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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A Sneak Peak

Alright. Guess it's about time I showed you some of my house, since I've talked so much about how I love interior design, refurbishing/refinishing/painting anything, and DARED to have an opinion on decorating with color (like I actually have some idea what I'm talking about!). My house is nothing spectacular, but I like it and like I said, I feel really blessed to have a nice home. I've decorated most of the house to some degree, but it's not done yet by a long shot. Being a stay-at-home mom means you give up something (cash!) so I have to take it slow and as the budget allows. That's actually a good thing because it makes you really think through any purchases/ideas and greatly appreciate each individual aspect of the rooms.

So, we're just going to start at the front and go in just a little for today. I'll get you in the front door, at least:)

Ready?

Ooops! Wait...gotta tell you I also have before pics so you can see how I've changed it up since moving in. These before pictures were taken right before we moved in. I just rushed through taking them and I'm so glad I did now. It's fun to look back and see how it used to look versus now.

Alright. Here we go.

Here's the Foyer:

It's a good thing I don't really see color when I go into a place for the first time...I see bones and potential!





Lighter and brighter! Let's play "I Spy". Can you see a project still in the works?

I love the foyer space and was thinking of putting my French Provencial Sideboard here in place of the round table, but decided instead to put it in the shop. The top portion of the walls are a custom color I've used in all three of our houses. It was a happy accident! The closest match I can find is Behr "Sensible Hue". The bottom under the chair rail is Sherwin Williams Informal Ivory. All the trim in the house is this color. It still needs a rug in here. That's a high ticket item. It'll be a while.



I was sooo over red by the time we bought this house. Repainting the dining room was on my "asap to-do" list. Can you see the faded floors where there used to be a rug in here?!


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This is how it's looked up until about Christmas.



I've just moved this around to try and fit in the love seat that came out of the playroom. I love having it in here. It's my favorite place to sit and drink my coffee in the morning or read a good magazine/book.

We have done so much to this house. The first thing we did was to rip out all the old engineered, faded and water damaged (we think there was a waterline leak in the fridge at one time) hardwood and carpet. That was replaced with solid 3" wide .75" thick plank oak flooring (grade 2 - rougher and with character-i.e.worm holes and knots). I wanted to replace all the carpet with it, but the hubs insisted on having carpet in the bedrooms.  I love dark stained floors, but since I knew I couldn't afford to re-stain when "dark" was out, I went with a more classic "Provencial" color. Trendy is fun with low cost items, but I'm not trendy on high ticket stuff. I want a style that's going to last.

The curtains I made just this past fall. My favorite thing about this house was that window, but it's also a huge energy loss. So, I found some remnant fabric I loved and put an inner lining of flannel with an outer lining in cream - pinch tops. There are two layers. The heavy outer ones that can be pulled in winter at night and the inner light-weight that can be pulled in summer to block sun or for just giving some privacy. Hanging these babies is NOT easy! Those are eleven foot ceilings (and I'm scared of heights!).

I normally plan for a while before I go through with a color scheme in a room. I had tested about five different greens when I found some pillows one day at Tj Maxx and loved the color. So, I spontaneously walked next door to Home Depot and had them custom match some Behr Premium Plus Paint/Primer to them. Would you believe it only took two coats to cover that garnet red that was on the walls?! I'm starting to want to lighten it more (though in the same color family) so I'll probably be repainting this room before too long. Want to see my inspiration? I LOVE this mural and think I'll do something similar:

via House of Turquoise

I also plan to make slipcovers for the dining room chairs soon something like this:

I don't remember where this picture came from.

 I'm determined to make my own farm table like this. We are just not formal people and with three boys, I need a bomb shelter for a table!

Again, I have no idea where I got this from. I just saved it to my idea files prior to blogging. I want my top just a little rougher - not just made looking, but I love these legs!

Well, you're in the door now! Maybe since everything has greened up now and hubby just cut grass tonight, I can get an outside shot to show you next time as we progress on through to the family room.

Miss Bee