Wainscoting serves practical and ornamental functions
Wainscoting didn’t begin as the ornamental accent it’s thought of right now. Initially, wainscoting was a practical characteristic that helped insulate inside partitions and shield them from put on and tear.
As we speak, wainscoting is primarily thought of an ornamental end that elevates the design of a room.
“Wainscoting looks beautiful and makes a big statement in a relatively affordable way, especially when it’s brushed with durable, high-gloss paint,” Moody says. “It’ll add texture and color to the wall while serving a very practical purpose of making it easy to wipe down.”
Wainscoting is available in a variety of types and supplies
Wainscoting is out there in numerous types, together with heavy moldings harking back to 18th century England and comfortable nation beadboard.
“Wainscoting hasn’t lost its appeal, although the styles are changing. In the eighties and nineties, wainscoting was more ornate, but these days homeowners are selecting simpler options, like the Craftsman-style trend,” explains high actual property agent Melanie Cameron, who works with 74% extra single-family houses than the common agent in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Wainscoting, by right now’s definition, will be made out of just about any materials, together with wooden, plastic, and wallpaper. Right here is an summary of the most well-liked supplies:
Stable wooden
Conventional wainscoting is manufactured from wooden. Stable wooden is good if you need a stained wooden look because it affords lovely, pure grain that can shine via most stain colours.
Stable wooden wainscoting is the most costly choice. Nevertheless, many firms promote paneling that has a stable wooden veneer utilized to a manufactured wooden panel. Whereas not true stable wooden, these panels provide the actual wooden take a look at a decrease price.
Should you’re dedicated to wainscoting that’s stable wooden all through, the best choice is to order instantly from a small provide firm.
MDF
MDF stands for medium-density fiberboard, which consists of wooden shavings and sawdust pressed tightly along with resin and wax to type a sheet. MDF is cheap as a result of it’s produced from lumberyard byproducts.
Other than the worth, one other plus with MDF is that it’s comparatively simple to chop and carve into any wainscoting fashion you need. The draw back is that MDF is softer and extra prone to gouges and water harm until correctly handled with sturdy paint.
Plastic
PVC, vinyl, and polyurethane wainscoting are all primarily plastic panels molded to imitate the look of painted wooden wainscoting. You possibly can mould plastic wainscoting to imitate virtually any materials, together with stonework, beadboard, brick, marble, and geometric shapes.
Simulated with trim
Generally known as panel molding, this wainscoting look is achieved by making use of a minimal quantity of molded trim in a sample that mimics paneling. Some suppliers even provide trim-only kits as a extra reasonably priced choice.
Whereas this can be a inexpensive choice than stable paneling, it’s a way more exact and painstaking course of to connect dozens of items of trim than it’s to easily nail a stable panel into place.
Wallpaper
Wallpaper isn’t historically thought of as wainscoting, even when it’s solely utilized to the decrease half of the wall and separated from the higher half by a chair railing.
Nevertheless, current improvements in raised wallpaper mimic the look of wooden paneling for a fraction of the worth.
“We offer custom-made wainscoting effect wallpapers, which is a lot easier to do than making your own wainscoting,” says Amy Hillary from Wallsauce. “All our paneling wallpaper is custom made, so you can easily order it so that it only goes halfway up the wall like traditional wainscoting. Our wallpaper is made to measure and supplied in panels for easy installation.”
