How I turned lath into flat panel wainscoting and stayed on budget

For those of you who don't know what lath is; Lath is a thin, narrow strip of wood used under roof shingles or tiles, on lath and plaster walls and ceilings and in lattice and trellis work.
You can buy lath at Menards or Home Depot for under $8 per bundle. I think I used about one bundle for my stair well and foyer. Some pieces are better than others and since lath isn't made for finish work, it requires some sanding and weeding out the unusable pieces.

You're probably wondering why I chose lath. Well, when you're living on a single income, sometimes a lot of times you have to cut corners. Anyway, that is the case in this house.  So if I want to spruce up my foyer and stairway, $8 lath is the way to go for me.

First of all I measured the stairway to figure out how high I wanted my top runner board to be. I ended up matching it with the railing on the other side which was about 20 inches from base trim to bottom of runner board. For the top runner board I used 1x4's with trim underneath to match. After cutting and installing those to fit I had to figure out the angle to cut the lath at. I'm not too particular about this but it needs to be close.  And for those of you who don't know me, caulk is my best friend when it comes to white trim. Love that stuff! It has saved me so many times:)
To figure out how to cut the correct angle I placed the lath piece on the wall, leveled it, and used a pencil to mark the angles. Then I used the chop saw to cut the lath to length by following the pencil marks. Worked out great!
I placed the lath on the wall with brad nails at every 6.5 inches to get the look I wanted. Not to worry about any small cracks showing right now. My trusty caulk will fix that later.

So I think I'm going to have to paint some of the oak... I know, I know, some of you are probably cringing but its the only way this stairway is going to look awesome. And my husband gave me permission! :)

See how there's old paint dripping under the newel post caused by the previous owner? And apparently there are 3 different stains that were used that do not match whatsoever. Those are just a few of the many reasons why I'm going to paint some of that oak.




While we're here, check out my awesome grey wall with distressed white frames. I'm loving this look!

The paint color is Sherwin Williams "Mindful Gray"

Hopefully I will be priming and painting the panels very soon.  Since I used things that I already had on hand and only had to buy part of the runner board, some trim pieces to match, and some shellac BIN primer; I was able to stay on budget at about 40 dollars for this project.

The final reveal coming soon!