Wainscoting Designs, Layouts, and Materials

Recessed flat panels have the simple, clean lines popular in Arts and Crafts and Mission styles. The basic parts list is equally spare. It starts at the floor with the baseboard, which can be a plain piece or built up with shoe and cap moldings. Next comes the bottom rail (the horizontal piece of the panel frame), followed by the stiles (vertical pieces of the frame) and panels, which slip into grooves cut into the edges of the stiles and rails. The top rail completes the panel frames, and the whole assembly is crowned with a chair or cap rail. A less labor-intensive method is to panel the wall with sheet material and apply the moldings on top of it.