Girl's Nursery Makeover Pt. 1: Pink Bead Board

 Girl's Nursery Makeover Pt.1

Pink Bead Board

I've done my fair share of board/batten projects with my husband, Scott, by now but we have yet to work with beadboard and I really wanted this room to feel very feminine and feel like a room you would see in a victorian/craftsman home 100 years ago (but a little more modern). We just finished up a boy's room makeover for our son's who are now sharing a room, this was our youngest sons nursery, and that room has a dark green board/batten throughout; I wanted these two rooms to feel similar and that they belong next to each other but still have very different personalities and choosing to go with beadboard the same height as their board/batten really achieved my goal. (our sons room and this room are next to each other so you see them side by side in our hallway)

When I was researching how to do all the beadboard things I struggled to find a lot of truly helpful post describing areas like corners, top trim placement and painting. I hope I can help make your DIY beadboard install less stressful if this is your first time too. If you have any questions that I might have missed answering please leave a comment or find me on Instagram and message me.

 Below is my mood board for this nursery, I think it is important to be able to see the whole picture of a space while in these beginning phases of a makeover. This room especially is starting out as a boy's nursery and is black/white/grey...definitely not what I think of when I say pink bead board so please keep in mind that this is stage 1 of this makeover and all the top portion of this rooms walls will be getting covered in peel and stick wallpaper from Wall Blush.

Material List:

We trimmed the windows first so I will include items for that as well because it does need to be done before install beadboard if you are planning to do it as well.

Lumber:

- beadboard panels (4x8ft sheets) mine was around $20 a panel

- 1x2 primed pine (we used 8ft lengths) for the crown

- 1x6 primed pine (8ft length or 12ft if available) for the header and baseboard

For windows:

- 1x2 primed pine

- 1x4 primed pine

- 1x3 primed pine

Tools/Misc.:

- Table saw or chop saw to cut panels 

- Miter saw to cut trim/baseboards

- Nail gun (you can use liquid nails too)

- Nail/wood filler and spatula

- Sandpaper (I only needed 220 grit)

- Caulk/Caulk gun ( I went through 4 tubes on this room)

- Tac clothes to clean surfaces before painting 

- Painters tape and drop cloth if needed

- Paint brush

- Paint roller (medium 1/8 nap is what I used)

- Paint pans

- N95 mask or respirator for cutting the panels, sanding, and painting ( I used the respirator because im 9 months pregnant)

Paint used is "semi precious" by Valspar-color matched in Behr Marquee Satin Finish-get this paint, I promise you it's worth the extra money to not have to do a second coat, yes I only did one coat + touch ups! (not sponsored just insanely impressed with this paint, it is very thick so it does take getting used to but worth every penny)

Project time:

To start Scott clamped all the panels we needed to his work bench and cut them at the same time into 4ft lengths. The panels are 4x8ft but we want the groves to be vertical so we did have to cut them in half

Beadboard is an MDF product and the dust is very mess, just an FYI

We needed the height to equal close to 5ft to match the boys room board/batten so we used a 6 inch baseboard, 4ft beadboard, 5 inch header, and 1 inch crown to eaual the height we wanted. All pieces are "stacked" on top of one another (the beadboard is sitting on top the baseboard, the header is on top of the beadboard, etc.) instead of the beadboard being installed first then the other pieces going on the "front" of the panel.

We trimmed out the windows first

Baseboards next

and then stacked the rest of the pieces on, we used nails only and went into studs to avoid the panel from moving. Do not be afraid to "over" nail the panel you want to make sure if you push on it, it does not bend or have give. I found nailing on the flat area vs in a groove was easier to fill and smooth down.

Seams

You will most likely have to have seams if doing a long or tall wall. Do not be afraid these fill and are very easy to camoflouge, I will explain later. But, you do have to be mindful of the grove and make sure you are putting panels next to each other that continue the grove patten.

This "crack" will disappear once filled, I promise. 

Corners:

Since this was our first time doing this we were not too sure how this was going to work in the end but just like the seam it disappears with caulk (corners get caulk, flat surfaces get wood filler)

Just get your panels as close as you can but do not stress over a little gap

Sanding:

This is a seam that I filled with wood putty and let dry, you will just push the wood putty into the seam using a putty spatula and your fingers. Once sanded you will see it creates the same grove pattern as next to it and you'll never know you had to have a seam. You might have to do this twice if you have a really deep seam, I had one that the putty cracked after drying so I just had to add more.

It will look awful at first but cleans up nice

also fill any seams and nail holes at this point too

leave the corners alone for now

I found folding some sandpaper into a "taco" was the best for getting into the groove, remember you are making a groove not a flat covered up surface

If you have a very thick puttied area make a sharp edge on your "taco" to dig away at the build up

I might just love this stuff too much but I find this to be insanely satisfying that you can just create a groove lol.

Caulk:

Caulking and wood filling is what truly will make or break this project. You have to do them in order for the imperfections to disappear and get a professional finish.

Caulk every area that you can see gaps and between the crown, header, and beadboard panel, and baseboard, most importantly corners

Weird wall:

This wall has a bullnose and also just is a weird section. We used a 1x5 to create an "end" to the beadboard and also let it hang over the bullnose for the beadboard to butt up to, filled the seam with caulk and its flawless.

Paint:

The easiest way I found to paint this was to start top to bottom in a sense. 

I started by painting the top of the crown with a brush and then cutting in under the crown with the brush on the entire length of one wall.

With the roller I got the face of the header and crown

and moved onto the beadboard.

First I cut under the header 

and the top of the baseboard

you will want to work in little sections (aprox 2ft section)

First I cut in on the top and bottom of the panel with the brush knowing a roller wouldn't fit

and then I got the roller very saturated in paint and rolled, this looked like it was going to work well until about halfway down and I noticed the roller wasn't getting into the grooves well enough so I went to a different plan of action.

The best method for painting beadboard!

all the same steps as mentioned before expect use a brush to fill in the groves after you cut in, you do not have to make this perfect just slap a could coverage of paint from top to bottom of the grooves, I did about 6 at a time (you do not want this to dry so work in a small section)

and then take your roller (saturate it well) and roller over your section, light enough to not be pushing paint into the groove but with enough pressure to smooth it out. You should be more focused on the flat sections then groves because grooves should be filled

This method worked so well I only had minor touch ups in a few places. The biggest key to this was to fill the grooves before you roll but making sure the paint is still wet in the grove. Using a high quality paint to avoid second coats and assure a smooth coverage. I used a nap style roller vs foam and I found it to not leave any texture once dry, could be from the paint quality as well. Saturate your roller and brush very very well. And of course once the paint is drying to not roller over it again, check for runs before the pain starts drying.

I want to share this photo of how we worked with ending the beadboard on an open wall and also a bullnose corner. You need to end your beadboard on a trim piece almost like a board/batten would end. We decided to "wrap" the trim around the bullnose to create a true ending and I love how it looks! I also needed to have an ending place for the wallpaper and I knew I would not want that to end on the bullnose but wrap around the the closet trim. (yes I also painted the inside of the closet during this)

I found beadboard so much easier to work with/hide imperfections than any board/batten I've done. I hope this post really helps you on your DIY journey! If you enjoyed this or found it helpful I would love for you to follow along with my own home renovations on my Instagram and YouTube channel (I share motherhood vlogs, cleaning videos, and DIY projects as well). 

I still have more to do in this room and next up is Wallpaper! I hope you come back to see how this room continues to change from a monochrome boys nursery into a vintage inspired little girls nursery!

SNEAK PEAK! 

We've been working hard and I can't wait to share more soon! Wallpaper blog will be up soon and I'll update once available!