To Wainscot or Not to Wainscot

I was hoping to get back into town early enough yesterday to get a start on house tour pics but not so much, so maybe next weekend.

One of the tasks during the master bathroom update was to re-paint the trim and door.  The previous paint had yellowed beyond belief and it was u-u-u-ug-ly!  I chose SW’s “Westhighland White”, light and fresh but not full white.  After painting the bathroom, I needed to continue into our bedroom where the trim was also yellowed and contrasted with the white quarter-round installed with the floors, oh, two years ago now :)  Here is what our room looks like currently.  There is a sort of clean, coastal, neutral palette going on but I plan to punch it up in the near future with more modern-ish accessories, like bronze stuff, maybe another fig tree, and bolder pieces on the wall (I already have my eye on this mirror for over the dresser) as well as new decor for the nightstands and dresser.  A rug would help, I know, but we have a feline with a naughty history that I don’t trust still.

I have had the paint and supplies out for weeks and even started taping off the room (which you can see in some of the pics) but had an epiphany this weekend, at about 11pm on Saturday, as per usual.  Wainscoting!  Even though the room has come a loooong way (later post), I have been wanting to work on bringing a little more character and modernness into it.  So aside from future accessory tweaks, I think wainscoting will bring alot of class and structure to the room, and shouldn’t be difficult since it’s just a square, not too many turns and odd walls.  I heart wainscoting…and board and batten…and moulding…and coffered ceilings…millwork of any kind really.  I love how it can completely change a room from builder-boring to unique, tailored, and pseudo-custom.  These are what my house dreams are made of, almost all of the dream spaces on my Pinterest have some sort of trim work or paneling.  Someday.  Someday millwork, someday.

Sorry, back to the room, so I am dead-set on installing wainscoting like, stat!, but there are so many forms of wainscoting to consider and not all of them will work in here IMO due to 1) our heavily textured walls and 2) our soon-to-be-semi-contemporaryish master bath:

Here are some pros and cons of styles I am considering:

1.  Board and batten up most of the wall

From The Nester

I feel this look is too traditional to flow with the master bath plus I would have to panel the whole thing to cover up the texture (I think it will look cheap to paint the wall white as a faux-board and batten since it is so textured, I feel it needs to be smooth below).  And it would probably stop right where the top of our headboard is which also looks weird I think.

2.  Regular height board and batten

From Country Girl Home

Again though, too traditional I think?

3.  Beadboard

From House & Home

I love me some beadboard but here I think it reads too farmhouse-y.

4.  Horizontal

From House*Tweaking

I really like this one and I am still trying to picture this in the room, not sure if it would read coastal for us, which I like, but I’m trying to get away from the room being too coastal.

5.  Traditional Frames

From Centsational Girl

This is the ‘ol classic.  It is the most universal as far as re-sale goes but is a little more work in planning out and making the frames.  It’ll look pretty dang classy in there though.

I am torn between #4 and #5 right now, completely 50/50.  I am super excited about how it’s going to look in the room and am biting at the bit to delve into another semi-quick project but don’t want to question it in the end.  So I need help! Let me know what your thoughts are on which style would look best in our space, or other suggestions for the space in general, or if you think it wouldn’t look good at all and to leave it.