Today I put the final touches on the latest addition to the office—a beadboard wall with a built in shelf ledge.

Here's where we left off last time after purchasing the panels and resting them up against the wall:



This is the wall the printer is going up against, and originally I was going to just put it there and call it a day. Then I decided to get fancy and take on another project. I thought it would also be neat to utilize the wall by adding a shelf ledge where I could prop things up.

After determining the height of the beadboard and getting it cut to size (free at Lowe's), it was time get started.

First we needed to address the two holes where the receptacles were installed for our old TV. We picked up a couple of these Fibatape patches, the perfect size for covering over old outlets:







After sticking them to the wall, it was spackle time.


Once everything was covered, we moved on to installing the first panel of beadboard.

It wasn't quite as easy as nailing it up though, because we had an outlet to work around. Instead of cutting around the entire outlet plate like I did with the plank wall installation, I decided to cut around just the receptacle so the edges would be hidden by the plate. Luckily, we didn't end up needing spacers.

To determine the location, I just measured from the wall and floor and then repeated that measurement onto the panel. But then I realized we didn't have a jigsaw (our old one was crap so we through it out)... so the project was postponed until the following day after a trip to Lowe's and $40 spent on this...



And it worked like a charm.

After applying a decent amount of liquid nails, the panel was ready to go up:



We just set it in place and secured with finishing nails onto the studs:


It left a few holes but this panel wasn't going anywhere.


Time for the next one...

This one had an outlet in a tricky spot‚ right near the edge.

I measured and traced the hole...


Then we drilled the starter hole in the corner and got to work with the jigsaw...



And yep, it happened...


This material is pretty sensitive/flaky, and it snapped right off.

Oh well...



More liquid nails + careful placement...


Then some finishing nails into the studs, and it was time for the third panel.


Then came the hard part. The wall is angled over by the door and we had to cut this panel into two pieces to fit both walls. A table saw would be ideal for this, and of course we don't have one, so what's our next best option? 

We considered using our skill saw but we didn't have the clamps to keep it in place and make a straight cut, and also were worried about the blade shredding up this sensitive material, so we opted for the jigsaw.

No photos of this as it was a tense process that required all of our hands, but the edge was "good enough" and it was time to install the third panel.

Brad got fancy with his liquid nails this time.




And finally... the fourth and final piece!




Closeup shot:



Not the straightest edge in the world, but this would all be covered later by caulk so it can be our little secret.

As for the outlet mishap...



Brad cut a small piece out from another part of the board and sandwiched it in:


A bit of spackle and sanding later and it was good as new.


Whew, hardest part was over!

Next up was the trim. I bought a 12' strip of 1x4 pre-primed MDF board. 

The only challenge here was the wall angle which was not your standard 90' angle. I've never dealt with this before and didn't have the tools, so I winged it...



I molded a piece of thick paper to the angle and used it as a template to recreate it onto my board.

It ended up being 45', so that wasn't so complicated after all.



We cut the board and nailed it up (with more liquid nails for extra security—don't worry we wiped off the excess)...




And I figured all I had to do was cut the other board at the same angle and we'd be good to go...


But we weren't. And only then I realized that I was supposed to divide my angle by 2 to get the actual cut angles... duh. Two 45' boards = 90', not 45'. At this point it was too late as I had ran out of board, so we put some wood spacers behind the small piece and nailed it in place.



The final piece was a 1x2" pre-primed MDF strip. This only came in 10' lengths so I had to use two pieces. Nothing a little spackle and sanding wouldn't fix.

This time around I was able to get the angles right, and cut both edges to 22.5' in order to get my 45' angle.


It didn't matter to me that the corners didn't line up because it would all be covered and hidden with caulk.

After all that measuring, cutting, gluing and nailing, we had ourselves a beadboard wall!



All that was left to do was spackle, sand, caulk and paint (which is the longest part of the process).

Here's a shot of some of the caulking in the corners (I was impatient and started to paint around it before it had dried... I also bought clear caulk by accident)


Here's how it turned out:



More mid-painting:


I also had to make touchups on the top half of the wall:



Almost there!



And finally, the tape came off this morning and a shiny new beadboard wall was revealed!










And now for a little ledge decoration...



I stopped by Target to grab a handful of clipboards, and then Michaels for some pretty wrapping paper.



The idea was to modge podge the paper onto the front of the clipboards for a little extra somethin.

After rolling out the wrapping paper, I set down my clipboard and measured out the area that I'd have to notch out a rectangle for the clipping mechanism. I then used my Xacto knife and a ruler to cut it out.


Using a paint brush and some modge podge on a plate...


I spread a thin, even mixture onto the front of my clipboard.



You have to work relatively quickly, as this stuff dries fast.

Then I flipped the clipboard upside down and lined it up with the notch. Here's a view from under the table looking up:



This part got tricky because as soon as the clipboard touches the paper, it doesn't want to let go. And the paper is so thin that you can't peel it off to reposition without bubbling/crinkling it up... so you really have just one shot to line it up right.

Once everything was aligned, I pressed the board onto the paper and traced the edges with the Xacto knife.



And voila!





So purty.



I made 6 of them.





I'll be using them to hold things like color charts, thank you notes, extra prints, etc. 

For other uses, it would also be a fun and easy way to display art!






Now we just need to roll the printer over to that wall, and then I have one more project in mind to go above the clipboards and that side of the room will be done!

More to come soon...


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