Brandon, one of our talented customers, recently shared a project that perfectly illustrates how a subtle and understated update to even a small space can be remarkably satisfying, not to mention easy on your wallet! His process is shared below. Thanks again, Brandon!
For a long time I’ve wanted to convert my back entryway into a small mudroom. It was a nonfunctional space with no place to hang a coat or put shoes on.
I had the idea to build a bench seat in this area and clad the walls in beadboard, but when I priced beadboard at the local lumber yard, the cost for the nice tongue and groove stuff was pretty hefty–more than I could justify spending on a little mudroom.
Luckily for me, I found some really nice fir beadboard at Second Use Tacoma ( https://www.seconduse.com/?post_type=item&p=3593825 ) at a good price, and my little mudroom project began.
My first step was to draw a level line around the room where the top of the beadboard would go. Then I removed all the drywall below this line and replaced it with some 1/2″ plywood. I did this to have a clean, solid surface to nail my beadboard to.
Next I built a bench seat with finish-grade plywood. I built this a little smaller than the space it was going into for ease of installation. The beadboard was 5/8″ thick and would cover any gaps between the wall and the bench seat.
After that, I began installing the beadboard, which was the simplest part of the whole project. I first nailed up the trim cap along that level line I drew earlier, and used that as a guide to keep each piece of beadboard straight. Then I just cut each board to length, butted it to the trim cap, and nailed it off.
The item description on the Second Use website mentioned that the boards varied slightly in thickness, but I only had two boards (out of about 25) that were slightly thinner than the rest. Luck of the draw maybe. I sat them aside and used them on shorter walls where their difference in thickness would not be a problem.
Once the beadboard was installed, I added some baseboard to cover my nail holes, then caulked and painted. I’m very happy with the result. All in all, a very fun project!
