Wainscoting

We've had a lot going on in our house. The wife has me doing some home improvement. It started when our youngest, who's autistic, figured out he could peel the paint off the walls. This went on for some time, and he peeled all of the paint off of our stairwell and most of our main hall. He then moved into the kitchen. This led to a big drywall repair session.

Basically, I skim coated all of the walls. In turn, this meant a ton of dust from the sanding.

After the sanding, I two-tone painted all of the walls. The bottom is white. The top of the hall is a tan, and in the kitchen a colonial blue.

I drew up the plans on Google Sketch Up, and got them approved by the planning board (the wife.). I started in the kitchen, using 1/2 inch MDF (multidensity fiberboard.). This paints well, and is relatively cheep. The only negative is that the cut sides need to be sealed. The cost effective way to do this is with drywall compound. You simply apply a thin coat. This will dry hard and take paint very well. here is the first wall.

I then moved on to the pantry.

I still have to buy some more paint to finish the wainscoting.

From there the foreman asked for some more changes. Our house was built in the 70's, and we have slab front, contractor grade cabinets. I found some small accent moulding at the Lowes. I don't understand the rules of English that make you add the extra 'the' in front of hardware stores, but it exists. Before:

After:

I am now painting them a cream color, then we will be antiquing them.

We then decided to move our pan storage. We had a wall mounted hook rack that blocked our window. We ran out to Ikea and bought some wall mounted ones. We now have out of the way pan storage.

Then, Saturday night I caught the youngest trying to peel the paint on our stairwell. I had repaired this, and repainted it. The hallway, and stairs are stage two of the wainscoting project, and I know I didn't do the best around the edges (as they would be covered.) So I grabbed the last of the 1/2 inch MDF I had, and did this:

Needless the say, the wife is happy, and excited for the rest to go in. She can't wait for the paint. I'll post more pics as I go. Enjoy!