HOUSE AND GARDEN 
22 
July, 
DU 
lumber. It is therefore advisable to allow for a■ %-inch finished 
panel to prevent warping and cracking, unless one can be abso¬ 
lutely positive that he is getting well-seasoned or kiln-dried 
lumber, in which case he might risk a %-inch panel worked 
from Yi -inch stock. As it is well nigh impossible to get such 
lumber, it is safer to allow for the i-inch stock. Stiles and rails 
should be J|-inch thick worked from inch stock or, better still, 
IN-inch thick, work from iA-inch stock. The latter thick¬ 
ness is especially advisable if the moldings surrounding the 
panels are bold and deep in profile. Even when well-seasoned 
wood is used, it is much more 
advisable and safer to have 
the panels laminated, that is 
to say, built up of three, five 
or seven thin layers, glued 
together with the “way” of 
the grain reversed in the ad¬ 
jacent layer. This is the only 
way to ensure against warp¬ 
ing and splitting. For the 
small Stuart paneling the 
laminated panels should be J 4 
ihch thick. For large Geor¬ 
gian panels an inch thick is 
better. 
The observations just noted 
apply particularly to paneling 
in which .the natural grain 
and colon of the wood form 
an essential part of the deco¬ 
rative calculations. Where the 
paneling is to be covered with 
paint a lighter construction 
may be used, although, on 
general principles, the more 
staunchly built work is pref¬ 
erable. This lighter construc¬ 
tion may have thin panels of 
poplar, laminated panel board 
(three or five thin layers of 
wood glued together with the 
“way” of the grain running in 
contrary directions to prevent 
warping and cracking), or 
some sort of compo board set 
within stiles and rails of pine 
or poplar. Poplar has the 
advantage of not requiring a 
preliminary coat of shellac, as does pine, to prevent the resinous 
sap from working through and staining the paint. 
Too much care cannot be expended on the quality of the 
joinery, if paneling is to be staunch and present a permanently 
satisfactory appearance, free from pulling and buckling. The 
wood must be carefully selected for quality, color, grain and 
seasoning and stiles and rails must be mortised and tenoned 
together and fastened until wooden pins. In the finishing of 
panel work our modern artisans use entirely too much sandpaper. 
The surface of the wood is sanded down to an unsympathetic 
mechanical hardness that destroys all the traces of craftsmanship. 
Sjandpaper is used to cover a multitude of sins. For instance, 
if a mitre joint of a molding does not fit very well it is sand¬ 
papered smooth and the dust pushed into the crack. That even¬ 
tually tumbles out and leaves an ugly, gaping joint. 
The further processes of “natural” finishing, fuming, staining 
and polishing, showing the grain and some sort of color may 
be all very well for getting a quick result, but none of them 
can compare with time and atmosphere. Good wood just let 
alone assumes with each additional year a greater beauty of tone 
and character—a tone and character that no application can give. 
The trouble with us is that we are too impatient for results and 
spoil natural processes by our haste. In one or two important 
public places paneling has recently been left entirely to the 
action of time and atmosphere and even within a brief period 
the result has begun to justify the course adopted. In old 
Quaker meeting houses, and in several other old buildings, the 
writer has seen woodwork of white pine that has never been 
touched with paint, polish or 
stain since it was put in place 
more than a hundred years 
ago, and nothing could sur¬ 
pass the mellow beauty of its 
rich golden brown. 
If the owner of the paneling 
cannot possess his soul in 
patience and wait for the fin¬ 
ger of Time to do its match¬ 
less work, he may use a little 
boiled linseed oil to feed the 
wood and a mixture of wax 
and turpentine to get such 
polish as he requires, but it 
seems almost a profanation 
and sacrilege and an injustice 
to the wood itself to distort 
its appearance and character 
with fillers and stains and 
chemical fumes and all sorts 
of polishes that often disguise 
the underlying qualities com¬ 
pletely. Some of the fuming 
and staining processes, of 
course, produce perfectly sa¬ 
tisfactory results and are not 
at all to be condemned, but a 
great many altogether overdo 
the matter and spoil the re¬ 
sult. So that it is necessary 
to be discriminating and cau¬ 
tious in choosing. 
An effective low wainscot 
without panels may be made 
from carefully matched ver¬ 
tical boards tongued and 
grooved or held in place by 
a sliding tongue. The joints may either be plain or marked by a 
fine beading. The top of such wainscot is finished by a cap 
molding. This wainscot may either be painted or left in its 
natural condition. 
When paint is to be used on wainscot or paneling the surface 
should be sandpapered absolutely smooth. It will always pay in 
the end to put on a number of thin coats, letting each dry thor¬ 
oughly and rubbing it down with oil and pumice before apply¬ 
ing the next, rather than one or two thick coats. In painting 
wainscot or paneling, particularly in houses of Georgian style, 
there is no reason for adhering absolutely to white. Gray and 
other colors can be used with excellent effect and have ample 
historic precedent. 
While it is not usual to consider tiles as one of the possibilities 
for covering mural surfaces in dwelling houses, particularly in 
houses of average size and moderate cost, it is worth while to 
call attention to one manner in which it is feasible to employ 
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