DIY Classic Wainscoting

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We’re in full-on renovation mode here at our house.

And one of the thousands of decisions I’ve had to make is…

To shiplap or not to shiplap??

Pin for laterSee how to make an ivy topiary HERE — Pin for later
See how to make an ivy topiary HERE

First off, let me say that I LOVE shiplap

I love the rustic farmhouse feel it gives to a room

But this is a single story ranch-style house in Southern California

Could I really pull that off??

Sooooo…

What to do??

For decades, this room was a home office

There were cork squares glued to the wall and painted blue/gray

When we took all the cork down, there were big brown globs and swirls of glue all over the wall.

This is the wall where the bed is going so I wanted it to be a feature wall.

But truth be told, I’m a little hesitant about using shiplap because it’s so trendy right now. Is it going to make my house look dated in a year or two?

In our last house (in Northern Calif) we did a wainscot of 6-inch wide v-groove boards installed vertically, 5 feet high behind the bed in our master bedroom.

And we installed it around the tub in the master bath.

It’s actually vertical shiplap!

But we did this in 2003 — way before shiplap was even a thing

Go figure…..

For this house we went back and forth about what to do on the wall behind the guest bed.

Eventually we decided on a timeless wainscot treatment because we want our house to have classic features that won’t be dated in a few years

And I love it!

Pin for laterRead about these pillow cases made from a vintage tablecloth HERE — Pin for later
Read about these pillow cases made from a vintage tablecloth HERE

This is the look we went with. It’s really easy to install. It’s 5 feet high. Which is a good proportion because the wall is 8 feet high. (You don’t want to cut a wall in half with wainscoting. Always go higher or lower than half of the wall height.)