I might be very biased when it comes to wood, but currently, I’m in a phase where wood can basically do no wrong in my mind. Wood floors? Always amazing. Wood furniture, wood accessories, wood grain on anything? I’m all for it. Needless to say, I think covering an entire wall with dark, beautiful panels of wood is a brilliant idea, and I applaud Seth and Desiree — not only for coming up with the concept, but also for executing it so well. The installation seems fairly straightforward, and best of all, the whole wall can be removed in one piece, leaving minimal marks and making it perfect for renters. Awesome job, Seth and Desiree! — Kate
Have a Before & After you’d like to share? Shoot me an email with your images right here! (Low res, under 500k per image, please.)
Time: 4 days
Cost: $300
Basic Steps: We’re just renters for now, but since we meet with potential brides and grooms in our house (we’re wedding photographers), we still want to make our place as much “ours” as we can. Our tastes and style have evolved since painting the blue wall, and we wanted to do something a little bolder.
We painted white over the blue and started making a frame along the shape of the wall. Once that was attached, we started cutting the strips of pine molding to length (43 strips in all). When they were all cut to length, we used an electric sander to sand each strip, then we mounted the strips to the frame using 5/8″ finishing nails. Once the strips were all mounted, we rubbed on Minwax Special Walnut stain with a rag. While that was drying, we cut edge molding to length to clean up the edges and then proceeded to attach those (also rubbed the stain on the trim before attaching). The cool part is that, if/when we move out of this house, the whole entire wood unit will easily pop off in one piece, leaving only a couple dozen teeny tiny holes to fill in and touch up!
I would recommend using the shortest finishing nails you can find for attaching the horizontal slats to the frame. Since we’re renters, this was important for us because when the day comes that we move out of this house, there will be as few holes to fill as possible. Also, staining the slats once they’re already mounted on the wall will save a lot of time, but the stain will need to be rubbed on with a rag or cloth to avoid drips and runs. Using a brush will allow the stain to move downward and build up on the bottom edges of each slat and most likely start to run. Not pretty. Fortunately, we tested the technique before we did it on the real thing. — Seth & Desiree
66 Comments
Lovely!! I gotta say, the Before is very nice too (nicer than my house, lol) but I adore the paneling.
BEAUTIFUL!! It’s amazing the difference it makes!
I love it – so smart!
Love, love, love it! (Also love the iron railing)
This is an amazing makeover!
LOVE this! I never thought I would say that about a wood wall but I do!
ooohh! I didn’t think I was going to like it, but one look at the pic and I was sold! Neat idea, and if I were the landlord, I’d be asking you to leave it in place when you go!
Love the transformation! It’s a complete different feel. Love it!
splendid! love the texture and rustic tone it brings to the home without looking too stuffy like wood paneling usually tends to do.
Really a clean and pretty change!
I believe you can find wooden vent registers, the white looks a bit jarring on the dark wood to my eye.
that looks amazing! and it really makes the railing pop.
Don’t love it. I personally think the blue looks better with the white, whimsical railing. Now the railing looks out of place.
I love this! Now, I’m contemplating which wall in my home needs a paneling makeover…
Very interesting, I like it against the white.
Wow. This is absolutely breathtaking! I adore the railings.
OH my GOD. That wall just made my day. OOoooo I love it so much. :)
Rustic but also a bit of a modern feel, love it! (looking to see if there is a wall I can panel in my house…)
I love how minimal it feels.
I absolutely love this look! It looks modern and rustic at the same time – breathtaking.
it’s okay, but honestly, the lucky dumpster does it way better with ecological materials.
http://luckydumpster.blogspot.com/2009/03/sidecut-mosaic-installation.html
jessica
both are beautiful, does there have to be a winner?
grace
Hmm… are you sure the “before” and “after” tags didn’t get reversed? Taking a dated looking dark paneled wall and refreshing it into the blue would have been great.
Gee….I like the before so much better.
WOW! WOW! WOW! Everybody’s comments are so flattering! This was such a fun project and we’re so happy with our results. The blue wall simply had to go though :) Hopefully we’ll have some more projects to share before long. We’re so glad you all like it!
nice! now get a wood or at least brown hvac grille to finish it off.
Love how these wood panels have entirely changed the atmosphere of this space! I really like it!
