Wainscoting is normally used on only part of a wall-- anywhere from about a quarter of the way up from the floor to, say, 2/3 of the way up. Take it all the way from floor to ceiling and it becomes paneling. Paneling earned a fairly bad reputation with the cheap, veneer paneling that inexplicably became popular in basements of the 1960s and '70s. But sturdy,... [Read more...]

We recently wrote here about how wainscoting can provide a terrific contrast to wallpaper that has a very intricate design-- the idea being to put the intricate design on only about half the wall, with the relatively plain wainscoting below to keep the pattern from overwhelming the room. The same idea applies to the color of a painted wall. By putting wainscoting... [Read more...]

One of the most effective ways to use wainscoting as a decor element is as a contrast to intricately patterned wall paper. Here's a really good example of this we found on the ramblingrenovators account on Houzz.com. The wall paper is lovely, but it might have been just a little too much without the wainscoting to limit the visual impact. The result is... [Read more...]

Houzz.com is turning out to be an excellent source for design inspiration. The website is a place for home design professionals to show off their work and for anyone interested in home design or remodeling to collect ideas. You can peruse photos uploaded by designers or that other people have collected-- ideabooks as Houzz calls them. And some idea collectors... [Read more...]