A DIY Wainscoting Project in a 140-Year-Old Brooklyn Apartment
Welcome to DIY Diary. Each entry covers a new home improvement project. Here, designers Will Glaser and Aubrey Ament show you how to install wainscoting in a kitchen.
Will Glaser and Aubrey Ament built their relationship on creative collaborations. The couple first met in a ceramics class 12 years ago and bonded over their love for design and DIY projects. Today, the duo is running GLAM Studio, an interior design studio in New York. With a recent purchase of a 140-year-old Brooklyn brownstone, the couple is putting Glaser’s woodworking skills and Ament’s design prowess into action.
Despite their previous renovation experience, Glaser and Ament were surprised by the magnitude of remodeling the two-story fixer-upper with a ground-level garden studio required. “Will and I have extreme optimism syndrome,” Ament admits. “We thought we were buying a place that was basically move-in ready.” The couple quickly adjusted their expectations. Glaser did the majority of the construction himself, minus the specialized work like plumbing, electrical, roofing, and tiling. Because Ament was pregnant at the time, she contributed conceptually with design ideas. “I helped as much as I could until I was too wobbly to help anymore,” she recalls.
To prep their garden studio apartment, which they now rent out on Airbnb, the couple wanted to update the kitchen but retain the essence of a Victorian home. Wainscoting, a type of partial wood paneling that was once used to protect against scuffs, presented a solid opportunity to give the studio an architectural nod to a bygone era. Inspired by trips to the Merchant’s House Museum, Glaser and Ament chose DIY wainscoting with traditional tongue-and-groove beadboard. “We thought it’d be nice to bring back that texture and materiality,” Ament says. “We wanted that cozy vibe. We felt there was an opportunity to really hark back to that time.”
To reflect a period-appropriate look, Glaser paired the beadboard with 5.5-inch straight baseboard and 2.5-inch straight cap rail. To avoid making the space too antique, they layered the wainscoting with midcentury-style appliances and contemporary furniture. “I think you can get an authentic feeling and be true to context without being specifically accurate,” Ament says.
With authenticity in mind, Glaser masterfully constructed the perfect and Victorian-reminiscent DIY wainscoting. Here’s how he pulled it off, and how you can recreate the look, step by step.
Install supplies
Step 1: Decide on the height of the wainscoting project
Glaser and Ament knew they wanted an open shelf about 24 inches above the counter. This feature dictated the height of their wainscoting project, which was 60 inches tall from the floor. Once the measurement was locked in, they used a laser level to trace the top line of the beadboard around the entire room. Glaser recommends using a laser level for optimal straightness.
Step 2: Cut beadboard to length
The groove end of the beadboard should align with the corner when you start. Use the pencil-drawn line as a guide and cut the first few pieces of beadboard with a miter saw, Glaser instructs. “Before cutting more, test for a good fit from the top of the baseboard to your cap rail line,” he says. Since the corner itself might not be straight, ensure that these first few boards are going in as plumb (straight up and down) as possible.
Step 3: Fasten the beadboard to the wall
To fasten the boards to the wall, Glaser recommends adding construction adhesive to the back of the beadboard then placing the wainscoting against the wall. Use a pneumatic brad nailer to fasten the boards to the wall. “Hold the tool at a slight angle while nailing to better secure beadboard to wall,” Glaser says.
Step 4: Adjust the last piece of wainscoting
As you add each piece, Glaser suggests continuously checking the plumb level. Installing the last piece of wainscoting was tricky, especially because Glaser’s brownstone is more than a century old, and the walls are far from straight. Once you get to the end of the line, you will almost certainly have to cut your last piece to fit, Glaser says. This is done by cutting the wainscoting longways with the grain. To get a decent fit, scribe your piece to the wall and cut with a jigsaw. “The corner piece will give you some leeway. There’s no need to be too crazy about achieving a perfect fit,” he says.
Step 5: Account for outlets and trim
If the wainscoting covers an existing electrical outlet or trim, pencil in the lines to know where it will go. Cut out the outlet shape before adhering beadboard to the wall. Glaser prefers to use an oscillating multi-tool, which is handy for quick and precise cuts. A hand saw, or miter saw, and chisel can work as well.
Step 6: Install the cap rail
After you have all of your pieces in place, Glaser typically measures the lengths for the cap rail and installs it with adhesive and nails. “Your cap rail should have a notch in the back to allow it to slip over the top of the beadboard to hide any imperfection,” he notes. “I would recommend butting the inside corners and mitering the outside corners.”
Step 7: Caulk the gaps
If your scribe isn’t perfect, Glaser says that you can easily smooth it out with a paintable white caulk. “Because our trim is super old and covered in layers of paint, we just really had to finesse those little pieces. It’s not gonna be perfect, but when you’re caulking, one of the biggest things I learned was that using a wet sponge helps smooth out your line,” he says.
Step 8: Paint the wainscoting project
Since the garden level doesn’t get a lot of natural light, Ament decided that an off-white tone-on-tone paint would give the right amount of contrast to make the wainscoting stand out. The couple painted the walls Benjamin Moore Simply White (OC-117), and chose Benjamin Moore Grand Teton White (OC-132) for the wainscoting.
