I’d like your opinions about the wainscot design for my dining room remodel.
We are doing an arts & crafts style remodel, with 5′ high painted wainscot (block panels with no coping or cove molding) in the dining room and front entry. I was planning to use 3/4″ poplar or MDF to make the panel frames, and have the walls skim coated smooth (they have orange peel texture now). I’m hiring a pro to to the taping and finishing, including the skim coating. The contractor says it’s pretty difficult to get the walls completely smooth. Will the 3/4″ reveal in wainscot panels look OK this way, or would I be better off to glue 1/4″ MDF panel inserts in the fields of the paneling (with rabbets in the frames) and not bother with skim coating the wall texture?
Replies
I'm with your contractor. Doubtful walls will be smooth and flat enough to achieve the desired finish. It'll give the appearance.....set the tone.....but it won't look authentic.
Best way is to have everything prefabbed and installed as one.
Laminating the field with 1/4" birch and applying the frames would achieve a happy medium.
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The other white meat.
If I understand you, you're building a "faux" wainscot, like those that were popular in Craftsman style houses in the 1910s and 20s. Typically, I see something like a 1x5 top rail, 1x8 baseboard, and 1/2 x 4 "stiles" running vertically between them. The 1/4" difference in thickness makes installation much easier, since you're not creating a situation where all the members have to be perfectly flush with one another.
Whether you'll be happy with the results of the skim coating is really a subjective question that only you can answer. Keep in mind, however, that the original work was always a little on the uneven side. If it's really important to you to have a nice, crisp, smooth finish, I think you'll be happier with something other than skim coating.
You could always take the 1/4" panel approach, but I think a better alternative would be to remove the existing wall surface up to the elevation of the wainscot cap and replace it with a paint grade panel product. For example, if you have 1/2" rock, rip it out up to approximately 5' above the floor, and replace it with a paint-grade 1/2" panel product. This approach with give you a nice solid substate into which to nail all your rail and stile components, and the finished product will not be springy like 1/4" panel products often are.
Note also that specialty suppliers can get 5' wide panel products, etc. However, by the time you factor in the baseboard and top rail, a standard 4'-wide sheet product often suffices.
Edited 3/29/2007 12:24 pm ET by Ragnar17
It is possible to skim coat the walls perfectly smooth. Last year the crew I'm on built a 7000+sf house. The upstairs hallway was to have 66" wainscoting, so we planned ahead and used 1/2" mdf instead of sheetrock, carefully laying out the seams to land under stiles.
The owners loved it and decided to panel their entire master bathroom, the stair hall, passways between major rooms, etc. The house was already sheetrocked so we just used yellow glue and brad nails to attach the frames to the primed sheetrock and it worked great. All the trim and the panels were spray painted on site with oil based paint.
We had a callback because of frozen pipes over the winter, and the only place we could get to them was through one of those sheetrock panels. The owner had forgotten how we had made them, and would not believe me when I told him it was sheetrock. He insisted it was wood (mdf). When the dust flew he came around.
Ask me how hard it's been to get that panel to look right again though....
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I think this is partly a matter of regional differences and skillsets. In the NE, we routinely skim walls smooth. In several other places orange peel and other textures are commonly used to cover sins. I you are in such a location, it may be hard to find a crew with the needd skills to skim smooth and the contractor is telling you right.I would probably use your second option just because the depth of 3/4" would seem too much to me unless you were using a bead or bolection on the edge, which would not be tyupical for craftsman.
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note that in the one example, it was NEW sheetrock that looked great. skimcoating over existing texture will be hard to get really nice. You could just install new sheetrock under the wainscoat.
sometimes pics so much enhance the overall reading experience.
I sure would love to see some examples of the above mentioned.
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WWPD
This is not exactly what we are discussing, but theese are raised applied frames over smooth skim plaster
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Thanks for some really good suggestions! I'll think about it for a day or so. The drywall finisher starts next Tuesday.
I recently acquired a Porter Cable drywall sander because I hate sanding drywall. I don't have the patience for it and hate the mess.
Last week I completed my first room using the sander and was amazed with the results. I used a 100 grit disk to do the rough sanding, and finished with a 220. It was the best job I had ever done, glass-smooth finish and almost no dust.
I did learn to run the sander at slow speed to avoid a lot of the dust.
100 grit at high speed can make quite a mess when you lift the head off of the wall.
Here's a somewhat typical Craftsman-era wainscot from a Rejuvenation catalog.
now its clearer.
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WWPD
IMO, it depends more on the skill of the guy doing it than the base he starts on, within reason
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We are doing an arts & crafts style remodel?
A true arts & craft style is dark stained oak raised or flat panels higher than 3 feet up the wall. But I've seen mahogany too. Painted panels or a federal look.
Best to you and yours, Chris.
Building as thou art paranoid never harmed anyone.
A true arts & craft style is dark stained oak raised or flat panels higher than 3 feet up the wall. But I've seen mahogany too. Painted panels or a federal look.
You're right in pointing out that the millwork in Craftsman (or Arts and Crafts) houses was nearly always stained darkly. Painted trim seems to have been very rare back then (maybe kitchens and baths).
But I have to disagree with you if you're suggesting that a "true" wainscot from that era has to have raised or flat panels. I've seen literally hundreds of faux wainscots in early 20th century houses that had no panels whatsoever -- just plaster between the faux stiles. Typically, I've only seen solid paneling in mansions or otherwise expensive homes of the time period.
I was pointing out Arts & crafts vs. Federal and yes from that period other styles were used that were off shoots of Victorian eclectic.Best to you and yours, Chris.
Building as thou art paranoid never harmed anyone.
I know it's not really authentic to use painted trim. I generally prefer a more authentic look, but this is a Tahoe-style arts and crafts variant anyway, and a remodel of a 20-year old ugly generic contemporary house. I'm just trying to give it at least some semblance of a style. We did not want to go too dark with stained paneling, and my wife did not want to go with a rustic cabin look either, so it's a compromise.
We will have quartersawn white oak floors and cherry cabinets, with tapered square cherry interior columns and newel post. The doors will be cherry also.
Attached is an example of the look I'm going for. I can't recall who posted it originally. Whenever I get this project done I'll post some before and after shots. We are planning to do the living room, master bath, and the entire exterior also, but for now the push is to get the kitchen back in service for my wife. We have been kitchenless since last July.
Here's a pic of a 1910s house I worked on a while back. We fixed a lot of the trim and tore out some beautiful circa 1970 aluminum sliders! The original cap detail on the wainscot was long gone; we rebuilt it with a piece of 1x3 supported by a 1-3/4" bed mold. Note also how all the cap details had been torn off by some Einstein.
Very attractive -- and what an improvement!
My house isn't that old, but it's just very plain -- obviously a spec house from a time when the price level here was MUCH lower than it is now. Bullnose drywall corners, drywall window returns (no trim except window stool), cheap masonite doors, cheap carpet, etc. No discernable style at all. The kitchen was a narrow galley with low-quality cabinets and appliances, vinyl floor.
I hope mine turns out as attractive as yours has.
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Beautiful work!
I know that painted wood of that era is not in keeping with the period but man I like that so much more then the old dark oak.
Well done
Doug
Edited 3/30/2007 10:48 pm ET by DougU
Thanks, Doug.
I'm actually very fond of the dark stained trim. However, I'm NOT fond of stripping paint whatsoever! The house in the picture had already been painted long before I came around, so we just went with it.
In a small addition on the same house, however, the client stained all the new work.