Come See the Plans for My New Living Room Wainscoting!
Hi Everyone, this is a continuation of the living room wainscoting post. If you’ve read part 1, please click the link below to skip to part 2. If you’re just starting out, please continue from the beginning.
If you missed it in last night’s love note to subscribers who receive the Hot Sales, I am blessedly on my new Macbook. It’s wonderful!
Yesterday morning, Robert, my contractor, and I had a terrific meeting to discuss the mouldings. Well, the focus was on the crown moulding.
I believe the guys have the day off on Monday, but on Tuesday, bright and early, they’ll be here to rip out the 144-year-old living room wainscoting that runs throughout the living room.
WAIT, Laurel. I missed that. You’re doing what? You can’t rip out original moulding! I’m shocked that you would even entertain such an idea!
Please calm the freak down. It’s getting removed to be replaced with something a lot better.
At the risk of sounding phenomenally pretentious, just because something is old doesn’t mean it is a great design. Most of it is, but, in this case, they screwed up a little.
While the architect of my house, Samuel Dudley(!) Kelley was a prolific designer; he was no Peabody and Stearns. To quote from the fabulous anthology Back Bay Houses, Conrad Bunting said of SDK: “…these houses lack unity as a group or as single units, and their individual elements compete for the spectator’s interest.Indeed. This is evident in my place.
My Latest VideosThe Victorian coving is in good proportion; the frieze is decorated with circular rosettes. That’s all fine. However, when it comes to the door and window casing, we begin to see what Bunting was talking about.Directly underneath the rosette studded frieze is a plinth corner block with a shallow cross design. It is neither round nor square. Underneath is a fluted casing interrupted by another plinth with a carved floral design. That is the element that first catches one’s eye. Underneath that, the fluting changes its design. He should’ve stopped right there, but to finish it off, there’s a rowboat paddle stuck to the bottom.Outside my unit is the common front center hall. Here, the wainscoting is very strange, with shaped stiles reminiscent of a Swiss chalet, perhaps, and geometric carvings on the insets that have no business being there.
Please note that I am not allowed to share images of the common areas of my building. However, this is my door from 1978, and this is a small piece of the wainscoting.
Okay, Laurel, yes, the wainscoting in the hall is strange, but yours is lovely.
My photos look lovely because I only show bits of it at a time. Plus, it’s a photo.
- The gloppy paint, especially on the chair rail and baseboard, is issue number one.
- Issue number two is the height. While some may argue that the height is in proportion to the room, that, I feel is a slippery slope.
The living room wainscoting should be the same maximum height, whether the ceiling height is eight or 18 feet.
We’ll get to that in a sec.
- In addition, my new fireplace mantel is only about a 1/2″ taller than the living room wainscoting.
Yes, I knew this all along and got the fireplace mantel, anyway. I wrote about the mantel in this post last July. By the way, I did research this before purchasing. Paris has many gorgeous interiors with soaring ceilings and fireplaces about the same size as mine.
The size I got makes sense also because my firebox is only 27″ square.
- Another problem with the wainscoting is the irregular box sizes. There are a few places where the choice that was made looks odd.
- The baseboard is too high. I would love the 11″ baseboard if there were no wainscoting. However, the proportion is wrong, even for the 41″ high wainscoting.
- Oh, there will also be 36″ wainscoting in the entry and the den. Not only will it be new, it will be nearly five inches lower.
- Finally, while the mouldings need to be hunky, they are a little too hunky.
Below are the mouldings we used for our living room wainscoting in 1996
The other issue when choosing the best mouldings is ceiling heights from 9′-1″ to 13′-6″.
Therefore, I need to choose mouldings that will stand up to the grand living room and not over-power the hallways and bedroom.
Can’t you do different mouldings?
I Could downstairs, yes.
Now, for the best part of this post, and by a lot. I researched and found a fascinating article by Brent Hull in 2010 about the misused term “chair rail.”
Brent is adamant that the term “chair rail” has nothing to do with chairs or furniture of any kind. In fact, until modern times, it was not called a chairrail. It was called a dado rail or wainscot cap. And, 36″ high was not the common height. It was more like 18″ – 30″. But probably under 24″.
His post is excellent, but the comments are terrific, too.
My rendering of the bedroom wall.
Looking at my bedroom elevation, you’ll see that I drew the chair rail at about 32″-33″ high. I think this looks terrific with the nine-foot ceiling. I think I would prefer a lower than 36″ height for the downstairs entry, as well. Then, there’s the bathroom.
Breaking News Bulletin
Monday, Robert’s stone mason is coming to survey the downstairs door moving.
And we are confirmed for the operation living room wainscoting demo on Tuesday
Laurel has reserved a room at the Copley Square Hotel. lol
I got a terrific rate. After all, only a lunatic visits Boston in the middle of January. ;] The small fee is only to cover the heat and cleaning service.
So, getting back to the living room wainscoting, do we design or select mouldings first?
I think a little of each.
However, it is now several hours later. It’s a challenge to specify, design, draw, and write about it. George said I should make videos. He’s right, except never mind.
So first, let’s look at the only image I have of the naked living room where the staircase wall is.
By golly. In this rendering from 20 months ago, I got the hole pretty much where it ended up being.
I think I’m going to cry, especially after everything we’ve been through with the codes...
Did you see the finished staircase? Anyway, here you can see that my furniture looks diminutive against the 41″ high wainscoting.
But, Laurel. The living room wainscoting is in proportion to the room.
Ummm… We just went over this, but it’s fine. Brent Hull had the same issue if you read his comments. We’ve been brainwashed. However, Brent thinks the wainscoting should be no more than 32″. Given the layout, the 36″ height will be perfect.
See this image I made last year. This was wishful thinking. haha However, the new wainscoting will be about one inch lower than this.