Bathroom Wainscoting in Culver City Lends Elegance to a Small Space

Still one of the best bang for your buck DIY projects to undertake, wainscoting is useful not only for decoration but also as a protective surface. In high traffic areas such as hallways and other rooms the wall treatment, which typically stands between 32-36” from the floor, can serve as a chair rail to protect the walls from the inevitable nicks and scuffs that come with furniture collisions. In some areas, a wainscot can be made to go up to 48”, providing even more wall protection and a smooth, easily cleaned surface that can make your cleanup work a whole lot easier. In other areas, especially in small spaces, it goes a long way to tie together a dull space with limited room to work with.

Pretty much any material that is common for finish work is used currently for wainscoting. The most common is of course wood, and it is readily available in a number of attractive species and styles. Hardwood veneers like birch and oak are common in easy to use 4×8 sheets, as are paint grade options such as pine and MDF. Lightweight polymers that are commonly made into crown moldings can also be found made specially for wainscoting applications.

The tongue and groove design of these off the shelf items make them especially well suited for weekend remodelers with limited tools on hand. In most cases, sheets of wainscot material can be directly attached to your wallboard with adhesive and a few small finishing nails. But for thicker, heavier material, such as a style with a deep profile, it will need to be nailed securely to the wallboard. Take care when you are using thin boards however, as with too much force you can split the wood, leaving you with wasted pieces.

If you choose to forego adhesive, you will definitely need to install some sort of furring or backing on your wallboard to serve as your nailing surface. On exposed framing, this is as easy as nailing up some plywood directly to the studs to act as your backing. Then, when it is time to install the drywall above, just make sure you use a wallboard of the same thickness. In this way the transitions from the wainscot to the wall should be perfectly smooth, as a cap molding will rest on top of the wainscot to help define the two features.

Below we have a newly remodeled bathroom in Culver City, with a sharp white wainscot that runs around the perimeter of the room from the tub area. As you can see, the lines of the wall treatment flow perfectly together with the lines of the sink, tub, and toilet fixtures, creating an elegant look in this small bathroom space.

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Jannone Construction and Development
502 San Vicente #105 Santa Monica, CA, 90402 USA
marc@jannonedevelopment.com • 310-989-3499

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A great way to personalize a home is one that I have found many homeowners over the years to enjoy: creating your own built-up moldings. Creating your own built-up moldings can give you a one of a kind touch that you can design yourself, and it is as easy as combining different standard molding pieces to suit your style.

When we are speaking of built-up moldings, typically we are referring to what is known as a cornice, or decorative feature that lies where the walls meet the ceiling. While built-up arrangements can be done anywhere you find moldings and casings, such as windows and baseboards for example, usually the most elaborate designs will be in the cornice. In the past, these features were made of plaster, and took a true master craftsman to accomplish a quality job. But these days, carpenters and DIY homeowners alike use a combination of molding pieces to create the same effect, by combining a number of standard moldings to create a unique custom look.

The beauty of this type of detail is that you are free to design them yourself if you wish. For inspiration, we usually take guidance from the popular styles of the past that may best suit a particular home; Colonial (Georgian), Craftsman, and Greek Revival are good places to start for reference. We recommend you visit a local lumber center, or molding specialty store—Andersen Molding in Culver City is one we use quite a bit for our Los Angeles remodeling projects—and take a look at their various molding profiles. There you can find every variation of baseboard, stop, crown, cove, quarter rounds, and then grab yourself some samples to play with. At home, arrange the samples in ways you find visually appealing to find a design that you like.

When you are playing around with your options, keep in mind the way that your new cornice will appear in contrast to your existing baseboards and other moldings. You should always want to go for a visual balance of styles so that one area does not overwhelm another, and to create a smooth, seamless flow that exists in good proportion.

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A very complex built up Georgian style cornice in paint-grade material and another example of a custom built-up molding using stain-grade material.

Next, you need to decide if you are going to go with paint grade or stain grade material. By paint grade, we are referring to less expensive materials that are meant to be painted and thus are not aesthetically appealing with a naked surface. In the molding store these would be finger jointed pine, mdf, or synthetic polymer. Of course, your margin of error with these materials is far greater as you can easily cover up mistakes with putty and caulk. If you choose a stain grade material, then you will be working with more expensive hardwoods, such as oak, cherry, and mahogany. These materials are not meant to be painted but stained to feature the natural look of wood grain. With this style your margin of error is slim, because it is difficult to mask cosmetic fixes and the materials are a bit more costly.

In either case, creating your own built-up moldings can be a really rewarding experience. Whether you try to tackle the installation yourself or have a contractor complete it, you can have a great deal of creative input in the process. And the end product will be a personal stamp on your home that will have an immediate, and satisfying aesthetic impact.

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