Flat panel wainscoting with craftsman trimmed doorways and windows

[mgrier]

Hi everyone, looking for some collective wisdom here.

We decided to redo the trim in our dining room and living room. The old trim was:

1. basic colonial mitered casings

2. chair rail

3. picture-frame style fake panels on the drywall

At this point I've finished casing/trimming the windows and doorways in the dining room with a traditional craftsman style. (In fact I used the WindsorOne traditional craftsman trim for it; the only thing I had to do differently than their web site shows is I made the stool using 1x3 S4SSE instead of their product since the casement windows in the room don't have any real sills on which to put the W1 product. I may regret this but it actually looks pretty decent.)

Note: I do not have a table saw or planer so I'm kind of constrained to use finished dimensional lumber.

Now I'd like to construct/install flat panel wainscoting. I was planning to use poplar, 1x8 for the base, 1x6 for the top rail, 1x4 for the stiles and 1/4" sanded plywood for the panels. All the exposed wood will be primed and painted. I was planning on using pocket screws to attack the stiles to the top rail and base and then routing out a rabbet for the panel.

The problem we just realized is that the stiles, base and top will be level with the casings. The casings have the edges eased so it won't even just be flush. Perhaps that can be fixed with wood filler?

One possibility is to get 1/2" boards so that there's some reveal but we were looking forward to the chunky look.

We could remove the casings and try to build them up thicker than 3/4" but I'm afraid that will ruin the look.

I've seen some projects where there were no stiles next to the casings. My problem there is that the panels can only butt up against the casing instead of being covered.

I'd really like to find a way to make the paneling work, if for no other reason than we damaged the drywall when removing the existing picture-frame style "panels".

Thanks,

Mike

[Freddie]

Hey there Mike,I believe you are referring to recessed panel wainscoting. One of my more recent projects was a dining room with raised panel wainscot, same thing, just subtract a step. I would not recommend using poplar as your rail and stile material, one day you'll wake up and it will be all over the place. I prefer to use mdf, very easy to work with and very stable. i like to use a 4x8 and cut my boxes out of it with a straight edge and a circle saw, this way im dealing with as little seams as possible. My rail and stile are 3/4 mdf, and the case moulding is about 1 inch . This way, there is about 1/4 inch of case proud of the panel work. As for my base, shoe, rail case and stool, i miter them at a 45 degree angle to let them die into the case. If you wanted to build out the case moulding, i would say go for it because it does look very nice. The recessed is an easy project to tackle because your common back band used has a 3/4 inch rabbet that lets it fall right into place on your panel work.

[Bob Lang]

You've put the cart before the horse, so you don't have that many options. Making the stiles and rails thinner is one way, but you'll likely have trouble finding 1/2" thick material. Butting the panels to the door casing probably won't work if you want to integrate the panels with the casing. Redoing the casing with 1" thick stuff will look appropriate, if you're painting you might be able to get away with 1/4" of something or other behind the casing, but even then you'll probably see the joint line eventually. My book "Shop Drawings for Craftsman Interiors" shows several period appropriate styles and options.

[mgrier]

Freddie: thanks for the tip! I thought that poplar was more stable than pine or fir. When I looked around I didn't see MDF with a square edge and I don't have a saw that can rip.

Bob:

Are you saying that I should have installed the paneling first? I considered that but I wasn't sure what I would do with the casing transitioning between where it's on the drywall and on the paneling. I saw references on the web that showed people just cutting the rails and panels to outline the casing/stool/apron that validated my assumption.

I can remove the casing and use it in a place where I wasn't planning on paneling. I can get 5/4 material and round over the edges with my router for everything except for the header. I assume I would just construct the header myself with my router table? I read up on routing your own trim and the general advice seemed to be that it's not a good choice unless you're really experienced with running long pieces through your router, which I'm not.

I actually ordered your book last night from Amazon before writing this post. :-)

Thanks a lot for the help!

Mike

[Freddie]

With the mdf, you just buy it in the 4x8 sheets, cutting it is a breeze after you draw and snap our lines. Really all I use to do this is a circular saw and a straight edge. They sell them at lowes and hd for 20 bucks. I dont know if it makes any major difference, but i have a diablo 60t blade on my circle saw and the cuts are clean. We hung the sheets off the back of my friends pickup bed and made our cuts that way. This way is more than effective, and you dont really need too many expensive tools to get great results. Good luck and post some pics!