Kitchen Bead Board: The Details

To prepare the kitchen bead boards, we removed (I need a more violent verb than 'remove' to convey the actual work) all the vinyl paneling, drywall, and drywall nails. We patched nail holes, sanded and tack clothed the bead boards, primed them and bought the least offensive chair rail molding (which is actually a door and window casing) I could find at the big box store because it was Sunday and Highland Hardware was closed.

Somewhere along the line, a previous owner installed drywall over the plaster lathe walls in the kitchen, so when we removed the drywall from the waist down to expose the bead board, we were left with an awkward and pronounced drywall overhang. One of us (not me) designed a two-level chair rail application to solve this problem.

Clever, right?

First, we cut the drywall where the bead board ended. Then we attached a 1/2" x 1 1/2" pine trim piece at the top of the bead board. We then attached the chair rail to the pine, exposing 3/8" of the pine on the bottom.

My dear friend KG and I spent eight hours measuring, cutting, and installing the chair rail.


Morgan supervised and brought us coffee when our energy flagged.






We chose Benjamin Moore Atrium White for the bead board and (eventually) the ceiling. Atrium White is like a pure white that's thinking about maybe heading toward ivory; it's like pure white with the blinding 'HOLY SHIT THAT'S WHITE' removed. It also matches our Ikea cabinets (more on these soon.)

I so tired.