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If your dining room or home office reminds you too much of a workplace break room, it could be time to transform it with this simple woodworking project.
At first glance, this panel design may look too complex for your average do-it-yourselfer, but it’s not. The panels are made from three horizontal 1x6 bands that run around the room, with narrower vertical boards spaced every 30 in. or so. The panels are the wall itself. Once you nail on filler pieces and trim, the project takes on a traditional wainscot panel look.
In this article, we'll show you how to plan your layout and cut, fit and finish the wood for any room in your house. We'll also show you how to make clean, tight joints using a plate joiner (Photos 5 and 6). If you haven't used this tool before, don't be intimidated. Although this tool can perform complex joinery, its only purpose here is to cut slots in two adjoining pieces to accept a glued "biscuit" that will then bond the pieces permanently. A plate joiner (also called a biscuit joiner) is a worthwhile investment ($60 to $150). You'll marvel at how simple it is to set up and operate.
To complete the project, just follow the step-by-step photos and refer to the text for tips on layout and assembly.
1. Pry off the baseboard in the room and make any
necessary wall repairs. Paint the walls.
2. Measure up the wall 31-1/2 in. and use a level or
laser level to mark a level line around the entire
room. Mark stud locations using a stud finder.
Because we planned to paint the wainscot panels rather than stain them, we decided to use moderately priced poplar. This hardwood is easy to cut, nail and sand and will cost about $450 for an average-size dining room.You can build the project from any wood you choose and then stain it to your liking, but if you stain it, be sure to hand-pick each board carefully to match the grain and tone. Also, buy long boards that will run full length from wall to wall to avoid unsightly butt joints that could shift over time and develop a crack.
3. Tack the 1x6 top rail even with the 31-1/2-in. mark.
Nail the bottom 1x6 rail parallel at 9 in. above the
floor. Then mark the best positions for the vertical stiles.
4. Rip the stiles to width, then cut them to length.
Position them according to your layout and mark
their centers on the rails.
5. Adjust the plate joiner to cut slots in the center
of the 3/4-in. boards. Then cut a biscuit slot in the
center of each stile at the top and bottom.
6. Cut a biscuit slot into the top and bottom rails at
each stile center location. Then pull the temporary
nails and remove the top rail.
Planning your layout
First, remove the baseboard and patch any holes. If you
plan to repaint the room, do it now, at least above the
wainscot area. You'll be able to easily touch it up after
completing the project. You'll also have to adapt your
window and door molding now to accommodate the
1-1/2-in.-thick profile that your walls will take on as you
build the panels
(click here to view Figure A). We changed out all the window
and door molding in the room. We used 3/4-in. x
4-in. boards and then nailed a Princeton stop molding
on edge (Photos 10 and 11) to the entire perimeter to
build the trim out 1-1/2 in. from the wall.
It's possible to complete this project in sections in your shop or garage and carry them in as you go, but we had some tricky hallways and corners that made it difficult to get longer sections into the room. We found it much easier to cut and assemble right in the room.
Plan the wainscot height at about 32 in. Then divide the wall into equal sections so that the panel inside the rails and stiles has a height/width ratio of about 1 to 1.6 (vertical to horizontal). This will create panels with good proportions. Lay it out with masking tape and move the tape until you're satisfied. You can vary the positions of the stiles (the vertical pieces) a couple of inches either way. However, as the panels approach a square shape or get too long (closer to a 1-to-2 ratio), you'll find that they begin to look awkward.
Here are some tips for planning the panel layouts
around doors and windows:
1. Start with the longest wall without doors or windows
and establish your panel sizes as described in Photo 3.
2. Try to have equal-size panels along the wall. It takes a
bit of head scratching, but with a little masking tape,
you can keep changing the sizes until they work.
3. Take into account electrical outlets. Don't let them fall
in the middle of stiles.
4. Keep in mind that you can leave smaller panels in the
corners, as long as they're of equal size on each end
(Photo 11). When it comes to doors and windows,
you don't have much choice but to reduce the panel
size as we did in Photos 10 – 12. To compensate for
the smaller panel size under and beside window trim,
reduce the width of rails and stiles to 2-1/2 in. to avoid
chunky-looking spots. Divide the panel under the
windows with a stile in the middle (Photo 14). The
proportion rules tend to go out the "window" here,
but the overall effect of wrapping around the window
is a custom built-in look.
