Wainscoting for the Family Room

Materials:

4 by 8-foot wainscoting panels
3/4-inch MDF (medium density fiberboard)
base molding
chair rail
construction adhesive
2-inch brad nails
table saw
laser level
chalk line
miter saw
pencil
brad nailer
caulk gun
jigsaw
drill

Steps:

NOTE: For this project, the measurements including height of wainscoting and sizes of base moldings are subjective. Decide what looks right for you and your room.

1. Remove any baseboard molding around the room.

3. Based on these measurements, mark the wall with chalked twine at the point where the top of the MDF baseboard will go.

4. Rip the MDF into strips 5-1/2 inches wide. Cut the strips to length to fit around the base of the room. Wherever the strips meet along the straight portion of the wall, cut scarf joints so the pieces match up to hide the seam. One piece should be cut at a 15-degree angle to the front and the complementary angle on the back. Join pieces in the corners with 45-degree angles.

5. Attach the strips to the wall with 2" brad nails (figure B).

6. Cut the 4 x 8 sheets of wainscoting in half.

7. If there are any electrical or cable outlets or phone jacks exposed, measure and mark the location on the piece of wainscoting to make cutouts. Using a drill with a bit large enough to fit a jigsaw blade, drill a hole on the edge of the area to be removed. Be sure to drill within the mark, then cut around the marked area with a jigsaw, starting in the drilled hole (figure C).

8. Liberally apply construction adhesive to the back of a wainscoting panel and hold up to the wall so the beading runs vertically.

9. Place the wainscoting on to the wall with the bottom resting on the MDF strips that were added at the base. Quickly pull the panels off the wall part of the way so the adhesive becomes stringy and covers more area on the back (figure D).

10. Quickly tack the wainscoting down with 2-inch brad nails to keep them flat against the wall and prevent them from shifting.

11. Unless the room's perimeter measurement is divisible by four, then a wainscoting panel will have to be trimmed to fill in the smaller gaps (figure E).

12. After putting up the wainscoting, tack the base molding to the outside of the MDF at the base with 2-inch brad nails. Be sure the molding also has scarf joints to hide the seams.

13. Finally, add a chair rail to the top of the wainscoting, using the same scarfing technique and brad nails as the wainscoting and molding (figure F).