In the days before wallpaper was mass-produced and paint was scrubbable, wainscoted walls served a practical purpose-covering the lowest, most vulnerable part of a wall. Covering with wood provided an attractive decoration tough enough to withstand cleaning and repairs without too much trouble or expense.
Of course, even with today's modern materials, wainscoting still serves its intended protective purpose; however now people use it most often because of the way it transforms a bland space into an elegant room by adding interesting detail to walls that don't have any built-in character.
Sure, that all sounds reasonable until you start to consider cost. Until recently the trouble was, if you wanted wainscoting you either had to make-do by faking the look with trim applied directly to the wall or spend lots of money on custom-milled panels. A new medium-density fiberboard (MDF) product made by Alberta-based Stinson Technologies makes installing your own wainscoting a more attractive option. The drawback is that because it's MDF you'll have to finish it with paint, but in this project the other trim was also painted so the material made sense. Each MDF panel measures 36" x 48" and costs about $25.
The panels were designed with the do-it-yourselfer in mind and come pre-primed, complete with biscuit slots cut into the edge of each panel for joining them together.
Once you've set a panel layout, making the best use of the least number of panels, you've already overcome the trickiest part. After that the installation should go smoothly. This project, a rectangular 8' x 5' hallway, took less than fours hours to complete.
In fact, the wainscoting took almost as long to paint as it did to install. The boards come pre-primed but the factory primer was a little thin in the deep crevices of the routed detail and needed a second coat of primer in some areas. I chose an oil-based paint for the top coat because oil-based finish provides better protection- especially for an area like this hallway where it's likely to get a fair share of dings. Painting the panels was a painstaking process; because the MDF finish is so smooth even small inconsistencies in the finish stand out. Be sure to use a high-quality brush or a foam roller.
Once the boards were up, the raw MDF top was capped to finish it off. We used a 1" paint-grade cap finish nailed from the top.
What you will need
A biscuit joiner, drill, tape measure, pry bar (for removing existing trim), hammer, putty knife and level, round out the necessary tools. A cut-out, tool, like a Roto-Zip, will help speed the project.
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