Now that we have all of our supplies and painted the wall and the MDF boards in the previous section How To Install MDF Paneling To Get A Beautiful Wainscoting Look Part 1: Measure, Getting Supplies and Painting we are ready to start cutting the MDF Boards to all the sizes we need on the wall.
Cutting the Wood
Before I started cutting the wood I calculated the lengths I would need:
- 3 x 96” boards for the horizontal section of one large wall
- 3 x 61.5” boards for the horizontal section of one large wall
- 11 x 8” vertical pieces
- 11 x 29.5” vertical pieces
- 6 x 18.25” horizontal pieces for the window wall
- 3 x 83.5” horizontal pieces for the other larger wall
- 3 x 36” horizontal pieces for the one small wall
I cut all these pieces while I waited for the paint to dry.
Once I finished cutting the wood I kept all my sections organized and arranged them near the walls where they would go
Placing the Boards on the Wall
Bottom Horizontal Section
I started at the bottom of the wall with the first horizontal section. I used liquid nails and applied it to the board and then placed the boards on the wall. I went through and secured the boards with a nail gun.
Large Vertical Section
Next, I moved up to the first vertical section. I placed my first 29.5” vertical piece against where the walls meet. I calculated that each vertical piece should be 27.25” apart. Therefore, I measured 27.25” to the left of my first vertical piece and marked it on the wall. Then I put liquid nails on my boards and placed it on the wall were I marked. I used a level to make sure the board was straight and then secured it with a nail gun. I did this all the way across the wall
Middle Horizontal Section
We placed the next horizontal section above the vertical pieces. Instead of laying them directly on vertical pieces we used a level to make sure that the horizontal boards were as level and as close to the tops of the vertical pieces as possible. If they didn’t touch and left gaps it was ok because we are going to fill in the gaps with wood putty.
Small vertical section
We started with the next 8” vertical section. Instead of measuring the space between each piece like we did before on the first vertical section we just used a T-square and made sure that the 8” vertical piece was in line with the first vertical piece than we applied the liquid nails and secured with nail gun all the 8” vertical pieces along the wall
Top Horizontal Section
We placed the top horizontal section above the 8” vertical pieces. Instead of laying them directly on vertical pieces we used the same technique as before and used a level to make sure that the horizontal boards were as level and as close to the tops of the vertical pieces as possible. If they didn’t touch and left gaps it was ok because we are going to fill in the gaps with wood putty.
We continued with the same steps with the other walls.
Here is how it turned out. In Part 3 How To Install MDF Paneling To Get A Beautiful Wainscoting Look: Part 3 Filling in the Gaps and Touch Ups we will fill in the gaps and do the touch up paint
Amanda's Cozy Casa 