ARTS & CRAFTS WAINSCOT

For many, wood paneling and related wall treatments are the neplusultra of the Arts & Crafts home. As Gustav Stickley wrote a century ago, “no other treatment of the walls gives such a sense of friendliness, mellowness, and permanence as does a generous quantity of woodwork.”

Walls in this era were often wood-paneled to chair-rail or plate-rail height. Woodwork might be golden oak or oak brown-stained to simulate old English woodwork, or stained dull black or bronze-green. (Painted softwood was also becoming popular, especially for bedrooms, with white enamel common before 1910 and stronger color gaining popularity during the ’20s.)

Board-and-batten paneling is fairly simple to install. Wide (12") planks of oak, fir, red gum, or cypress are butted together vertically; the joints are covered with narrow battens (2½"- to 4"-wide strips of wood). Topped with a molded plate rail, this installation was a straightforward means of creating the look of expensive 3-D paneling.

Variations on the board-and-batten theme include what was called “skeleton wainscot," where panels between the battens were not wood but rather covered in leather, faux leathers, embossed wall coverings including Lincrusta and Anaglypta, and the less expensive classic, burlap.

For the most part, treatments were simple and economical. One of the plainest of these, beadboard, is enjoying a comeback in all sorts of settings. Beadboard was historically considered low style, and high-style paneling was reserved for the more formal parts of the house: the dining room, parlor, or staircase.