@Jessica – That LuckyDumpster wall is definitely cool, but it’s too busy for our application. In fact, our original plan was to use old pallet slats instead of our stained pine slats but we couldn’t accumulate enough “good” pallets fast enough (we were anxious to start the project). We have some other reclaimed wood projects completed and in-progress and we’ll be launching our other blog before long that documents our DIY projects :) Thanks for the link though, it’s definitely a cool wall!
I’m all about wood! LOVE it!!
It looks nice..it is also making the wall art stand out better than before..thanks for sharing grace .. xx meenal
Oh my goodness this is so very fun!!!! Great idea!
wow, this made such a huge difference! AMAZING.
this is amazing!!! thanks for the detail recounting. i’ve been wanting a similar look at my place but felt intimidated by the potential costs but this is beautiful and affordable. thanks for sharing it.
Ooops. I forgot to say, in either application I would try to disguise the a/c grille…its not exactly a lovely accent.
Being a renter myself, I’m so happy to see other renters being creative with their rental spaces and making such drastic and awesome changes! Kudos!
love the wood wall. what do you think about painting or antiquing the white ac vent to make it blend in a bit more?
Wow, what a cool idea for a rental – I would never have guessed you could remove it. Very well done!
this is awesome! :)
Love this transformation! Adds such a great warm touch to the room.
HELL YES.
it looks fantastic!
oooh la la! Nice!
The wall looks very cool, but the railings! Oh My, they’re amazing. Love at first sight!
LOVE the new wall – makes the white walls and balastrade crisper than ever.
Thanks for sharing guys.
xox
the wood facing on the staircase is TO DIE FOR!! love it!
Love this! We have a fireplace in our new house that I’d love to cover like this! Nice work! Both walls really show the care and creativity you’ve put into your homes!
Wow, I love this!
Amazing how this one change made such a huge difference!
Love it… We did the same thing in on two walls in our living room, but went a little father by staining it in Ebony (black), making the white double garden doors on each wall pop beautifully :)
but…but the original was so much better….if the before and after were reversed, I’d be so applauding it, but now – to take down such fresh color and fun pattern and replace it with a wood wall you can find in gazillions of other homes? seriously?….
Brilliant. A tough job to get right with that banister, too.
I ADORE the wood plank covered wall idea, not wood PANELED, but using actual wood PLANKS. Gorgeous! I can’t wait to own a house where I can install one myself! Whoever said it looks dated needs to revise her design sense, this is most certainly modern and beautiful! The blue wall with weird swirl motif looked like a bad scrapbooking project.
I’ve been wanting to do that for my bedroom but with barn wood…very inspiring!!!
really love dark panelling and this is done really well. i do this though the staircase and panelling are a little awkward together but still real nice.
um… there’s a before, then an after then what is that other picture? I love your site, love what you do… just didn’t understand.
Love the wood paneling but have to agree with some of the comments – it doesn’t match the balustrades… But that’s probably the next step of the project!
looks terrific! I live in an old house with plaster walls and am wondering if I could do something like this up my staircase as well. Do you think this would work on plaster?
I liked the before better.
@Kelly – It might work on plaster. If you were to do the frame like we did (and attach the slats to the frame) you might just want to use some of those plastic anchors first. Also, maybe try one or two first before going full throttle :)
Gorgeous wall, the horizontal lines make it so modern, and that railing pops. I love the walnut stain too. The blue was nice but old news.
it’s so funny how many of you like the railing, haha! It’s the 1980′s original railing that came with the house and I don’t think the landlord is ever gonna change it. When we get our own place someday we’ll probably do a different handrail than this :)
I don’t care for the “after” look at all. The original look was so much nicer.
I agree with, “CYN”. The blue (before) picture looks better. You need to change the stair railing with those walls. It doesn’t work with that blank, dark paneled wall or any of those wood-looking walls. No “personality” now….Reminds me of the “Brady Bunch” living room…that “woody-look.”… ): Yuck. To each their own, though.
Yep. To each their own. And this one is a rental so there’s nothing I can do about the handrail. We just got the keys to our first home a couple weeks ago and we’ve already started working on it. We will do whatever we want with it. To each their own, and this will be OUR own whether you like it or not. BOOM!! :)
Interesting how people feel compelled to give their negative opinions, not being constructive at all, just “no”. I give this a yes, it’s amazing! :) I hope we see projects from your new home here.
love this! also interesting to read through all the comments, how split everyone is! personally, i feel the original blue wall with the tonal flourish looks very dated 2000s, whereas the wood/ white combo looks very fresh! great idea and execution!
Love this wall, and plan to do the same. What size pine molding strips did you use for the frame and the actual slats?
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