Why 4x10? If it's a seam/layout issue you can overcome that with carefull planning. I made all my cuts fall on one side or the other of the "bead", effectively making the cut look like a part of the bead detail. Not sure if you've considered this, but 4x10 is going to be a real PITA to lift and move around...MDF weighs a ton. Just a thought on the 4x10...why not call Nantucket BB direct and ask if they carry it. My guess is they'll probably say no, but you can then ask them if they've ever heard of it in that size. I've also got to think they've got a pretty good idea of what the competition does.

This isn't my bathroom, but it is my absolute favorite with beadboard, and the one we're going to model our master bath on if I can convince my dh: http://www.roomzaar.com/rate-my-space/Bathrooms/French-Country-Bathroom/detail.esi?oid=6619469 It's hard to tell because it's so small but they used a medium floor (travertine), a dark vanity, and a medium granite, also a soft tan on the walls. If you go to the rate my space website, I think it's actually roomzaar.com, and do a search for beadboard in bathrooms you'll find a lot of different combinations. Amanda

Personal preference, really; if you absolutely must have a hard number, try 48" or 54" but it's just as likely that neither will fit your room just right. :-) There are a lot of things you can use as a reference point for the cap rail topping the wainscot (to be obnoxious and persnickety, it's only a "chair rail" when it is in a living area and placed at a height to keep a chair from banging the wall): a windowsill, the top of the toilet, the top of a vanity backsplash, a medicine cabinet frame or window frame (1/3 of the way up a window frame or medicine cabinet frame is a very classic relationship), above or below wall outlets/switches. Tape a string up around the wall at different heights to get an idea of which one works for you. Consider, also, how your baseboard is going to work - if you are going to put the beadboard on top of a baseboard, behind it sitting on the floor, behind it but raised above the floor (use scraps of beadboard to fill the dead space behind the baseboard). This will affect your finished height. Sheer practicality and avoidance of waste is a pretty important thing to consider too, so if you can use a half or a third of a plank/sheet instead of, say, three-fifths (leaving two-fifths to waste, unless you have a use for it elsewhere), that's better. It is often more cost-effective to get the full size planks/sheets and cut them than to buy the smaller "wainscot size" ones. In my previous house's master bath, I went for 2/3 of the way up the walls, allowing us to use half-lengths of the 8' long beadboard planks to minimize waste: 48" tall beadboard on top of 5.5" baseboard (seam disguised with an inexpensive trim piece called a "base cap") and topped with 1.5" cap rail = 55"; exactly 2/3 would have been 60" but the beautiful wallpaper border that went above the wainscot brought the total up to just the tiniest tad under 61". I had originally wanted to use 1/3 up the window frame for the cap rail's reference line but the beadboard planks would have had to be about 54", which would have doubled the amount I would have needed to purchase!

Can you? I would not even with a good prime/paint job. While it technically very stable I don't think a ceiling is the proper application. Just my .02........................