I Brought Vintage Charm Back to My Bathroom—and Spent Less Than $50

Published on January 21, 2026

When I first toured my house, I loved almost everything about it. One thing I loved most, but needed some work on, was the bathroom. It has the original 1917 tile and a cast iron tub, but the rest was given a landlord special with "modern" touches. Luckily, I looked past the cheap hardware and saw the potential this blank slate had. I knew I wanted to fix it up to bring some more historic charm back into the space.

Any good renovation, especially a restoration, begins with research—I researched what bathrooms looked like during the time period when my house was built, as well as the historically appropriate materials, colors, and finishes. During my search, I kept coming back to beadboard: thin pieces of wood secured to the wall vertically with a raised bead in between each board (which hides the nails needed to hang the boards). It was commonly used in hard-working spaces like bathrooms and kitchens from the 1800s through the 1920s because it served as a protective barrier for plaster and helped reduce overall moisture.

Here's how I brought the beadboard look to life in my early 1900s bathroom.

Getting the Look

Initially, I wanted to use prefab beadboard panels, but because of how expensive these would be and my lack of construction skills, I wanted to find something that would give me the same look as beadboard, but would be easier (and cheaper) to install. Luckily, I discovered paintable beadboard wallpaper from the Better Homes & Gardens collection at Walmart, which ended up being the perfect solution to both of my problems. It looks and feels like beadboard (it's textured to look and feel like the real thing), but it's wallpaper. It's a great price, too—less than $50 for two rolls, which was more than enough to cover my bathroom.

Beadboard Paintable Expanded Vinyl Wallpaper

How I Installed the Wallpaper

The wallpaper is prepasted, meaning all you need to install it is water. With a spray bottle, spray the panel with water to activate the paste then apply to the wall as you would with any wallpaper, gently smoothing out the air bubbles as you go, and trim where needed. I found this wallpaper super easy to cut—it was durable yet thin, making it easy to get around outlet covers and get a clean edge along my tile baseboards. And because the wallpaper is composed of vertical lines, it was easy to match up the panels and keep everything aligned. I decided to wallpaper two-thirds of the way up my walls and covered the top third with some leftover wallpaper.

Making It My Own

After installation, I let the beadboard-esque wallpaper dry overnight and then painted it Savannah Shade by Benjamin Moore. Painting the wallpaper was super easy and the paint rolled right on with a standard roller brush. Since the wallpaper is textured to look and feel like beadboard, I used a paint brush to fill in any gaps the roller couldn't reach. The finished result is an earthy green wallpaper that looks and feels just a "real" beadboard might. I'm so glad I went this route instead of trying to install prefab panels. Not only was it cheaper and easier to do, but it's also smoother on my walls, and I didn't have to get a whole bunch of extra tools and supplies.