# Fake panelled walls



## karen_b (Apr 16, 2020)

Hello,

This may be a really dumb question.

I've just ordered styrofoam tiles to install on the ceiling of my dining room (please see picture). And it occurred to me that it might be a nice idea to add panelled wainscotting to the walls to sort of mimic the design on the ceiling. 

The walls are gyprock.

So do you actually A) add a sheet of material (1/4" plywood, for example) to cover the lower wall; trim with chair rail; and create squares/rectangles out of moulding? Or do you B) just create the facade of a panelled wall by put up chair rail and moulding directly on top of the existing gyprock?

if you do A), what do you use for your plywood that is smooth enough for a nice finish? And how do you deal with the existing (beautiful old) baseboard?

Thank you kindly,
Karen

Please note, picture of ceiling is from the vender's site.....not my ceiling but these are the tiles I ordered.


----------



## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*I wouldn't want to make a bunch of panels .....*

I would rather get premade panels and work to those dimensions. When the need arrises, then cut and fit like when you get to an inside or outside corner. Use exiting moldings between them and build as you go to keep gaps to a minimum. Ideas here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=premade+wall+panels&client=firefox-b-1-d&channel=cus2&sxsrf=ALeKk018KovkPaIqJsDAs01Q8HmZqP_-qg:1587623328989&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=rNE3KAXOYu_92M%253A%252CW-q3Cw8H7yMNxM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQLA7KFWWbjhKUEBoypNV0mM64JKg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjzw77k9f3oAhWQVN8KHWj-AdAQ9QEwEHoECAYQHQ#imgrc=rNE3KAXOYu_92M:

https://www.wainscotingamerica.com/


----------



## Tool Agnostic (Aug 13, 2017)

My spouse chose: "B) just create the facade of a panelled wall by put up chair rail and moulding directly on top of the existing gyprock"

In our case, each individual strip was painted, then nailed directly to the wall by hand with a hammer and finish nails. After that, the nail holes were punched, filled, and sanded, then the nail holes painted.

Our walls are plaster, not gyprock. The difference does not matter.


----------



## johnedp34 (Jun 30, 2016)

Me being a cheapskate would use veneered hardboard or ply. If you want a white finish then ready made panels . Hardboard has a polished surface which should give a nice paint job. Best advice is to watch some utube videos. Kreg also have a video on homemade versions. Your pic looks as if you are perhaps in an apartment with city views so ready made and glued to wall would make little noise. I certainly would not use a hammer on a wall next to another apartment. A Wallpaper company called Rasch have a video. I will have a look.

https://www.worldofwallpaper.com/wooden door panel effect wallpaper white rasch 524444.html


johnep


----------



## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

Either way will work and probably nobody could tell the difference. When I made my wainscoting in my dinning room I went with full covering.
There are 127 separate pieces of wood. Yes, I counted them.


George


----------



## karen_b (Apr 16, 2020)

I just watched this video and thought it looked pretty easy.






But what I couldn't understand (even though he gave an "explanation"), was why the need for the 1/4" back board? If I just made the board and batten frame (excuse the misuse of the terminology); installed it on the wall (gyprock); and then trimmed it with chair rail and picture frame moulding, I would have the same amount of recess from the profile of the trim to the depth of the wall. 

So what was the point of the back board? Unless you have damaged walls perhaps.


----------



## karen_b (Apr 16, 2020)

woodnthings said:


> I would rather get premade panels and work to those dimensions. When the need arrises, then cut and fit like when you get to an inside or outside corner. Use exiting moldings between them and build as you go to keep gaps to a minimum. Ideas here:



Thanks woodnthings. I LOVED the craftsmanship and the design of this project. But I think it is way beyond my ability at this point. I just bought a second hand router off FB; but I haven't even tried it yet to see if/how it works. I've found lots of great "how to" videos out there to teach me. But I can't imagine being able to do this right away. 

Thanks for the inspiration though! :smile2:


----------



## karen_b (Apr 16, 2020)

GeorgeC said:


> Either way will work and probably nobody could tell the difference. When I made my wainscoting in my dinning room I went with full covering.
> There are 127 separate pieces of wood. Yes, I counted them.
> 
> 
> George



*GeorgeC*, I would love to see a picture of your 127 piece wainscoting! :smile2:


----------



## karen_b (Apr 16, 2020)

Tool Agnostic said:


> My spouse chose: "B) just create the facade of a panelled wall by put up chair rail and moulding directly on top of the existing gyprock"
> 
> In our case, each individual strip was painted, then nailed directly to the wall by hand with a hammer and finish nails. After that, the nail holes were punched, filled, and sanded, then the nail holes painted.
> 
> Our walls are plaster, not gyprock. The difference does not matter.