7. Glue the biscuits into the lower rails. Then add glue
to the top of the biscuits and set the stiles into
place. Push tight.
8. Glue the biscuits to the tops of the stiles and
gently fit the top rail onto each glued biscuit.
Work fast before the glue begins to set.
Make simple clamps
We made our own clamps from 1x2 pine
boards with blocks glued and nailed to the
ends. The clamps are made to knock quickly to
the side and squeeze the rail and stile pieces
together (Photo 9). The friction will hold long
enough for the glue to set up.When gluing up
the assembly, you'll need to pull the nails
to free the top rail that you tacked earlier.
Once you glue the joints,
insert the nails into the
same holes in the top
rail so they're
ready to drive
as you knock
the clamps tight
(Photo 9).
9. Drive homemade friction clamps at an angle to
tighten the joints. Nail the top rail into the wall
studs as you go.
10. Fit 2-1/2-in. rails under the windows, biscuit
the ends and then nail them into place. Fit the
stiles to the window trim, then cut the biscuit slots.
11. Cut biscuit slots into the top rail and fit the rail
onto the stiles, butting it tightly to the corner
and window trim. Clamp and nail it.
12. Preassemble small rail and stile sections in tight
areas and nail or glue them into place as a unit.
Prefit and trim corner boards for a perfect fit.
13. Scrape off glue "squeeze-out" as soon as
possible. Then sand every joint with 100-grit
sandpaper once the glue is dry.
14. Nail the 1x2 filler strips to the wall near the
floor. Then nail the 1x6 baseboard to the filler
and the lower rail.
Using the biscuit joiner
We used No. 20 biscuits for joining the rails and stiles.
Set your biscuit joiner fence so it cuts exactly in the middle
of the 3/4-in.-thick boards. Take a few practice
plunges to get familiar with the tool. You'll notice that
when you cut biscuits near the corners where the side
wall prohibits the tool from cutting the middle of the
board, the slot will be off center, causing the biscuit to
protrude. If this happens (Photo 17), just let the glue
dry and chisel the exposed biscuit away. The 1/2-in.
quarter-round molding will cover the blemish.
The homemade clamps (see above) do a good job of tightening the joints, but it's important to work fast before the glue sets. Have all the slots cut and enough biscuits on hand. Have a helper spread glue while you insert the biscuits. You should clamp within about five minutes.
Special situations
There are no exact rules for working around doors and
windows except to plan ahead. Before you nail each
piece to the wall, consider where the biscuits need to go.
It may be impossible to add a biscuit once the piece is
fastened to the wall, so cut the slot before you install it.
If there are no studs to nail into, apply a bead of construction
adhesive to the backside of the assembly and
then toenail it to the drywall with your finish nailer
(1-1/2-in.-long nails only). The nails will hold the
pieces until the glue sets. You'll also notice in Photo 16
that the cap molding protrudes a bit and needs to be
rounded where it meets the window or door trim. Use a
quarter from your pocket to outline the radius on the
end of the molding, and use a belt sander or wood rasp
to shape it before nailing it into place.
15. Fit the top cap molding and nail it to the top
rails. Round the corner (Photo 16) to fit it
against the window and door casing.
16. Nail the cove molding tightly under the cap
molding. This will hide the nails that hold the
top rail.
17. Cut any exposed biscuit ends near the edges
of narrower stiles with a sharp chisel to make
way for the quarter-round trim.
18. Miter the ends of the 1/2-in. quarter-round
molding and nail it into place. Add the remaining
trim, fill the nail holes and touch up the paint.
Finishing
Whether you paint your wainscot or varnish it, you'll
need to sand it. Be sure to sand the rail and stile joints
before adding the base and moldings. A random orbital
sander works best and cuts fast. If you plan to paint the
project, you only need to sand with 100-grit sandpaper,
but if you plan to varnish it, give it another sanding with
150-grit. Once you install the moldings, be sure to ease
any sharp edges with a final sanding.
Editor's Note:
Electrical outlets can
give you fits
We designed the lower rail of the wainscot
so that it just fits under electrical receptacle
cover plates. Measure the height of your
cover plates before you start because you
may need to lower the rail to accommodate
the receptacles. Also consider shifting your
layout left or right if one of the receptacles
falls halfway onto a stile.
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