Use a primer-sealer and apply it on all sides, including in the tongue and groove, and do the same with one coat of paint. Allow to dry for a couple of days before installing, caulking where needed, and applying your final coat of paint. Beadboard plank will move with changes in moisture level and if you only paint it after it's installed, especially in summer, you will get small amounts of bare wood showing when it shrinks in wintertime. The primer/sealer and paint on the back side will protect it from any moisture that might get back there. Also add nailing strips above and below any electrical boxes or other interruptions; you will probably need some little square plastic thingies called receptacle extenders to bring the face of the outlet flush to the beadboard. If there's insulation in the stud bays, 1x2s set at the top, middle, and bottom of the wainscot area will smush the insulation less and therefore your maximum R-value is preserved, and a 1x2 still provides a good nailing surface. You only have to toenail it through the groove, you don't need to nail the tongue. A nail gun is a lot easier than a hammer and nails but you have to be careful not to split the side of the groove that you nail through. When you put your trim pieces on though, predrill them and use a hammer and finish nails as the trim pieces split easily, as I found to my sorrow. If you use an adhesive on the back and/or in the groove, use one that remains FLEXIBLE, because as the house shrinks and expands with the seasons it can and will literally rip the wood on the beadboard apart, causing cracks and splits. Most often it is the tongue splitting off the main board. The BANG! as the wood splits will scare the bejeezus out of you, and it invariably seemed to happen just as we were falling asleep! Stop every couple of boards to make sure you are level and plumb. Get a good long level, like a 4 foot.

Wow! Found this discussion a year after it was going on and it was very helpful! We're remodeling our kitchen now, it is small (8 X 10), I'm getting new cabs in "cinnamon spice", and a granite counter top that is a speckling of browns, tans, gold-ish colors with black specks (I have no idea what the call it). I have an exposed cement :( chimney stack that we have decided to tile over with sheets of 2 X 2 tumbled white/off white marble. I was really not sure on back splash and we were thinking tile - but I thought of bead board last night and think it will go really well if painted the "off white/pumpkin" Laura Ashley color I found.

Our farmhouse used to belong to DH's grandparents and we purchased it a couple of years ago from his aunt. The walls and ceilings in the entire house were pine beadboard which had already been painted (beadboard on walls is laid horizontally, not vertically). We have added an addition on and have tried mimicking with beadboard paneling on the walls and beadboard wallpaper on the ceilings and are happy with how it has turned out. Not sure if this is what you are asking about but here is one picture of part of the new kitchen addition: And here is another of the kitchen showing the old part of the house:

Well, you can feast your eyes on my attic; I'm thinking you might be facing something similar. I stared at these boards, which were/are painted dirty white, for nearly 20 years before I figured out what to do. Or rather, how to decide what to do. I have two rooms upstairs. One is done in narrow boards with tons of end-to-end joints hanging in the middle of nowhere, and it's bumpy and uneven and ugly as sin. There was nothing for it but to cover it up, which I've done with panelling on one wall, and in another part of the room with wallpaper. I've also started panelling the ceiling with 1/8" maple plywood but don't have a photo of that yet. My husband is not a fan of the wallpapered part, but it works for me. I plastered (oh yes I did) all the cracks, smoothed the wall as much as I could, and papered over it. Half the room so far. For the rest, I've discovered an underpaper that may spare me the plastering. First two photos here of the original look and the panelling. Pardon the mess; after 20 years there are no empty rooms, and the house is so messy I have trouble getting presentable photos! The other room, shown in the third photo, had wider boards, not so many joints, and was installed better, flatter. That, I decided I could paint. It is shown here partly done (and with only one coat on one wall); again, pardon the stuff. Yes, this is how I work my way around the room. I am nearly done the room now, and really liking it painted, much better than I expected. I REALLY hated it when it was white with the dark floor. Am also doing a hallway, in a creamsicle orange colour, and that is looking pretty good too. So one question is, is the installation of your boards nice enough to paint? I have to admit I don't recommend the papering (sounds like that's been tried!). I used a satin finish paint; the old paint was flat, and yuck. If the boards are just bad, then consider removal or covering with panelling. Or with gyproc. An unexpected pain in these rooms is the corners. How do the walls meet? Mine have huge uneven gaps and need corner moulding. It used to have a quarter round, which I hated and have replaced with a square 1x1. I also had holes that were cut in - to get into to the attic shoulder walls - and have had to devise covers for these. Another question you might want to consider is fire safety. It should be noted that gyproc will give you a bit more time than wood, I think. Ours is a small simple house and egress is comparatively straightforward. If yours is more complicated, and if grandkids are involved, you might want a better fire-rated wall material, and that would argue for removal and gyproc. I am not a fan of multiple layers on walls - had trouble even doing the 1/8 inch ply. Maybe we just have so little space I hate to lose even an inch, plus there is spacing out the moulding, and it's messy to get through. So if you are going to do drywall, I would tend toward removal of the beadboard. You could preserve it and use it instead as wainscot, perhaps. Or as fencing. Or as moulding. Or give it away. But wow, unpainted old beadboard? I bet it's nice wood if you refinish it, but I'm not sure I'd feel obligated to keep it on the walls as it is, holes and all. Wood can actually be used around a tub; it's more resilient with water than you'd think. Karin L