More Beadboard In the Kitchen

Ok, for this post, you’ll have to think waaaaay back to our second EVER post when we showed the kitchen transformation. PS. This is coincidentally good timing because I just realized that we’ve officially hit 200 published posts! Crazy. 🙂

Remember the beadboard from there? Ok, good. Now fast forward a bit to our interview with Pinterior Designer… the lovely Chelsea asked if there was anything we’d re-do if we could go back and do it again. Still with me? Great. My answer to that question was that if we could go back, we would have continued the beadboard around to the other half of the kitchen. Well, really just this empty space that we had originally planned on painting yellow, but later realized it would look better with beadboard.

So, in the spirit of keeping you updated, I bring you… more beadboard in the kitchen. Yep, we finally got to it and hung the rest of it. Now, before I get too much further, let me clarify- my dad actually hung it. This was on a night when my parents were over, trying to help us get as many projects done as possible, so we were working elsewhere (the board and batten going up the stairs had Mitch and I occupied). However, I’ve helped him with this project before, so I think I can at least give you a simple step-by-step breakdown.

Step 1: Hang the baseboard. We used liquid nails and a nail gun, but a hammer would also work. Find those studs and attach it there. We also filled in the gap behind with expandable insulation to stop any drafts from coming in. You can see that first step at the bottom of this oldie from our first kitchen project:

Step 2: One at a time, hang your beadboard and slide it into the notched opening in the top of the baseboard. For this, we just used Liquid Nails. Each panel fits into the next one and all of them fit into the groove of the baseboard.

Step 3: Hang the chair rail. Same process as Step 1, but make sure the groove on the bottom of the chair rail fits snugly over the tops of the panels you already installed.

Step 4: Use wood putty to fill any nail holes. After the putty is dry, sand down those spots to create a smooth finish.

Step 5: Use paintable caulk to hide any seams or gaps between the chair rail and the wall.

Step 6: Paint the whole thing! We use Semi-Gloss Ultra White from Behr.

At first, we didn’t really think it would make much of a difference. But man, were we wrong! Even though it’s a small and hidden space, adding the beadboard somehow finishes the room and makes that alley-way (for lack of a better term) seem larger. Oh, and your feet don’t freeze every time you walk there now that we’ve boarded up the gaping hole in the wall. See, everyone wins. 🙂