Thank you, *Tool Agnostic*, this is really helpful. And thank you for including the pictures ~ it looks great! i like how the look is still quite subtle so it doesn't look noticeably fake. Much obliged!


----------



## karen_b (Apr 16, 2020)

johnedp34 said:


> Me being a cheapskate would use veneered hardboard or ply. If you want a white finish then ready made panels . Hardboard has a polished surface which should give a nice paint job. Best advice is to watch some utube videos. Kreg also have a video on homemade versions. Your pic looks as if you are perhaps in an apartment with city views so ready made and glued to wall would make little noise. I certainly would not use a hammer on a wall next to another apartment. A Wallpaper company called Rasch have a video. I will have a look.
> 
> https://www.worldofwallpaper.com/wooden door panel effect wallpaper white rasch 524444.html
> 
> ...


Hi *johnep34*. I don't think that makes you a cheapskate ~ just thrifty. I am too! Actually the picture i included is not of my dining room. it was just the picture from the vender's site where i ordered the tiles. I live out in the middle of nowhere; so noise is not a factor. i checked out the site you linked....unbelievable how realistic the paper looks. But your idea of using veneered hardboard makes me ponder the notion of staining and making it look age appropriate for the house (not that they wouldn't have eventually painted the panelling over the past hundred years). But still, I do love the look of wood!
Thanks for your input!


----------



## _Ogre (Feb 1, 2013)

trim on walls is a little more basic than the full rail and stile wainscoting
but it also preserves your beautiful existing baseboard and saves the trouble of moving electrical boxes out

post up pics of your ceiling tiles when you get them installed


----------



## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

karen_b said:


> *GeorgeC*, I would love to see a picture of your 127 piece wainscoting! :smile2:


 It is a very simple design and also simple to construct. Just a lot of pieces to cut when you are doing a whole room.


----------



## Frost (Sep 24, 2018)

[QU
Our walls are plaster, not gyprock. The difference does not matter.[/QUOTE]

That looks really great. But I've always wondered how that application works with sheetrock walls. Plaster has lath behind it so you can nail/pin it most anywhere. With sheetrock, you can pin the horizontal trim to a few studs, but its hit or miss for the vertical pieces. Do you just add some adhesive and caulk?


----------



## evilboweivel (Nov 3, 2018)

Frost said:


> [QU
> Our walls are plaster, not gyprock. The difference does not matter.


That looks really great. But I've always wondered how that application works with sheetrock walls. Plaster has lath behind it so you can nail/pin it most anywhere. With sheetrock, you can pin the horizontal trim to a few studs, but its hit or miss for the vertical pieces. Do you just add some adhesive and caulk?[/QUOTE]

Just did this for my daughter on two walls in the dining room. used a Porter Cable biscuit cutter, size 20 , glued them in only nailed baseboard and top rail. Once glue set everything was tight. Dowels, pocket screws mortise and tenon, all would work also.


----------



## johnedp34 (Jun 30, 2016)

Noticed looks as though your table and chairs all have castors. No cups under them. Do the table castors mark the floor?
We have a wood floor and I put felt pads on the chair legs because when moved they made screeching sounds. The felt pads glide easily.
johnep


----------



## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

_Ogre said:


> trim on walls is a little more basic than the full rail and stile wainscoting
> but it also preserves your beautiful existing baseboard and saves the trouble of moving electrical boxes out
> 
> post up pics of your ceiling tiles when you get them installed



I used 1/4" ply on my walls and had no problem with electrical boxes. If you have to you can use longer screws.


George


----------



## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

Table does normally have castors under the rollers. Just had not been put back when this picture was taken.


No problem with marks from chair castors.


George


----------



## Tool Agnostic (Aug 13, 2017)

Frost said:


> That looks really great. But I've always wondered how that application works with sheetrock walls. Plaster has lath behind it so you can nail/pin it most anywhere. With sheetrock, you can pin the horizontal trim to a few studs, but its hit or miss for the vertical pieces. Do you just add some adhesive and caulk?


