Our Dark DIYed Wainscoting Reveal

Our DIYed full-wall wainscoting is done, and on time!  As Chris and I were talking about the entire project, we were so pleasantly surprised with how fast it went.  We dedicated a couple hours to it on Monday and Tuesday night and then yesterday, I sanded and painted and it was done before Chris got home from work. Painting definitely took the longest. Although it could be because Chris was at work, or maybe it was because Greta was "helping" me.  Either way, it's done and besides loving how quick the project was--the result leaves even more to love. 

Here's where we were a week ago:  

Granted, the gallery wall was short-lived and we didn't even share it with you until after we took it down and moved the majority to the laundry room. And for a real shocker, here's how the room looked a couple months ago before we decided to embark on this revamp.

We were especially inspired by these two images I pinned months ago (sourced here and here) and were anxious to DIY a similar look in our own home.  

Ha! I can't help but think, after looking at that picture snapped in August, that we have crossed over to the dark side.  Although, I think we prefer "sophisticated."  Here's how our living room is lookin' today, donning its new wainscoting :

The room feels so much larger.  And...taller. And more sophisticated with a casual twist--which is how we like it. When it came to painting the panels, I used a small foam roller for all of the fronts and my handy Wooster shortcut brush to get in the inside edges.

Luckily (and magically) we still had enough in the gallon of paint we purchased when we painted the room to cover the wainscoting--all 2 and a half coats it took.  For reference sake, the color is from Kwal Paints and it is called Crave.  We went with a matte finish which gets bonus points for hiding wall imperfections--we especially love it because it disguises the slight orange peel texture of our walls.

I even remembered to snap a picture last night, so you could see how the paint color and new architectural detail of the wainscoting translates from day to dark. During the day, the paint color is a a deep charcoal navy with green undertones and the wainscoting gets a lot of natural light from our large window--which creates yummy (yummy? who am I!?) shadows because of it.

At night, the paint transforms into a soft black and between our lamps on the fauxdenza and our arc floor lamp, the wainscoting is well lit and the details are still very much present.  We worried about the details getting lost in all of the shadows with such a dark paint color, but maybe (we don't really have anything to compare it to) the darker paint color accentuates the wainscoting and makes for a bigger contrast?  Who knows.  Point is--it works and we have zero regrets going dark in this room.  In fact, we may just start advocating for dark paint.  Too many white walls in this world (says the girl who painted her studio white this summer)!!!

Budget wise, the project cost us $117.86.  That includes all the lumber and the bottle of liquid nails we used to adhere the boards to the wall before following up with a nail gun.  Everything else, including the nail gun, paint, spackle and caulk we had on hand.

Considering the wainscoting will double as art on this wall--we don't plan on hanging anything else on this wall--we're sayin' $117 is a pretty big bang for our buck.  Don't you think?

We aren't calling this room a wrap. But for now, there's 2 days until our party and we're happy with where the room is now compared with two months ago. And definitely happy enough to take a rest from projects and start focusing on spider webs and cake balls decorated like eyes.  

Has anyone else DIYed wainscoting in their home?  

Wanting to do something similar in your own house? You can check out how we DIYed this sucker in  part 1 here and part 2 here.