Top Decors

A welcoming room begins with well-dressed walls. Consider these 10 stylish statements you can make with millwork.

Get a Custom Look
Standard boards used as millwork let you create a custom look personalized to your design style. Choose a simple pattern like this for a relatively easy project with big impact.

Mix and Match
For one-of-a-kind interest, pair triple-depth paneled wainscoting with walls painted with chalkboard paint for a charming bistro mood. A molding ledge along the bottom edge even holds chalk and an eraser.

Headboard Savvy
Although millwork often dresses entire rooms for architectural effect, it can make an equally stunning impact with a single strategic placement. Raised panels framed by molding create an impressive built-in headboard, for instance.

Eye-Catching Elegance
Applying narrow strips of molding to suggest panels is a popular treatment known as picture framing. Frame sizes may vary to emphasize small spaces above doors and windows and large expanses for artwork. The key to eye-pleasing design is to keep the spacing between frames uniform and edges aligned.

Chic Paneling
Chunky boards applied horizontally around a room offer a creative, contemporary effect. Apply the same concept using beaded board for old-fashioned country charm.

Indoor Garden
For a wainscoting that blossoms with garden appeal, simply overlap square-edge, flat boards in a latticework pattern.

Classic Look
Wainscoting is called such because it covers only part of the wall. High wainscoting extends roughly two-thirds up the wall and is often finished with plate rail molding that features a groove to secure pictures or plates on display.

Instant Art
Tall, flat-panel wainscoting is a cornerstone of the Arts and Crafts style.

Make a Statement
Popular in the formal living and dining rooms of traditional homes, raised panels make a dramatic statement when they continue up the staircase wall.

Classic Entrance
Beaded-board paneling is a favorite in classic cottage style. Commonly applied as wainscoting, it has a clean, crisp effect when hung floor to ceiling in mudrooms and recreational spaces.