Wainscoting For the Kitchen

You may remember, Dear Readers, that when I painted the kitchen of the Lovely Old Dollhouse a very bright yellow, I also mentioned that there was no need to worry about the brightness being too much as I was planning on adding wainscoting which would mellow the effect of the bright yellow. Now, the wainscoting as I was envisioning it was another of these projects that was giving me plenty of reasons to procrastinate! You see, all the wainscoting I had made so far for the house was of the "Panel" type commonly built in the Colonial style homes. But the wainscoting I was envisioning for the kitchen was going to be the more modern Victorian Era type known as "matchstick" or "beadboard" paneling. It was made of narrow strips of wood with a vertical beaded edge, creating a very striped appearance. Typically it was taller than the older Colonial style of paneling which went only to chair rail height, or about 30 to 36 inches from the floor. The matchstick paneling was more commonly as tall as 4 feet from the floor. The idea was that the kitchen of the Lovely Old Dollhouse would, naturally, have been "modernized" in the Victorian Era! They would have added a wood burning or coal burning cast iron stove in place of the open hearth cooking still in use during the Colonial times. And they would have added the paneling and cupboards that were coming into fashion at that time. So I was going to have to figure out how to MAKE this beadboard paneling! And what to make it out of! And how precisely detailed it would be! And even before I could make it, I would need to finish the trim around the window and doors....... so you can see that there was LOTS of room for procrastinating! And then, just to distract myself from the wainscoting, I went and started building the Castle Dollhouse! But I did not forget the wainscoting, and as is often the case for me, the project was "brewing" in the back of my mind the whole time I was doing other things. So when I finally did start the project this spring, it went together much more smoothly than I had ever imagined it would!

Here you can see the kitchen with the freshly painted YELLOW walls!

And here you can see the window trim and the completed REAL window in place!

And the sink which was just like the one in my first apartment!

Here I am test fitting the cabinet which will be over the sink.......

Now, I know you will agree that the wainscoting needed to have that same not-quite precise look of the rest of the woodwork in the Lovely Old Dollhouse. (Quite frankly, I think that is one of the things that adds that undefinable charm to this house - the home-made not quite exactly to scale woodwork!) I debated in my mind for a long time about the type of wood to use - should I go with very thin plywood and cut the ribbing in it... or should I use more of the wood my brother had made for my "dollhouse lumber" that had been so perfect for the rest of the wainscoting...... or should I try some other type of method altogether....... ! I was worried that the dollhouse lumber stock would not be enough to do the whole job as there were only a couple of pieces left. And I was not sure how well it would go together as the pieces needed to have the grain of the wood running vertically rather than horizontally as they were for the rest of the wainscoting in the house. That meant the paneling would be made up of sections 2.5 inches wide and nearly 4 inches tall. At long last, I decided that the only way to tell if there was enough of the lumber was to make an exact plan of what would be needed! (Some people would save themselves a lot of trouble if they would learn to do this BEFORE they waste a lot of time fretting....!) So I measured the spaces and figured out how many sections I could get out of the lumber that remained......... and was I ever AMAZED when the amount of lumber was EXACTLY enough to do the job!!! So I cut the sections to the right length - about 3.75 inches - allowing for a narrow "cap rail" at the top. I carved narrow grooves in the panels to approximate the look of the old beading - don't look too closely as my "carving" is a bit irregular! Then I stained the pieces the same "Old Pine" color as the rest of the kitchen woodwork. (Of course, I did not remember to take any pictures of all these steps!)

Here you can see the panels roughly set in place before the top rail was added.

I still have not added the bottom mop board to the paneling....... but here it is with the top rail and the cabinet in place...




I sure LOVE the way the morning sun streams in that window! And even though the mop boards are not done, someone has the mop out ready to go!

I could not be happier with the way the kitchen wainscoting turned out!

It is EXACTLY what I was envisioning!