DIY Wood Panel Wainscoting

One of my favorite things in our recent half-bath remodel are the walls – the glorious black and wood stained paneled walls.

Grunt Labor and I came up with this idea when we first started brainstorming ideas for the bathroom and they turned out even better than we thought.

If you have never done any sort of wainscoting on a wall before, but you really want to, then this wood paneled wainscoting is a great place to start. It’s really simple, but has a big impact – and best of all, it’s easy on your pocketbook!

DIY Wood Panel Wainscoting

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• Luan Panels
• Chair Rail Trim of Your Choice – preferably one with a lip that will slightly overlap your panels to hide any imperfections. We used one like this.
• Inside Corner Wood Trim
• Baseboard (you may be able to re-use what you already have)
• Stain Color of Your Choice
• Polyurethane
• Circular Saw
• Drill and Hole Saw Drill Bits, if you have circles to cut out for pipes.
• Miter Saw
• Nail Gun and Finish Nails or Hammer and Finish Nails
• Jigsaw, if you have electrical outlets to cut out.

Step 1.

Measure all the walls you’ll be covering with the panels. Mark the measurements on your panels and cut the panels with the circular saw.

If you have any places where there are electrical outlets, pipes or water lines, mark where these are on the boards and use a jigsaw or a drill with a drill bit that makes a large hole to cut out these spots.

Put all the panels in place to make sure they fit.

Step 2. 

At this point, I opted to go ahead and stain everything before actually attaching it to the wall. I stained the panels, the chair rail and the corner pieces at this time. I painted the baseboard. I gave everything two coats of stain. I did not apply polyurethane at this point though.

Step 3.

After the stain is fully dry, you can attach everything to the wall using a nail gun or hammer and finish nails.

The image below shows the order in which to attach everything. First, attach the luan boards to the wall.

Next, cut the chair rail to the needed length at 45 degree angles on each end and attach to the wall.

Repeat with the baseboard at the bottom of the panels at the same angle on each end.

Finally, measure the distance between the bottom of the chair rail and the top of the baseboard in the corners and cut the inside corner pieces to that size, then attach to the wall.

Step 4. 

After everything is in place, fill any nail holes with nail filler and touch up the stain as needed. Give all the stained woodwork two coats of polyurethane and then let it fully dry.

See! Pretty easy – even a beginning DIYer can do this!

You might also want to see…

The Complete Half-Bath Remodel

Criss-Cross Accent Wall

DIY Carpet Covered Wall

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