After bringing home all three options for the three sides of our island--plywood cut with a groove, painted mdf with a groove and actual beadboard pine panels--we went with the actual tongue and groove panels which was the most expensive option but not that much more.

To me, the plywood panels that had the grooves cut--while it was "real wood" many of the cuts had a really rough texture and that would have taken lots of time to try to sand out if it even worked. The MDF panel with the groove cuts was much smoother but my contractor pointed out that it would chip easier and the back of the bar will get bumped by legs and chairs.

The pine beadboard looks really good painted. Glad we spent a little more on that option. Good luck.

Susan

We used the panels that were approx 6-8" wide and about 4-5 feet in length (it's been a while) for our back splash and the wall of our powder room. It's been up for about 6 years and I'm very happy with it. We do get some separation/cracking near the radiator in the powder room, but to me it just adds character to our old farmhouse.

Dh thoroughly primed all sides of the boards before putting it up.

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Voice of experience -- if you use the pine, be sure to use a primer that will seal the knots or you'll get bleedthrough in a few months. I can't remember which primer you need; I think it needs to contain shellac. Second, paint or at least prime the tongues before you install it (or of course you could pre-paint the whole thing). The panels will expand and contract with the seasons, and if you don't paint the tongues you will get either lines of bare wood showing at the seams or bulges of paint later on.

We have the plywood "beadboard" sheet on a porch and I agree about the roughness of some of the grooves. I have no experience with MDF beadboard, but does it really chip? I would have thought MDF would be pretty tough, as opposed to particleboard. If we put up beadboard again I will be looking pretty hard at the MDF. There is also "real" beadboard, each piece having a tongue/groove cut in (not the 6" wide pine planks) but I don't know if they carry that at the big box stores.

Have you ever seen bead board wallpaper? I haven't seen it IRL but it looks nice in virtuality.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wallpaper

And here and here for paintable beadboard wall paper.

Cool stuff! Haven't tried it myself, but it is in my plans.

I definitely need the panels, either wood or mdf. We built the island using a combo of stock cabs from 2 different companies. The backs are different so I'll need something to cover this. If I go the wall paper route, I'll need a thin plywood AND wallpaper.

I'm leaning toward the smaller planks. It seems like these might be easier to handle and cut, rather than the large sheets, but that could just be my perception, not reality.

Thank you Zelmar for the photos. I really love how yours turned out.

zelmar, your beadboard looks just lovely...I was going to post a question quite similar about my newly remodeled kitchen....which is (gasp!) not white! (I ripped out old painted white cabinetry and I was just tired of white)....However, we did our island (which is TINY, this is a small condo kitchen) in the same finish as our cabinets and looking at it now that it is in the room, I am seriously considering putting beadboard around 3 sides and leaves the doors the existing 'cinnamon' stain that is on the rest of the cabinets....I went with a white, crackle subway tile, and now that the tile is in I'm thinking a punch of white in the middle of the room would tie better...Does this sound like a reasonable idea?

Do you have an 84 lumber near you? They carry a better quality plywood beadboard than Lowes or HD and it would be ideal to skin an island with. I have both plywood beadboard as wainscoting in a bathroom and plank solid wood tounge and groove beadboard as a backsplash. I have had some shrink swell issues with the solid wood planks but the plywood beadboard has been very stable.

Here's a mid-construction shot of our pantry beadboard backsplash.

Thanks for posting, willtv! I've seen your charming kitchen before but hadn't realized you used the MDF beadboard. Once I have a few other projects out of the way I plan to use the same thing for my backsplash, and it's nice to hear of a positive experience. What paint did you use?

Also wanted to point out the pretty cool ceramic beadboard tile that susiequesie used in her kitchen for backsplash

Here is a link that might be useful: Beadboard tile backsplash

There's another alternative. Bead Board made of PVC. Nigh indestructable. White. Paintable. We used it for the inside wainscotting of a screened in porch this summer. It's perfect for applications where there might be moisture. We found it in stock at Home Depot. Veranda is the brand name. FWIW -- Amy

MDF. We used real wood in our powder room and it looks terrible from all the separating at the seams. We used MDF for the kitchen backsplash (except behind the stove and sink) and it looks great. We're going to rip out the beadboard in the powder room and put up MDF.

How did you cut the beadboard? Especially eight-foot planks? Outside with a circular saw and a fence? Table saw? Two-person job? All the websites say this is an easy job and can be done in a weekend... but not so sure if you don't have a table saw and would be doing this by yourself. Any tips for cutting/ripping it would be appreciated.

We ended up using Evertrue MDF planks from Lowes. The I believe they were 36" tall with the matching baseboard and chair rail. These were really easy to install with construction adhesive and a brad (? or maybe pin) nailer. It's been a year since we did this project, so I'm going by memory. I think my husband had to cut off a couple of inches from the length to get them to fit the height of the island. He used a sliding compound miter saw for this job.