Painting the Beadboard Kitchen Walls

Hiii!

Happy November! Anyone else feel like October flew by?! Maybe for us the three weeks of sickness and back issues had something to do with that lol! But I’m happy to report Ed is feeling much better and so is my back! Sooo I got busy painting the beadboard kitchen walls while Ed worked on getting the sink hooked up.

Primer and Paint

I really like the Behr Primer and Sealer as a primer for reclaimed materials. It really does a good job of sealing up any old varnish or lacquer and prevent any chemical leeching/discoloration. However, I underestimated how much I would need for this room and was only able to put on 1 very thin coat. You can see the results below after the first coat of paint was on top of it. If I had been able to give it the 2 coats I normally would have I think it would have made all the difference. I usually do 2 coats since primer is a bit thinner than paint.

Since we aren’t five minutes from a Home Depot I decided to keep it moving knowing it would mean I’d have to apply at least one extra coat of paint. I used what was left from a 5 gal bucket of Behr Ultra Pure white matte/flat from a previous room. One thing I discovered about this white is that it’s almost the exact same color as Chantilly Lace by BM, but at a better price point.

Primer linked HERE

Paint linked HERE!

Painting the Beadboard

Something I’ve learned along the way is to use a paint sprayer to paint tongue and groove walls like beadboard. Otherwise you’re rolling it on with a thicker napped roller and will probably still have to brush it into the crevices, which is all very time consuming. Now prep for using a sprayer can be a bit tedious too, especially in a room like this that has 3 doorways, 2 windows, a chimney, and an entire staircase to mask off lol! But I still say its more than worth it!

The only reason painting took me more than a day is because of the dry time between coats. Otherwise I was able to paint the entire room in under 15 min. We have 2 paint sprayers. I used the smaller one that has a container attached to it for the primer since I only had purchased it by the gallon, and there is more waste with our bigger sprayer. But for all the paint I used our bigger sprayer that has a long hose. I definitely prefer the bigger sprayer because of ease of use. I’ll link them both below.

Handheld (smaller) sprayer

Airless (bigger) Paint Sprayer

You can see the sink bracket and water lines here

Painted Walls and Ceiling

It ended up taking 3 coats on the walls with some touch ups in places where the discoloration was stubborn. While I was waiting for the primer to dry I also went ahead and painted the ceiling. It was a glossy white before and looks so much better matte/flat. I get questions about our ceiling often. It’s a rounded wood tongue and groove that’s original to the house and found throughout the main floor. Our architectural salvage friend said he’s only seen it in one other home in his 34 years of experience. It was definitely a selling point for me and I think it’s so interesting to think about what the original owners chose when they built it.

Painting the Beadboard Kitchen Walls

This beadboard is everything and more! I’m so so glad I took the time to redo these walls. They look like they’ve always been here. I couldn’t stop smiling after putting the window mouldings back up and can’t wait to do the doors once the floors are in! I really love the wainscoting detail and will be installing the chair railing today.

I’m so happy with how the room is coming together…annnd coming apart lol I started ripping out the flooring yesterday! I thought I might be a bit sad, but nope ha! After literally years of waiting for the opportunity to install reclaimed heart pine in here I’m nothing but grateful and excited!

Let me know if you have any questions about this leg of the kitchen reno or any others! You can catch daily updates plus farm life on Instagram @midcounty_journal.

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog!