Beadboard

There is nothing like beadboard to bring charm, detailing, and casualness to a space. I love the stuff! I spent today installing beadboard wallpaper, one of my all-time favorite decorating tools, under our foyer chair rail.  I've wanted to put it everywhere since I first discovered it. My favorite way to use it is to paint it a crisp white paired with a muted wall color. In the foyer, though I've tried a different approach. I'm trying the color ON the beadboard paired with a soft creamy yellow on the walls. I'll share the during photos below. But first, take a look at these images and see why I don't see how you can ever go wrong with beadboard! (Unless otherwise stated, all images are from Nantucket Beadboard Company .)

Beadboard on walls and cabinet fronts. 

Below chair rails and just a shade darker than walls.

Soft white beadboard on the walls paired with dark stained floors - gorgeous!

Set inside wainscoting panels.
via Future Domestic Goddess Blog

In the bathroom below a chair rail painted the same color as the walls.
via Katyelliot.com

Here's some color applied to the beadboard walls and paired with crisp white trim and accents.
via Pottery Barn

Crisp white wainscoting paired with painted walls. Gives a very clean feeling.

Used as a kitchen backsplash. I did this in my last house and it really adds charm to the kitchen.

Added to kitchen cabinets (this could be done very easily with beadboard wallpaper!).

On the walls again in a little reading nook. Love this space!

On doors and inside bunk recesses instead of main walls. Becomes more of an accent this way.

The upstairs of that stair image shown before. Below chair rails. This is one of my favorite uses.

What do you do, though, if you're a girl without or uncomfortable with power tools? Two options are available: hire someone to put it in for you (Seriously? Isn't this blog about DIY and inspiring you to try new things? This is not that hard to learn.) or use beadboard wallpaper. Now, there are some wallpapers out there that just look cheesy. There is only one that I've found so far that I think looks like the real deal.  It's Graham and Brown's Paintable Wallpaper in Beadboard:

via Graham and Brown

via Graham and Brown

This is what it looks like unpainted up close.
via Graham and Brown

The great thing about this stuff is it's paintable, easy to hang, supposedly easy to remove (I've never wanted to take it down), and there's little waste. There's no pattern to line up and match, either. All you need is a level to get your first line drawn vertically, then line it up and go! It isn't pre-pasted, but truthfully, I prefer unpasted wallpaper. That way you don't have such a mess when hanging it. There is one major drawback to using it, though. It tears pretty easy if punctured or scratched. It's not the best option in heavy traffic areas. I started to hang it in our hallways but then thought better with three boys and a dog. It's gotta be the tough real stuff in there. But, I figured I could get away with it in the foyer because I keep enough furniture in front of it to protect it. Truth be told, I think the cost would be about the same for the sheet's of beadboard, but not the real deal tongue and grove stuff.

All installed but not painted.

I love some white beadboard, but I"m trying something new by painting it. It's not the norm to paint the chair rail and wainscoting a different color from the trim, but I'm experimenting. I'm loving this combination of the chair rail color (The five gallon bucket I found on the oops shelf - awesome color!) with the current creamy wall color. The beadboard is going the same color. Very cozy and soothing, but I need to live with it being different from the trim a while to determine how I like breaking up the consistency. The good thing is, if I don't like it, I can always paint it back white. 

See my new wall vignette? Recognize the plates? They never made it to the booth:)

Now, to get the final details finished up for a finished reveal of dining room and foyer!

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