If you've inherited ugly cupboards when you've bought your new house, you can glue on cut up boards that are used for floorboards to make
fake wainscoting.
I'm now thinking of doing
that fake wainscoting (with painted walls and trim).
I decided since I'd always hated
the fake wainscoting in our dining room / living room, that needed to come down and we needed to put up some much more interesting wainscoting.