How can I hide joints between panels of Beadboard (wainscoting)?

Question

My wife bought very narrow wainscoting boards (7" wide!) with a tongue and groove system. So now 1 wall alone has 10 panels joined by the tongue and groove.

You can tell where they are joined (haven't painted yet, so don't know how it will look afterwards), but before we do paint, is there a way to make the grooves between panels stand out less? I was thinking fill with wood glue and wipe off with a towel, but my wife thinks that any visible gaps between panels will be filled by paint and be not noticeable. I'm less convinced.

Any suggestions or expertise with this sort of thing?

Thanks!

Answer 1

You need to use decorators mastic to fill the gaps. This comes in tubes for use in a mastic gun - available from all DIY stores.If you are careful it will be difficult to see the join.  I used it on the panelling we have in our porch.

Answer 2

Don't use glue. The joints will expand and contract with the seasons. If you glue them, you'll split the wood. Hindsight being 20-20, you could have/should have primed and painted the panels before installing them. But now you can go back over the joints with some painter's caulking. Don't use the cheap stuff. It will expand and contract and you can paint right over it.

Answer 3

I suggest using ordinary latex painter's caulk for this, or, if you have it, a product called Phenoseal, which is a brand of caulk. Phenoseal is more expensive, but this should not require so much as for that to be so much of a factor for this job.

As a litmus test, you can paint some primer over one of the installed boards' joints and see how well that joint is going to be filled by paint. Ordinarily, painting should be adequate, but if, either because of how the boards were milled or how they were installed, the joints are apparent after a little primer, go on to the next step, which is to caulk.

Cut a tiny hole on the end of the caulking tube and run a thin 1/8" bead down the length of the joints. Have a damp rag handy and wipe away excess and also smooth the caulk lying in the joint. If you use Phenoseal, it excels as this step as it is very creamy-smooth, more so than regular latex caulks. Wipe until the quantity of caulk is sufficient to fill the joint, but is not so much as to be apparent. Just keep wiping with the damp rag until you're satisfied with the amount on there.

Let this dry for 24 hours and then prime and paint as usual and the joints should look indistinguishable from the other beads.

FYI - seven inch wide beaded boards are actually wide! I'm more familiar with the three inch wide ones and have installed them in countless homes.