HOUSE AND GARDEN 
March, 1910 
*°5 
The most expensive wainscoting of all 
is made up of vertical tongue-and- 
groove boards, selected for grain, 
without strips that might conceal 
careless joints. Lord & Hewlett, 
architects 
same size as those of an ad¬ 
joining wall, where a dif¬ 
ferent total length will 
necessitate a re-division of 
panels. 
Wainscoting of this type 
is expensive, even though 
the wood need not be one 
of the hardwoods. The 
joinery entails a lot of 
rather costly labor. Often, 
however, one can secure the 
same effect, or an equally 
satisfactory one, by utiliz¬ 
ing old doors (or new ones), 
laid upon their sides. Many 
doors have five or six panels 
of the same size, with a 
larger rail at the bottom. 
By sawing part of this off 
to make it equal in width 
to the top rail the door will 
cover the central portion 
of a wall space. Another 
similar door, sawed down, 
will perhaps be enough to piece out evenly at both ends, the joints 
being covered with a molding or flat strip, and the whole finished 
with a quarter-round molding along the floor and a cap molding 
of some sort along the top. 1 know one resourceful man whose 
mahogany wainscoting arouses the envy of all his friends. It is 
made up of magnificent old mahogany doors, picked up at the 
wrecking of an old New York mansion. One might pay ten 
times as much as he did for wainscoting without being able to 
secure that splendid age-toned wood. 
But there are much simpler forms even for the Colonial room. 
Quarter-inch strips, three inches wide, covering the joints between 
twelve-inch vertical boards, with perhaps a cross strip to make 
a row of square panels at the top, will make a very presentable 
wainscot if properly capped. Such a form may be seen in the 
middle illustration on this page. 
The cheapest of all wood wainscoting is made of ordinary 
tongue-and-groove pine sheathing, capped and 
finished with a base. Usually it is built of 
“beaded” boards, which serves to complete a 
most commonplace effect. If the sheathing 
were not beaded, and had a panel pattern of 
quarter-inch strips laid over it, the result 
might be not unpleasing, though never so 
good as wainscoting with solid panels. 
Cheaper still is the effect obtained by using 
wood strips over a textile wall covering, and 
though inexpensive, the resulting wall may be 
particularly harmonious with crafts furniture 
of oak and a solid-color paper of lighter tone 
above. 
For the summer camp or bungalow an 
effective and inexpensive scheme of treating 
the studs that are left exposed inside is to cover 
the lower portion with plaster board or compo 
board, over which may be stretched burlap, and 
upon this a panel pattern of wood strips. 
In all wainscoting it is well to carry around 
some marked line for the top boundary—the 
line of mantel-shelf or of window-sills. Some¬ 
times the wood covering is carried to the 
ceiling, but most of us, perhaps, will be satis¬ 
fied with a less ambitious treatment. 
A fairly satisfactory and cheap substitute for wainscoting is secured by 
putting wood strips over the joints of burlap or other textiles 
Carrying the wainscoting around the room at the height of the mantel 
is effective; the over-mantel paneling adds greatly 
In the dining-room at “ Fairacres,” Jenkintown, Pa., the quartered oak paneling covers 
the side walls to the ceiling. Wilson Eyre, architect 
