Perk up your bathroom with inexpensive upgrades

Installing wainscotting


1.
Determine the finished height of the wainscotting panels. In this case, the finshed height was 34" up from the floor



2.
Using a long straightedge, mark a level reference line across all wall sections that will be panelled



3.
Cut the MDF panels to finished height, then run a thin bead of construction adhesive around the edge of each panel before securing it to the wall



4.
The panels are held together with a shallow tongue-and-groove joint. Finishing nails driven into the groove will be hidden by the tongue of the next overlapping panel



5.
Finish the wainscotting by face-nailing MDF moulding across the top of the panels and then capping it with another small piece of MDF trim. Fill the nail holes with sandable spackling



6.
Fill gaps and any visible nail holes in the wainscotting with paintable latex caulking. Once painted, the caulking will hide a multitude of sins



7.
Use a brush to paint the grooved panels with semi-gloss latex. There's no need to prime, since the wainscotting panels were purchased preprimed



8.
Now you're ready for final painting. Use a contrasting colour on the upper section of the wall to get the full effect of the wainscotted lower section