Light remodeling. Wainscoting?

Question

Alright, let me try to make this question as simple as possible. I live in the home that I grew up in as a child, and, there were tennants living here for a few years before I moved in. My parents were generous in allowing them to renovate as they liked, but now that I'm here I want to pull my hair out. lol. The kitchen had brick paneling on the lower half, which they painted white, and in turn I have painted back to brick. The dining room however, had wooden panels on the lower half of the wall, including baseboards installed by my great grandfather, and chair rails. The previous tennants painted over the wood panels and chair rails (and, to boot, put the ugliest tackiest wallpaper I have ever seen on the upper half.) I don't have a ton of money to restore this room, but I would like to put it back as close as possible to the way it was. What would be the cheapest, yet still attractive way to fix the wooden panels? Is wainscoting expensive?

My fiance and I have lived here a little over one year, and I really can't look at this awful mess much longer. It is that gaudy.

Also, dimensionally, I would say it is 12'x12', roughly. Maybe a bit larger. However, there are two rather large archways and a set of french doors that take away from the actual area that needs to be altered.

Just to clarify, since I just read the first answer.. the wood is PAINTED. The wallpaper is on the upper half of the wall, and I am pretty sure it was sized so that will be easy to replace.

Answer 1

Wainscoting can be done so many ways from fine hard woods to man made panels. I expect the original was better than avg. Talk to your building center about stripping it. I like citri strip, Circa 1896 and heat guns. Stripping wall paper is tough going but a steam stripper can be rented for the job. Been a while since I did either but both are messy and LOTS of work. Throw a "Stripper' party and invite a few friends, serve some pizza. share some memories