HOUSE AND GARDEN 
January, 1912 
The simplest form of good paneling is employed here, capped by a 
plate shelf on brackets. The frieze above is stenciled on rough 
plaster 
A bedroom treatment in which the plaster walls are divided into 
panels with a molding that covers the edge of the wall fabric 
of the proper size in molding, will give a substitute for the far 
more expensive wood paneling that is eminently satisfactory. 
If one has the temerity to attempt designing one’s own panel¬ 
ing, there are several points to be kept in mind—traditions, they 
might be called, that will help to bring about a satisfactory result. 
One of these has to do with the width of the rail or stile. This 
member should not depart very far from the commonly accepted 
width of four inches, and it should have the same width between 
and above the panels proper, with either the same width or 
a slightly greater one at the bottom, just above the baseboard. 
Then, too, although in some of the houses built by our Colonial 
ancestors the panels themselves were of great width, it should be 
remembered that nowadays it is uncommon to find a good board 
wider than twelve inches. The panels, therefore, should be less 
than this in width rather than more if one is utilizing one of the 
(Continued on page 6) 
A rather unusual type of panel design in 
which is secured a double line around the 
rectangles 
the market under various names, made 
usually of a combination of materials, 
wood pulp included, compressed hy¬ 
draulically or otherwise into a compact, smooth-surfaced sheet 
that has most of the properties of a wood board, and which when 
properly finished is practically indistinguishable from wood. 
Wood, however, is usually used as the over-stripping because 
that material can the more readily be finished with firm smooth 
edges. 
Unless a wall surface is paneled from baseboard to ceiling, the 
eye expects the paneled portion to project the ordinary thickness 
of woodwork beyond the plastered wall. It is not entirely sat¬ 
isfactory, therefore, in a wainscoting, to apply merely stripping, 
or a molding as indicated in diagram No. 5, directly to the plaster 
wall, unless we carry the panel design all the way up. In the 
latter case an inch molding will serve to create the effect of a 
paneled wall, the wood and plaster being painted several coats, of 
white usually, together. When the paneling is to be merely a 
low wainscoting the use of composition board, finished along the 
top edge with a suitable crown molding and laid off in rectangles 
For a dining-room, particularly, no wall treatment seems so rich and appropriate as paneling, 
whether it extends entirely to the ceiling or as a wainscoting with a frieze above, as here 
