Painting Sheetrock to Look Like White Wainscoting

Wall Preparation

• New sheetrock walls should not need any preparation work done to them before you begin to create your wainscot wall look. They should already be smooth and white in color. Older homes with sheetrock walls may have damage that needs to be repaired first, such as holes in the wall. Repair all defects prior to beginning your wainscot decorating project for the best results.

Draw

• Determine how high up you want your wainscot wall to be from the floor and use a level or yardstick ruler to make measurement marks along the length of the wall horizontally. Use these marks to help you draw a faint line with your pencil across the wall. This will be where you add molding later.

Paint and Molds

• Before painting your wainscot wall with white interior latex paint, paint the wall above the wainscot molding with a colored interior paint. White wainscoting stands out better when the wall space above it is a wall of color. Paint the wainscoting wall section a white interior paint next. To make your sheetrock wainscoting look more authentic, add a piece of white molding between the white and colored wall. You need to also draw vertical lines down from the molding to the floor, to emulate panels, of approximately 3 inches to 6 inches in width -- and trimmed in a light white/gray color, to create depth.

Consideration

• You could hammer white equal-sized wood picture frames along the wainscot wall portion once it is painted and dry instead of painting on the wainscoting vertical lines, if you prefer to give your wainscot wall a more-realistic depth appearance. The larger the wood picture frames used, the fewer the number of frames required for the wall overall. Wainscoting can have a flat or a raised look, so either approach could work.