Interior Wall Paneling | Decorative Wood Paneling

Interior Wall Paneling | Decorative Wood Paneling

Wood paneling is the handsomest, most decorative, and most expensive finish possible for walls. Nothing is more elegant and decorative than dark oak or walnut paneling such as was used in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses of the sixteenth century. The panels were oblong, about eighteen by twenty-four inches with a three-inch stile of cross-piece. Polished with wax and topped by a heavy handsome cornice they gave indefinite service as well as a rich and luxuriant interior.

Used in conjunction with these panels were fireplaces with elaborately carved overmantels and overdoors.

French paneling is generally used in large spaces and is often of a beautiful warm walnut, elaborately carved and gilded, characteristics not found in the Tudor paneling mentioned above.

Georgian wall paneling is in simple, large panels, each being enclosed by plain moldings and the wall painted white. Such paneling makes a suitable background for the dining room and hall, for the furniture of the period when placed against it is pleasingly silhouetted - its delicate chair backs and table legs being thrown into charming relief against it. On the whole these Early English and Georgian styles are the best paneling for modern interiors. The former is especially suitable with rough plaster, tinted or painted plaster, fabric or paper above. A splendid combination for a living-room, dining-room and library is an oak wainscoting in Elizabethan paneling with a wool tapestry of English design hung above. While this treatment is expensive, both the paneling and tapestry will give years of service and the tapestry may later be used for upholstering, should one tire of it on the walls. Cotton tapestry or damask may also be used, as can a handsome wallpaper. Or again a plain paper will be used to advantage as it will give full value to the paneling itself.

If the paneling is of yellow oak remove the finish and re-stain a dark rich brown and rub with wax and oil. It is impossible to create a good interior with yellow oak as a background.

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