Transform Your Bathroom With a Beadboard Wall!

Adding a beadboard wall to any room will bring a coastal vibe to the space, no matter how far you are from the ocean. And, the best part of this DIY project is, it’s relatively straight forward and quick to accomplish, when you compare it to other wood accent walls, like board and batten or shiplap. In this post I’ll walk you through everything you need to know to install a beadboard wall in your bathroom (like I did), or to any room in your home.

• Active Time: 3 hours (I did one wall about 6 feet long, so you’ll need to scale up for bigger projects)
• Total Time: 1 day (you need about 10 cumulative hours to let various things dry)
• Cost without Tools: $200 (totally dependent on wood costs at the moment, size of project, quality of paint)
• Difficulty Level: Intermediate (comfortable using finish nailer, saw, and impact driver)
• Help Needed?: Definitely Easier if you have a second person, but I did the whole thing solo.

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That Coastal Vibe

My parents have always had beadboard in several rooms in their beach house, painted a crisp white. For them, it was both stylish and practical–they had 50 year old dry wall that had seen much better days. Adding beadboard was an easy way to cover up those imperfections, while continuing the beachy feel of the home.

Since we’re aiming for a coastal-modern-traditional feel for our house, I decided to install a beadboard wall in Emory’s bathroom. And, instead of going the traditional white route, I painted it a bright color. What better place is there to feature bright colors than a kids bathroom?!

This is Really a Solo Project?

After doing the plywood board and batten and double board and batten in the few months before this project, installing a beadboard wall in a bathroom was a piece of cake. I tackled it one day, during baby naps and sleep while Steve was out of town.

So, it can definitely be done solo, if you feel comfortable lifting and holding the beadboard up yourself. I was using only half sheets, so it made them much easier to manage. But, if you have the help available, borrow them 15 minutes–it’ll be easier with a second set of hands for nailing the beadboard up.

Supplies

• Beadboard–make sure you get real wood and not the flimsy plastic stuff. And, if you can get it sanded and primed–bare minimum sanded.
• 1 x 3 primed board
• Finish Nailer with 1.5 inch nails
• Saws: If you don’t get your wood cut at your hardware store, these are the saws I used: miter saw to trim the 1 x3 board and either a table saw, circular saw, or jig saw to trim the beadboard (I used my jig saw)
• Impact Driver with 2″ self-drilling screws (mine were the gold screws at Home Depot)
• Kilz Premium Primer (if you’re beadboard and 1×3 aren’t primed)
• Paint Color of Your Choice
• Sanding Block or sand paper–I used 220 grit to get the smoothest finish. If your pieces aren’t sanded before purchase, you’ll need to sand with 80 grit, then 150 grit, then 220 grit.
• Studfinder
• Pencil
• Level
• Wood Filler
• Spackle Knife
• Paintable wood caulk and caulk gun
• Tack Cloth
• Paint Brush
• Paint roller, tray and covers
• Baby wipes or damp paper towels to clean up caulk
• Optional: Wood glue (we’ll discuss in step 5) and painters tape (if you like to use it when painting)

Step 1: Measure Your Space & Decide on the Height of Your Beadboard

The first (and most important) step in any accent wall project is measuring your space. This will determine how much wood you actually need and also determine your budget.

Measuring the width is easy. Measure the width of the wall around where you want the beadboard to end, in the middle, and near the baseboards, since your walls can be a little different widths at different places.

How do you decide the height of the beadboard?

When I’m doing a wood treatment that ends in the middle of the wall, I always struggle with where to end it on the wall (aka the height of my wall treatment).

My best advice is to mark with a pencil where you think you want the wood treatment to end. You can even hold a level up if that helps you visualize how the beadboard will look on the wall.

And, if you just want to follow a plan (I know how much easier that can be), here’s my measurements and how I determined them:

Plan A: Ideal Plan

I found a great rule of thumb from This Old House when researching our entryway board and batten. If you’re stopping the treatment in the middle of the wall, it’s most pleasing to the eye to stop it at 1/3 the height of the wall or 2/3 the height of the wall.

