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I am in the midst of building a family room in our basement. The room has wainscoting all around the room. The basement stairs enter at the end of the room with a new, one step, landing at the bottom. The landing shares a wall with the family room.
My wife and I are at odds as to what should be done with the wainscoting/chair rail when it reaches the landing. I say it should step up with the landing, she says the chair rail height should stay the same as it is in the rest of the room. Being a novice wood butcher, I’m not sure who is right. Can anyone help us?
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Hi Jim,
It's more of a matter of perception and preference.
If the stairs were along the back half of the wall and the wainscotting were to follow up the stairs, then obviously, you would also bring the chair rail up the same amount as the rise of the landing.
However, in your case the landing only represents a corner of your room and it wouldn't be required to raise the wainscotting as well.
I picture your family room with wainscotting on BOTH sides of the landing and unless you want to feature the landing/stairs, I would leave it down.
Gabe
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Gabe,
Thanks for the input!
Jim
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Do a mock up of both, and try one for a day or so, then the other. It's your house, you decide! A trip to the library, or a good book store should give you a few source books with pics to pick from. Or, as I usually do, a little graph paper and an architect's rule make for nice scale drawings. Jeff...
...in the end just pick the way you like and tell the wife that's the way you remember GrandMa's house from when you were little!
*If you have some wide brown wrapping paper you can try out what either version will look like. If the wainscotting is high (as in dining-room chair high), then the same height may be the best; but, if your wainscotting is a relatively low feature (like 3'), then if you don't raise it going onto the landing it just won't look right at 2 1/2 feet tall. It's a very situation dependent decision, which I why I like to be able to visualize with a mock-up. Some other thoughts, sometimes we only bump up 1/2 the rise for a landing; that gets us enough rail height without put to much visual emphasis on the landing. You probably already know this last point: don't put a 90 vertical rise on the wainscotting or the top-rail; make it a transition, 45 degrees at the most, 30-40 would be better.
*It took me more than 10 years to learn to say: "Yah, I guess you were right, your suggestion looks better" while pointing to the one I've picked.
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Thanks Phil and Jeff for your input. I'm going to hang a paper template on the wall tonight to try to get an idea of which way looks best. I'll try to remember your tip on persuading my wife that it was her idea all along......
*HELP! Fixing old dbl hung windows with loose stile and rail, but I don't want to completely dissamble. Should I use wooden dowels drilled through the corners?? Any Suggestions?? Thanks, Mark
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Mark, first start a new discussion and describe the problem there. Jeff
*Jim - I would think that you would want a hand railing at the step and that the line of the railing might affect how you treated the wainscoat. If leaving level caused the railing to cross the top of the wainscoat at an angle, it might look better to let the wainscoat rise.
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I am in the midst of building a family room in our basement. The room has wainscoting all around the room. The basement stairs enter at the end of the room with a new, one step, landing at the bottom. The landing shares a wall with the family room.
My wife and I are at odds as to what should be done with the wainscoting/chair rail when it reaches the landing. I say it should step up with the landing, she says the chair rail height should stay the same as it is in the rest of the room. Being a novice wood butcher, I'm not sure who is right. Can anyone help us?