29: Beadboard

Beadboard comes in 4' x 8' panels and is relatively inexpensive (as well as easy to install). My original idea was to cover the walls of the first floor with wide horizontal planks of wood that would then be painted. I wanted some architectural texture in the rooms, and I was very leery of using too much Sheetrock. Oak Tree Homes was open to the idea of wood planks but warned me that the wood would expand and contract depending on humidity, heat and cold throughout the year. They were concerned that the resulting ever-changing gaps would drive me crazy. Then when we began to take a scalpel to big ticket items in the budget, I quickly came up with an alternative approach.

I simply took the texture that I had originally planned for the walls to the ceiling and switched from what would have been a labor intensive installation on the walls to easily installed beadboard panels for the ceiling of the living room, dining room and kitchen on the first floor.