that going higher has made. It certainly creates the desired visual effect of enlarging the room both in volume and height. Not to mention, that with a darker paint shade and dark flooring, having the white paneling be so tall really brightens and lightens up the room. LOVELY!!!

You would also want to consider whether you were going to use the wall as the back surface or install another layer of either pre-fab beadboard or use another layer of wood surface...taking into consideration that if you bump out the depth of the wall, you will need to bump out the electrical sockets.  If you use the wall as your back board, then you won't have to mess with your outlets.

Craftsman Style Wainscoting in bathroom

Laundry Mud Room with built-ins, magnet board, subway tile, etc.

So here is what they've been up to! Quite awesome! THANK YOU HEATHER AND BRAD FOR LETTING US PEEK!!!

If this inspires you, as it has inspired me, you won't be able to look at your own walls the same way, so here are a couple of  links to some other DIY  molding and paneling projects to see just what it takes to get this look!

Simple Wainscotting Ideas

I LOVE THIS...HAVE TO HAVE THIS!

AMAZING Moderate Skill Level Wainscoting, etc.