Beaded Board on the Stairs

Joe has been working on the stairway while we were gone. He installed drywall first for its fire retardant properties. We are putting beaded board over that to a) get that cottage feel, and b) avoid all the sanding it would take to finish off the drywall. The rest of the house is looking pretty good, and I know from past experience that, even if you hang plastic to try and control it, that fine dust goes everywhere. It's a little more expensive doing it this way, but I'm sure liking how it looks.

I've seen board like this in plenty of old cottages in Michigan...sometimes hung vertically and sometimes horizontally. We opted for horizontally because it is already a very tall narrow space and I'm hoping installing it this way will keep from making it seem even more narrow.