What is wainscot wall?

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asked Apr 11, 2024 in Do it yourself by 7baller7 (1,820 points)
What is wainscot wall?

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answered Jul 15, 2024 by Gregorysharp (27,080 points)
A wainscot wall consists of a decorative wood paneling called wainscotting that is installed along the lower wall which protects the wall from scuffs.

The height of traditional wainscotting is between 36 inches to 42 inches and the chair rail goes at the top and baseboards at the bottom.

The purpose of wainscoting is to protect walls from chair or table damage, scuff marks from footwear, and other damaging elements.

Wainscoting has been installed in homes for centuries.

While a thin strip of chair rail can also do the trick, wainscoting covers much more of the wall than chair rail, so it has a secondary benefit in that it's a good way to insulate a room.

These days, wainscoting's main use is as a decorative molding that helps make a room more visually appealing.

The difference between wainscoting and paneling is that wainscoting is a type of decorative paneling.

Whereas paneling can be placed from floor to ceiling or even on the ceiling and wainscoting is typically limited to the bottom half or three-quarters of a wall.

The most common types of wainscoting installations are applied onto the drywall (so, no mess from taking sheetrock off walls).

Because of its wide appeal (from Bridgerton-inspired Regency-era homes to Park Slope brownstones), you don't need to worry about wainscoting ever looking outdated or going out of style.

The quickest and most affordable method of installing wainscoting is called the glue-and-nail method of installing wainscoting.

To do this you apply an adhesive to the wainscot panel to hold it in position so that it can be nailed to the drywall.

The panel should be nailed with a fine finishing nail or with a pneumatic pin nailer.

The rule of thumb for wainscoting is that the panels should be about one-third of the height between the floor and the ceiling (also known as the chair-rail level).

It's also important to take into account the placement of windows on your outside walls.

Bedrooms are the wrong place for wainscoting because it's a little too formal.

It's better to do one accent wall in a bedroom by painting it a different color or putting up wallpaper than to put wainscoting throughout the whole bedroom.

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