Once Upon A Time…

We would have just ordered pre-made tongue & groove paneling from a local lumber supplier, cut out the holes for fixtures like normal people, and been on our merry way to painting by now. But that was pre-pandemic. Turns out the random width v-groove paneling that we had sourced via Nantucket Beadboard had a 10+ week lead-time and was going to cost triple our budget for the walls. Yikes! So here’s a little behind the scenes for Week 6 of this One Room Challenge about how we’ve spent a solid week creating our own. There’s also a few other updates too including shoe shelf progress, lighting install and the first half of the bench build. We’re certainly at that point of this challenge where we panic a bit about just how much is left on the to-do list! But we’re feeling hopeful about getting it all done if we can get a little bit of luck.

Catching up? Check out the last 5 weeks of activity here:

Read all about the One Room Challenge here. Or catch up on our first four weeks of planning….

Week 1 : Introducing The Boot Room - Befores, Challenges, The Plan

Week 2 : Let’s Get Colourful - Moodboard & Renderings

Week 3: Lights & Rugs & Fabrics, Oh My! - A guide to my decision process

Week 4: Building An Upholstered Bench from Scratch

Week 5: How Much Wood Could A Woodchuck Chuck?

Onto the paneling.. Last week, I left you with our 15 pieces of 3/4” mdf having been cut down to size. We only bought 6 total 4’ x 8’ sheets and even with careful planning, had to still make some awkward cuts in the middle of walls. We will be installing this very heavy material into studs through our room as the top surface is plaster and pretty unstable for using nails. But we did need to be mindful of where our studs are in the walls (not necessarily every 16” in this 100 year old house) and also be careful around areas like the radiator where we don’t have much to screw into - so we needed solid single pieces in certain places. Additionally, we had both inside and outside corners where we were mitering joints, as well as angled walls where we needed to consider further implications.

But starting this week, we were ready to go. Stu took two days off work and the rain that was of course forecasted for both(!!) days miraculously held off for us. We’ve done this random width pattern and v-groove shape before on our kitchen end panels (which still need to be painted and installed #we’llgetthere) as well as on our laundry cupboard doors (#samestory), which is the whole reason we’re also doing it in the boot room which is visually connected to both spaces. But for those projects, we had used 3/4” plywood and it doesn’t prime and paint easily in the groove, so we didn’t feel like that was a cheaper and lighter option for a full room of paneling. However, we did already know that we used 1/4” depth groove on the router bit in order to attain a nice look that is deep enough to provide texture, but not so deep that you get a different shape or it’s too hard to paint. That said, because we were using mdf this time, we did test a couple other depths just in case. You’ll see in the picture below we tested 1/4”, 3/8” and 1/2”. The 1/4” leaves a pretty V shape plain and simple. The 3/8” leaves a V shape, but with tiny small 1/8” vertical edges at the top of the groove which from prior experience are a nightmare to paint unless you’re spraying. And then the 1/2” leaves a V plus very noticeable vertical edges, which is a much different shape than we wanting, would be a painting catastrophe, and we were also concerned that 1/4” of material leftover would weaken the mdf overall.

So we proceeded with the 1/4” depth and used the following pattern order of widths:

4 1/2”, 3 1/2”, 5 1/2”, 7 1/2”, 4 1/2”, 3 1/2”, 7 1/2”, 4 1/2”, 6”

The pattern would then repeat at the beginning as we went around the room. So while it seems completely random, there is some order to it. We did have to take a few liberties at corners, given we have 12 of them!! But overall it worked out really well and Stu only had one or two little “whoopsies” which we will need to fill once they’re on the wall.

As for the actual routing process, it’s pretty simple once you get set up and have your router bit set to the correct depth. We use long straight edge pieces of wood (very important) that are longer than the height of what you’re routing, in order to guide the router along your piece. Mark the lines where the router bit will follow according to the pattern and then just rinse and repeat times 80! It also produces quite an insane amount of toxic dust (most MDF contains formaldehyde), so make sure you are wearing proper PPE including at least an N95 mask, eye wear that covers the sides, and of course headphones to protect your ears from the noise. Stu had 15 pieces of mdf and about 80-100 lines to route out (he took it all on as being pregnant I didn’t want to be standing in the mdf duststorm), and honestly it took him two solid days to complete. It’s slow going, and given the chance to do this again, I’m honestly not sure we would. Its messy, it’s time consuming to the point of inefficiency, we killed our beautiful tomato plants because of the dust, and I’m not sure it was worth the cost savings when we include the time Stu had to take off work. For the purposes of getting it done within One Room Challenge deadlines, we’ve done it and can check it off the bucket list - but if a ready made product is available, we would certainly do that instead next time.

But it’s done! And now we’re still left with the arduous task of cutting out all of the fixture holes for the light-switches, radiator cover and our telephone box. Below is a pic of just some quick dry-fitting we were doing to see if our pieces were all correct. We’re planning to make cardboard templates this week and get the mdf cut out, so we’re all set up to install next weekend (maybe). The kids are also out of school all week and then there’s Father’s Day in the mix, so this could be a chaotic week coming up!

In other news though, I also completed my skeletal bench build with all the pieces I cut up ready last week! Pic below of the one “Argghhhhh” moment I had where one of my measurements was off, resulting in med needing to cut the back support down by 2” after I had already Kreg Jigged it together. Not ever ideal to re- Kreg Jig something, but it ended up working out just fine, thankfully. And I’m so pumped that it looks and feels like my original plan, and is nice and solid too. I even discovered (after buying new hanger bolts at the store) that the original hanger bolts in the antique legs are still 100% functional, so I can use them after all. Exciting stuff!

So this next week, I am ready to get on with the upholstering part of the build, between pool time, snacks and general toddler insanity! Incredibly nervous to get stuck into that, but hoping it goes to plan.

We also had our electrician installing the sconces! Hoorah! We did end up having to put them all on the same light-switch which was a departure from the plan, but we’ll work to fix that part at a later date.

And then while Stu clouded all his judgement with mdf dust, I got on with sanding, staining and painting all of the hundreds of pieces (not even an exaggeration!) for the shoe shelves. I was REALLY hoping I’d have finished shoe shelves to show you all this week, but unfortunately I only got about 75% done. So if I pull this all off, it really will be a true reveal of the whole room at once. Phew!!

And with that, I’ll bid you adieu for this week while I try to figure out how to balance this crazy to-do list with my highly energetic children over the next 9 days. Wish me luck!!

Love & cuddles,

Lex

And they all lived happily ever … covered in paint and stain splotches.