So, if you have 8 foot ceilings like we do upstairs, that would mean stopping the beadboard at 32 inches off the floor ( 2 2/3 ft) or 64 inches off the floor (5 1/3 ft). I wanted the beadboard to be on the taller side, so I choose the 64 inch option.

Now, here’s where you need to do a little math to get the total height of the beadboard.

That would mean I needed beadboard to cover 70.25″ (the width of my space) by 56.25″ height. Beadboard comes in 48″ width by 96″ height, so I would need 2 pieces for my bathroom beadboard wall (one piece cut to 48″ x 56.25″ and one piece cut to 22.25″ x 56.25″).

Plan B: Budget Friendly Option

Since wood is super expensive right now (thanks COVID), I felt like it was silly to waste almost 40″ of beadboard for each piece I had to buy, just to get this “ideal” height.

So, I decided just to buy 1 piece of beadboard and cut it in half, giving me 2 48″ x 48″ pieces of beadboard. One I left 48″ x 48″ for install; the 2nd was trimmed to 22.25″ x 48″

That gave me a final height, when you add the upper and lower trim height, of 55 .75″. That’s definitely less than my original plan, but I still felt like it looked right when I marked it out.

Lots of math, I know. But once it’s done, the rest is easy peasy.

Once you have your height determined, mark the wall at the correct heigh, on each stud, using yoru studfinder. This well help with install later on.

Step 2: Make Any Cuts Needed

If you don’t have a saw, Home Depot and Lowes have large saws and will make cuts for free for you. So, bring your cut list with you when shopping.

If you’re making your own cuts at home, make sure you wear proper safety gear (eye and ear protection). Use your miter to cut the 1 x3s and a table saw/circular saw/jig saw to cut the beadboard.

And, if you need more than 1 piece of beadboard for the width of your wall, consider cutting the adjoining ends at a 45 degree angle with your miter. They’ll connect much more smoothly this way.

If that’s way too complicated for you, don’t worry about it. You can just leave the edges as they are, and use wood filler and sanding to make the connection as smooth as possible between the two boards.

Your Cut List Should Include:

• The Beadboard cuts (width of your wall x height of desired beadboard)
• The 1 x 3 cuts (width of your wall)

If you’re following my measurements, your cut list will be:

• Beadboard: 1 48″ x 48″ and 1 22.25″ x 48″
• 1 x3 cut: 70.25″

The most important part about the cuts: make sure the vertical lines of the beadboard run parallel to the cut you make for the height. For mine, that meant the beadboard lines ran parallel to the 48″ cut on each piece.

Step 3: Sand

Once you have all your cuts, take the time to sand the cut edges of each piece with your sand paper or sanding block. I propped my pieces up on 2 collapsible saw horses, but feel free to use whatever work space you have.

You’ll want it as smooth as possible since you’re installing it on the wall. And, you’re not going to be able to sand any edges once the beadboard’s installed on the bathroom wall.

After sanding, run a tack cloth over every piece to get any loose sawdust.

Step 4: Prime & Paint

I learned this lesson the hard way with my double board and batten install: prime and put at least one coat of paint on all your pieces BEFORE you install them.

While beadboard isn’t that hard to paint, it will still be harder to paint when hanging on a wall than it will be laying on top of a work table.

One tip for painting beadboard: I found it easiest to use my paint brush to paint all the groves first. Then I would go over everything with my roller.

One more tip: If your beadboard is going in the bathroom, make sure you use a mold/mildew resistant primer, like Kilz Premium Primer.

Step 5: Install Beadboard

Once your trim and beadboard are primed and painted, it’s time to install them. You’ll need your finish nailer for this step. And, if you have an extra pair of hands, this is the perfect time to bring them in.

