Beadboard Backsplash

I was never really a fan of beadboard until we bought this house, but now I'm in love with it. We were running a bit behind schedule with our kitchen reno, which didn't make us feel great about the prospects of using the cute little rectangular tiles we'd originally planned on. We were also a tad over budget, so we really wanted to cut costs somewhere were it wouldn't affect the look or functionality. Beadboard is really inexpensive...I think we paid maybe 12 bucks for each 2 foot section.

We had this weird laminate looking "backsplash" that had a thin strip of metal on top and bottom.

Pay no attention to the crazy eyes, he's really (reasonably) harmless.

Pulling that off really messed up the wall behind, so the thickness of the beadboard really paid off for us. Otherwise, we would have wound up trying to repair and level it.

We started the process by using brown construction paper to make a true-to-size template. We just rolled it out on the wall, taped it, and used a Sharpie to mark the light switches, electrical outlets, and any angles we'd need to make to accommodate window sills. We laid the paper template directly over the beadboard and started cutting. Sorry I don't have pictures for you...the camera battery was charging and we didn't have the time to wait for it.

My husband used this great tool from Porter Cable to make the cuts. It's sold over where the Dremels and Rotozips are and it ROCKS! We've killed both a Dremel and a Rotozip before, so we went ahead and shelled out for the Porter Cable and we haven't been disappointed.

Once we'd cut it out, we slapped two coats of Glidden's Blue Grey Slate on and we were good to go. Since we used a reasonably glossy paint finish we didn't have to seal it, though I may still go back and do it just because. Best part: I'd gotten the quart of Glidden for free during one of their Facebook promotions a few months back. Yeah!

We chose the trim style we wanted and painted it using two poor old beat up Ikea chairs as makeshift saw horses.

The beadboard we adhered to the wall using a comical amount of liquid nails. For the trim we used really tiny finishing nails, which I still need to go back over with paint.

And that was it. So simple and so inexpensive. And so pretty.

We're still working on our floor and boy is it a mess! And since we're notorious for tackling 30 million projects at once instead doing them one at a time like reasonable people, I hope to show you a fun and inexpensive little project I've been working on for our living room. See you Wednesday!