The Best Beadboard Wall Ideas
Although the English first used beadboard walls as a way to retain heat within their homes, it has managed to acquire an enduring reign in interior design due to its aesthetic beauty. You can use it anywhere: in a bedroom, a bathroom or the kitchen. And depending on a room’s design, it can fit well within a traditional or modern home.
Best of all, you can readily find it at your local home improvement store as planks or sheets depending on what you are looking for. It is relatively cheap, comes in a variety of materials from wood, MDF, vinyl and PVC and is very versatile when it comes to styling.
If you are considering adding beadboard to your home and want some inspiration before committing to the idea, below are some of the best beadboard wall ideas from across the internet.
Beadboard From Floor to Ceiling
Full Height Beadboard Wall
Designers over at Martha O’Hara Interiors used beadboard in this laundry/mudroom design to add interest to a white room. It gives a sense of pattern due to the prominent beading on the planks.
Beadboard acquired its name from the beading design it has where two planks meet. As such, it naturally has a design that draws the eye up, particularly if installed vertically along the entire height of a wall.
If you have a space with low ceilings and want to deter attention from its unfortunate qualities, consider beadboard from floor to ceiling in your design plan.
Full Height Beadboard Wall with Chair Rail
Via Remodelista
This guest bedroom from the Anvil Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming has two-tone beadboard walls split by a chair rail. It is an ingenious way to have a full length beadboard wall without forgoing the popular paneled beadboard look.
You get the best of both worlds and you don’t have to contemplate how to seamlessly add a two-toned wall without any odd or jarring separations between colors.
Also, if you are struggling to find full length beadboard planks for your wall – or you’ve found they are generally out of your budget – you can use chair rail to split the room horizontally. This way the length required to cover your wall will be less.
Beadboard Paneling
Sunroom Beadboard Paneling
Jean Stoffer is one of my favorite interior designers. She uses lots of trim work throughout her designs, and beadboard too.
In the sunroom above, the beadboard was original to the house, but that doesn’t mean you can’t install any yourself into your new home. Don’t limit yourself into thinking that you have to have a sunroom in your home to get the look either. If you have a room with many windows, you can get a similar feel.
Standard Beadboard Paneling
Via Domino
I consider standard beadboard paneling to be the kind that goes one third to a half of a room’s height from the floor. This design leaves the upper half of a wall clear of beadboard, which lessens the cost overall because you are using less material.
If you’ve been dreaming of having paneling in your home, but just don’t want to deal with the potential headache of your wall texture, beadboard would be a great option.
Additionally, you can use beadboard to cover the texture and give off a smooth finish without having to potentially skim coat the whole room.
Beadboard and Wallpaper
Via D Magazine
You can be more creative with your beadboard paneled walls by introducing a fun wallpaper to pair with it. Go with something traditional or modern, or play around with patterns that will compliment or emphasize the vertical lines of your beadboard.
Treat beadboard paneling much as you would panel molding: as an anchor to some other design element like wallpaper or trim molding. Go with a monochrome palette if you want an effortless, cohesive look. Alternatively, test your design prowess and play around with complimentary colors.
Two-Thirds of a Wall Beadboard
Lower Two-Thirds Beadboard Walls
Via One Kindesign
If you want beadboard paneling in your home but are looking for a design that isn’t too overused, consider beadboard that goes beyond the lower third of your wall.
As previously stated, beadboard can be used to hide unsightly wall texture, and the higher you go with it, the smoother your walls will look.
Not covering the entire height of your wall will cost you less, and it will allow for more design opportunities. You can wallpaper the remaining upper portion of your wall or paint it a different color. Have a color in mind you are unsure of? This is where you may want to use it. Live with it for a while and decide if it’s a good choice for your space.
Upper Two-Thirds Beadboard Walls
Here’s another great beadboard wall idea from Fariha Nasir. It covers the upper two-thirds of a wall, thus flipping traditional beadboard paneling on its head.
In this case, it adds great visual interest to a monochrome room. Nasir’s pairing with lower panel molding gives the beadboard a feeling much akin to wallpaper, though with so much more dimension.