One more little step before installing your beadboard: you want to try and line the seams of your two pieces up so it looks like the pattern continues (Just like you would wallpaper).

My pieces originally didn’t line up at all, but I had to trim one down slightly, so that helped the pattern look a little closer than it started. Here’s a picture to help you see what I mean:

When you know which pieces you want where, start with one corner. I started with the bathtub side. Make sure you leave about 1/4″ of space between the beadboard and bathtub to allow the wood to swell a little with the weather (all wood does this). You can caulk over this gap so it looks intentional, so don’t stress about the appearance of it.

Holding the beadboard up against the wall, and ensuring the beadboard lines up flush with the baseboard, nail a finish nail into the upper corner of the beadboard. I placed my nails about 2 inches from the top of the board and into a stud (so that was about 4 inches in for me), using the stud marks you marked earlier.

Then I placed finish nails about every 12-18 inches down the stud until I got to the bottom. I repeated this process for the whole board.

If there’s several inches between the last stud and the end of the board, go back and place a few finish nails into the edges. These won’t hold the beadboard up, but they will help keep the edges flush against the wall

Once you’ve hung up one piece, repeat the process with the other pieces until your wall is done. Don’t stress about any small gaps between pieces or around the edges. That’s where wood filler and caulk become your best friends.

Step 6: Install Molding

Once all your beadboard is installed on your bathroom wall, it’s time to install the 1x 3 for the upper molding. For this step, you’ll need your wood, a level, your impact driver and 2″ self-drilling wood screws.

I started with the bathtub side again, leaving 1/4″ space to match the beadboard. Hold the board up above the beadboard, with the top of the beadboard flush with the bottom of the 1 x 3.

Using your impact driver, screw 1 screw into one of the middle studs. Once in place, you should be able to let go of the board and allow the screw to hold the weight.

Now place your level on top of the board. Mine was able to rest on top of the board for the whole install. Ensuring the board is level, screw in the next screw into another middle stud.

Repeat this until there is a screw through the 1 x3 for every stud.

Ok, all the big steps are done! Now it’s just the finish work to make it look as pretty and custom-made as possible!

Step 7: Apply Wood Filler & Sand

Ok, time for wood filler. If you haven’t used wood filler before, it’s like drywall spackle but for wood. Using your spackle knife, apply wood filler to every nail hole, screw hole, and gap between beadboard sheets. Scrape off the excess. Don’t worry about getting every bit of the excess off–focus on filling the holes.

Then let dry for 2 hours.

Once it’s dry, sand each spot you applied wood filler until it’s smooth and even with the surface around it.

Lastly, wipe the whole surface with tack cloth to get up any saw dust.

Step 8: Apply Caulk

Now, using your caulk gun, apply caulk to every seam: all sides of the 1 x 3, the seam between the beadboard and the baseboard, and the two vertical seams at the ends of the beadboard.

Let dry for 30 minutes (or however long your caulk says to let dry).

Step 9: Paint 2nd Coat

Here’s where painting in advance comes in to save the day. Since you’ve already primed and applied one coat of paint, you’ll just need to paint one additional coat over the trim and beadboard wall in your bathroom. Pay special attention to the spots you applied wood filler.

Let that paint dry. You may need to touch up where you applied wood filler with a third coat, depending on how light your color is (my teal needed some spot touchups over the wood filler spots).

Ta-Da! Your Beadboard Wall in Your Bathroom is Done!

And, that’s it! Your beadboard wall in your bathroom is done!

It’s such a great accent for our little girl’s bathroom! It brings that coastal feel with a modern twist with the teal color.

And, I love that 10 years from now, when E is ready for a more grown up bathroom, I just need a fresh coat of paint over the stenciling and beadboard. Then, we’ll have a whole new look!

Have Questions? Looking for More DIY Projects?

Check out our posts: The Easiest Board & Batten Install You’ll Find, How to Install Shiplap, and Creating a Chalkboard Accent Wall!

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