We did not use adhesive, just nails into the plaster, which is dry, brittle, and crumbly. If we had a problem with a nail gripping, then we would put in more nails nearby. That meant more filling and sanding.

We used caulk to fill gaps and hide mistakes, not as an adhesive.

I do not know whether the same technique would work on sheetrock. It depends on how well the nails would grip the sheetrock.


----------



## _Ogre (Feb 1, 2013)

GeorgeC said:


> I used 1/4" ply on my walls and had no problem with electrical boxes. If you have to you can use longer screws.


making it work is one thing. nec code compliant is another
with non-flammable wall finish you can have the box back 1/4" into the wall
with flammable wall finish you must have the box flush to the surface

any spark or flame in the box could easily move to the flammable wall finish
it's an easy fix using a plastic box extender










no one dies if the plumber switches the hot/cold pipes or the toilet doesn't flush


----------



## JayArr (Sep 18, 2018)

I was going to point out the electrical box question but Ogre has done it better than I would have. 

Your other option is to remove the drywall back to the studs and then put the wooden panels up, the electrical boxes will then be at the correct depth. The question is are you more comfortable with electrical or drywall.

Putting the trim directly on the drywall avoids this problem completely.


----------



## Kerrys (May 2, 2016)

_Ogre said:


> no one dies if the plumber switches the hot/cold pipes or the toilet doesn't flush


The plumber could depending on how the customer feels about it. Sorry I couldn’t resist. :vs_OMG:


----------



## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

_Ogre said:


> making it work is one thing. nec code compliant is another
> with non-flammable wall finish you can have the box back 1/4" into the wall
> with flammable wall finish you must have the box flush to the surface
> 
> ...



That seems reversed to me. I would think with the flammable wall finish you would want the box back to keep it further from the flammable material.


George


----------



## JayArr (Sep 18, 2018)

That would be fine if the outlet stayed back in the box and was recessed, but then the cover plate won't fit and it'll look weird. If you use longer screws and extend just the outlet to the edge of the new wood then outlet is out of the box and the terminals where an arc is likely to happen are now only 3/8 of an inch from a flammable material instead of inside an insulated box.


Take a look at the picture, when that happens you want the outlet safely inside the box so nothing else catches fire. The box and the cover plate are made of plastics that won't catch fire, they may melt a little but they won't flame.


----------



## karen_b (Apr 16, 2020)

GeorgeC said:


> It is a very simple design and also simple to construct. Just a lot of pieces to cut when you are doing a whole room.


GeorgeC, what created the profile on the 'picture frame'. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the interior frame of your panels does not look like a straight edge ~ it appears to be sculpted. Did you use a router or did you add profile to the interior edges? 

If you used a router, did you router them once they were put together?

Thanks, 
Karen


----------



## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

There is 1/4 round on the inside. The only molded piece is the chair rail. That was done with a Craftsman molding head cutter. All other pieces that are not a straight cut are 1/4 round. That is what runs the piece count up so much.



George


----------



## Pagrovian (Jun 18, 2020)

I found some 32”H x 48” wide MDF paneling in the back of Home Depot that has a semi raised panel design with 3 blocks in each panel. I had this installed in all the common areas, hallways and living room. You add a chair rail at the top and baseboard at the bottom. 

To make things hard on myself I wanted the design to be seamless under the windows and at the end of the walls, so the panels were cut vertically and horizontally where necessary to make complimentary blocks fit exactly under each window. The cut line was disguised by lining it up close to the block edges. 

Here are a couple pictures of the hall and window sides. They are only primed at this point and the baseboards aren’t in yet. 

I had some general carpenter guys do the work after I did some samples so they understood what I needed.


----------



## GCTony (Apr 5, 2018)

Frost said:


> [QU
> Our walls are plaster, not gyprock. The difference does not matter.


That looks really great. But I've always wondered how that application works with sheetrock walls. Plaster has lath behind it so you can nail/pin it most anywhere. With sheetrock, you can pin the horizontal trim to a few studs, but its hit or miss for the vertical pieces. Do you just add some adhesive and caulk?[/QUOTE]

We've done a lot of fake raised panels in offices with metal studs and DW. We use very few mechanical fasteners. Commercial grade hot melt glue and sometimes double sided PSA tape, the good stuff like 3M or Fastcap Speed Tape. "Beauty moldings" are glued directly to the primed drywall that's very smooth. (skimmed to level 5 finish)


----------

