Post 29: Half Bath Paneling and Molding

Last time, we showed you how we re-installed our can lights and air vent and then put up new drywall on the ceiling and where the furdown used to be.  

This time, we are talking about paneling and molding installation.

Phase 3: Paneling and Molding

Here's a reminder of the inspiration for this space.

I really wanted a farmhouse feel with clean, white lines.  To achieve this, we decided to install paneling on the walls and ceiling of the bathroom and paint everything white.  (Don't worry, we will add other colorful pieces to the room to avoid a "sterile" feel!)

Removing Baseboards

To install the paneling, first we needed to remove the baseboards so that we could hide the edges of the boards.  While Alan was on a Home Depot run, I decided to try to try my hand at removing them.  There were two pieces that made up the baseboard along each wall -- the baseboard itself and a piece of quarter round at the floor.  I started with the quarter round on all four walls and then went back to remove the baseboards.

I used the crowbar and the hammer to pry each piece away from the wall and worked slowly so I wouldn't mess up the molding.  This took me about 30 minutes and I got to surprise Alan when he got home with one less step of the project to go!

Installing Paneling

I found sheets of paneling at Home Depot for about $18 a sheet.  We needed about 5 for the whole room, so we bought those and corner molding for the ceiling and walls.

We started with the ceiling this time since that seemed to be the hardest section in the drywall phase.  The paneling needed to be cut in one piece, so that didn't leave us much room for error.  We needed to get everything pretty snug along the sides and cut the light and vent holes close enough that all of the edges would be covered up.  My parents had a really good idea to use posterboard and make a template of the ceiling.  We bought a pack of 10 posters from Walmart and they worked great!

We used painters tape and then duct tape (so it would stay together better) to cover the ceiling with posters, cutting out holes for the lights and the air vent with a razor blade as we went.  Once the ceiling was covered and we felt we had a good template, we took the giant posterboard down and used it as a stencil on the paneling.

I marked out where we needed to cut the paneling and then we cut out the ceiling piece with a jigsaw. 

Once we had cut out the holes in the paneling, we were ready to install it on the ceiling. 

Warning/tip: working with giant sheets of paneling/drywall/wood/whatever in a small space can be really frustrating!  It can be difficult to maneuver everything to get it in the right place when there isn't much wiggle room, and sometimes, things get stuck or wedged and they are really hard to get back out.  Alan and I have done a few projects together now, so we knew that holding things above our heads can be really tiring already, so adding in the tight squeeze, we knew we had a mess coming our way!  We decided before we took the paneling into the house that it was us against the board.  Any other way, and we both lose!  It was still frustrating, and we pinched a few fingers in the process, but I'm really glad that we decided to laugh together when the situation started to seem impossible!

We ended up cutting the piece a little too long and we couldn't get it up to the ceiling at first, but that was definitely better than cutting it too small and having to buy a new piece of paneling!  

For the ceiling, we tried nailing the paneling to the drywall, but it started to fall down.  We had to find the studs and nail it in along those for added security.  

The panel was actually just a few inches too narrow to cover our ceiling (the sheets only come four feet wide), so we cut another strip from an extra piece to fill in the remaining gap.  This was the key when we had to piece the paneling together.  We cut it along a groove so that it would look more seamless once two pieces were butt up next to each other.

Once the ceiling was done, we measured each of the walls and pieced the paneling together to cover the room (remembering to cut along the grooves when we pieced the paneling together).  Generally, Alan nailed the paneling to the walls along the far edges of each piece so that most of the holes would be covered by molding.  

Where there were outlets in the walls, we measured where to cut the hole in the paneling and drew it like a stencil before cutting the piece.  We just made sure the holes were small enough that the outlet covers would conceal the edges.

When there was plumbing, we put the paneling on in multiple pieces around the plumbing, cutting along the groove of the paneling to make it easier to fit together and hide the seams.  (This picture is blurry, but you can see the seams around the plumbing.  We just used caulk later on to hide the gaps.)

Installing Molding

I already loved the way the paneling looked.  It was so much brighter than the wallpaper!  The edges didn't come together perfectly, though, so it was time to cover the seams with molding.  

We bought scotia molding (basically, concave quarter round) to cover up the corners of the room.

We started with the ceiling, cutting the molding at 45-50 degree angles depending on each corner and nailing each piece up against the ceiling.

Note: I've seen a lot of beadboard/paneling ceilings done with much wider molding around the edges than what we did (see the House of Smith's tutorial link below).

I think that would have been much easier because then we could have cut the paneling for the ceiling smaller and had a lot more wiggle room.  The problem that we ran into was that our vent was too close to the edge of the wall (see picture below) and we didn't have a wide enough space for very much molding.  We chose to use the quarter inch molding instead for this reason.

Unfortunately, with how close the vent cover was to the edge of the room, even the molding we chose wouldn't quite fit around the vent cover.  We had to get a little creative with how we cut the piece that went along this edge.  Here are the steps we took to cut the molding to fit around the vent cover:

1. Take measurements.  We measured where on the molding the vent was (left to right) and then how far from the vent sat on the ceiling.  We made a mark on the molding to show where we needed to cut (left to right).
2. Mark.  We turned the molding over and measured from the 90-degree corner and made a mark (using the measurement of how far the vent was from the corner of the ceiling).
3. Cut.  Using a jigsaw, we cut out the part of the molding that would make room for the vent cover.

Voila!  No more issues.

Next, we reinstalled the baseboards.  Since the paneling added an extra width to the walls, we had to cut down some of the baseboards about a quarter of an inch to fit within the room.  We nailed the main pieces first and then went back and added the quarter round.

Finally, we cut molding to run vertically in each corner and nailed each piece into place.

So that's the room just about ready for paint!  Remember where we started?

Stop by later to see us put on the finishing touches!