Remember when I said we would be back shortly with an update on the bathroom? And then I fell off the face of the earth for a week? Turns out that working 40 hours a week plus a total renovation in the bathroom plus a big holiday party plus family visits doesn’t leave much time for blogging. I’m back though, and I have big plans for not letting a whole week go by without updating about this bathroom again. Yikes!

So here’s where I left you last time: We had finished demo and installed the cement board on the walls and floor in preparation for tiling, and we had big plans for hanging the beadboard.

To give you a quick background on our original plans for the bathroom (more detailed here), I will share with you a few of our inspiration pictures (both linked to sources).

These are very different, but we loved the classic features in both. And mostly, we loved the half/three-quarters beadboard and painted drywall above.

We planned to install beadboard over the fake-tile fiberboard on the lower half of our walls and paint the drywall above after removing the yellow fruit wallpaper. Just to remind you of the hideousness I’m referring to, here you go.

But we didn’t find drywall under the wallpaper, remember? We briefly debated  hanging drywall up top but quickly decided we weren’t up for that dust fest. So I jumped on Pinterest, oh thank you online universe for the wonder that is Pinterest, and started looking around for floor-to-ceiling beadboard inspiration. We wanted to avoid a look that was too cottagey (cottagy?), a look we love but isn’t quite us. We found lots of looks to inspire us, including these (via Pinterest and linked to their original sources).

We liked the floor-to-ceiling look both vertical and horizontal, but we decided that the less-cottagey look and more our style was horizontal. I’m not gonna lie, I went back and forth for a good hour before jumping in. I knew that once we hung that first piece, I wouldn’t be able to change my mind (because after the nightmare that was demo, we had big plans not ever to take down a wall in that room again). So we took the plunge and started a-hangin’ it sideways.

We bought our beadboard from a local building supply store. They had a number of options to choose from, including  wide pine planks, v-groove, and others, but we were mostly interested in the traditional beadboard. There were two types: traditional beadboard (“the real stuff,” they said) that was $2.25 a square foot and 1/2 inch thick, and traditional-looking beadboard that was $0.75 per square foot and 3/8 inch thick. Had we been planning to stain it, we might have gone with the more expensive wood to let the pretty knots and wood grain show through, but being that we were going to prime and paint it, we went for the cheaper option. The difference in thickness isn’t noticeable, and we didn’t want any knots showing through our painted wood.

The beadboard came in 4 x 8 sheets, but we cut it in half for ease of hanging. Would it have been more seamless had we left it long pieces? Well yes, but we had a hard time hanging it straight in the long sheets, so we opted for more seams but in straight lines.

We started out hanging the top sections around the room, and then came back with the bottom pieces. In hind sight, this may not have been the best approach. I think we both agree we probably should have hung top and bottom pieces simultaneously for a section of wall before moving on to the next section to help with alignment and corners and such, but our way got the job done.

We had to use the jig saw to cut out holes for the water supply lines, light fixture, and outlet/switch. We miscalculated our first cut for the light fixture, but we were able to easily repair the problem and were spot on for the rest of the cuts.

We had to leave the back shower panel off, so the plumber could access the pipes, but otherwise, those sheets went up as planned. This was by far one of the easier projects. We just measured sections in the bathroom, wrote down the measurements, went to the back room to draw it out on the beadboard, went outside to cut with the circular saw, sanded the cut, brought the piece inside and hung it, and then started the process all over again. We usually measured a few cuts at a time to avoid having to walk back and forth too much, but basically we walked and carried a lot.

Then we primed. We used low-VOC Kilz 2 for this step. It’s fast drying and water based, which works for us. After this dried, we began painting. I’m a real big fan of the National Trust for Historic Preservation colors by Valspar because they’re generally good colors that can be used in multiple situations. This time, we opted for the Montpelier Ashlar Gray. It took two coats to get it just right, and we were pretty pleased with the finished look. Here’s a shot right before we replaced the shower panels.

If you’re into the beadboard look, be forewarned that it must be painted with a brush, not a roller. There are lots of nooks to get in, and a roller just doesn’t cut it. We had some pretty serious hand cramps after finishing this paint job, but it was worth it.

What do you think? Can you see our vision coming together, or are you stuck on our crazy decision to hang the beadboard sideways?

If you want to see the bathroom from the beginning, check out Step 1 for demo and Step 2 for cement board installation. Next up, we’ll tell you about tiling the shower. Lessons learned all over the place on that one. 

If you liked this post, then might we suggest:

Bathroom by the Numbers

Bathroom How-To: Hanging Cement Board

Subway in the Shower

Rebuilding the Walls and the Floor

Bathroom Smashroom

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