Wainscoting & Accent Walls on San Juan Island

Board-and-batten in a mudroom takes a beating. Drywall doesn't.

Licensed & bonded
WA L&I #SANJUJI741OT
Insured
Locally owned in Friday Harbor

Wainscoting started as a practical thing: wood on the lower part of the wall where chairs, boots, and dogs would otherwise wreck the plaster. It's still the best answer for mudrooms, entries, hallways, and the lower walls of rentals, and it happens to look right in island houses.

I install beadboard, board-and-batten, raised-panel style, shiplap, and full-height accent walls. The carpentry is in the details: finding the studs so it's fastened into framing, scribing to floors and walls that aren't straight, working around outlets and windows, and getting the cap rail level across a room that isn't.

Material choice matters in a damp island house. MDF is smooth and cheap but swells if it gets wet, so it's fine for a dining room and wrong for a bathroom or mudroom. There I use primed pine, PVC, or real beadboard, depending on the room and the budget.

Everything gets caulked, filled, and painted to finish, or left ready for you to paint if you'd rather.

Close-up of painted wood boards with crisp shadow lines

What’s included

Layout so panels and battens land evenly on each wall
Fastening into framing, not just drywall
Scribing to uneven floors and walls
Cap rail and baseboard
Cutting around windows, doors, and outlets
Material chosen for the room, MDF where dry and PVC or pine where wet
Caulk, fill, and paint

What it costs

Quoted by the job after measuring. Smaller pieces run on the standard $250 minimum visit, which covers up to two hours, then $85/hour in quarter-hour increments. Materials at cost plus pickup. Washington sales tax applies to the total. Full rate card.

Full rate card