Who likes to have scratches and marks on their house walls from furniture or footwear? Not me! And if you’re anything like me, it would be your pet peeve too, which is not only irritating but very hard to hide or cover. Although there are a lot of different ideas to protect the walls of your house from those ugly scratches they are not as presentable. That is where win scooting comes to the rescue. What is win scooting you ask? Well, you have come to the right place.
Here you will find everything you need to know about wainscoting and how to implement it in your house. Whether you are someone who is unfamiliar with the concept of wins coating and wants to know more about it, or if you are looking for some wainscoting ideas for your house, all your questions will be answered here clearly and concisely.
Wainscoting not only protects the walls of your house from scratch caused by tables, chairs, footwear, or any other material, it has several other benefits as well. Read ahead and you will find out what wainscoting is, how it protects the walls of your house, types of wainscoting add different wainscoting ideas for your home. A lot of time and money is saved with the use of platforms like homewyse.
What Is Wainscoting And How Does It Protect The Walls?

Wainscoting is the process of wall covering which is usually used to add a protective layer of wood to the walls. Traditionally, wood was the only material used to do wainscoting in the 18th century when it started. But in today’s times, it has taken a more fashionable and designer turn in which many other materials are used to wainscot the walls. Wainscoting means adding protective wooden panels to the wall to save them from scratches mostly caused by the furniture.
Apart from protecting the walls from marks and scratches, wainscoting also adds texture and depth to the walls, making them more beautiful and elegant. It is not just a protective wall covering, but also acts as a home decor process to make the walls look more appealing and aesthetically beautiful.
Types Of Wainscoting
There are different types of wainscoting techniques based on their designs, construction process, and the taste and preferences of the homeowner. Mentioned below are the main types of wainscoting techniques which can be used to create various designs and patterns in the walls of your home as per your needs and liking. Scroll ahead and find out what are the main types of wainscoting and how you can use them to create various designs on your home walls.
Flat-panel
Flat-panel wainscoting is a very simple technique. All you need to do in this technique is to attach a thin piece of plywood or a medium-density fibreboard to the walls and then decorate the boards with thin molding or thinner strips of wood. You will have to attach the thinner panels or molding closely to the flat wooden panel to give it a more finished and sleek look.
As the name suggests, flat panels do not have any grooves, curves, or cuttings and are smooth on the front surface. The only thing that adds a little depth to this style of wainscoting is the seams between each board which acts as a protective covering.
Raised Panel
One of the oldest techniques of wainscoting, raised panels were used to enclose the homes in the early 17th century. It is a technique that was most commonly used at that time. Many colonial-style homes have this traditional type of wainscoting. So, if you are remodeling your house to a vintage style, you must consider this type of wainscoting technique to give it an overall authentic look.
Raised panel wainscoting is a more complex technique than a flat panel. The edges of each panel are sloped before adding a wooden trim to the top of the raised panels. A craftsman will be able to do the job with perfection.
Overlay Wainscoting
Overlay wainscoting is a combination of flat panel and raised panel techniques of wainscoting. To install this style of wainscoting, flat panels are attached to the wall and are decorated with additional panels later on. Different materials like molding can be used in the place of thin strips of wood to give a more attractive look to the panels.
Beadboard
The most simple and easy way of describing the beadboard style of wainscoting is that it includes extended sheets of wood panels with vertically placed cuttings.
Wainscoting Ideas For Your Home
Wainscoting the walls of your house is a great way to add a protective layer on the walls as well as a beautiful home decor idea. There are numerous designs and patterns you can create through wainscoting. The scope of decorating the interior of your house with wainscoting is very large. You can choose from hundreds of techniques, styles, designs, and colors for your house according to your tastes and preferences and the kind of style you want your house to be. Some of the most beautiful, easy, and attractive wainscoting ideas are mentioned below:
Vintage Interior Designs
Nothing speaks vintage, like traditional style wainscoting on the walls of the house. Since it is an old technique itself, it gives ample opportunities to design a vintage-style house. You can use flat panels, raised panels, or both to create a nice sleek and elegant vintage interior in your house.
Monochrome Paneling
Nothing beats a monochromatic interior look when it comes to elegance. This is one of the best wainscoting ideas to use in your house if you like a matched look. This style indicates balance, comfort, and elegance throughout the house.
Sleek Board And Batten
Using board and batten style of wainscoting is the perfect idea to add warmth and depth to the interior of your house with wooden surfaces. This is a very versatile style that looks good in almost all types of houses. It also provides a great amount of scope for transitioning wall colors throughout the house.
Neutrals For An Elegant Looking Interior
For a modern, classy and elegant house, there is nothing better than using neutral colors when it comes to wainscoting. Not only are such colors very versatile to match with other colors, but they also give a feeling of coziness and comfort to the house, making it very welcoming. Shades of colors like brown, beige, black, white, cream, and gray will work the best.
Bold Colors For A Mix Of Old And New
Even though wainscoting is an old technique of interior designing, you can give it a modern and more personalized look by using bold colors. Try to choose a color that goes well with the walls or gives a good contrast with them. Colors like red, magenta, electric blue will stand out and brighten up the house. Colors like these will give positive energy to the house while keeping the interior poppy and fun.
The Classic White
One of the most loved colors of wainscoting is white. There is something so serene, calm, and composed about it that it can never go wrong in the interior of a house. Using white wainscoting on white walls will give the walls of your house depth and design without any extra effort. This style is perfect for a minimalist house.
Mix And Match With The Walls
Using the color of your walls as the base to decide the color of wainscoting is a genius idea. This will allow you to have a creative and sleek look in your home you can either match the wainscoting with the walls or create a contrast. Colors combinations like blue-green, pink-purple, and yellow-green are some examples for reference. While on the other hand, colors like pastel yellow and magenta, red and yellow, blue and stark white are great for creating contrasts between the walls and wainscoting.
Black And White To The Rescue
There is nothing better than adding a classic black and white theme to your home. These two colors are a perfect contrast to each other and look very appealing as well. Black wainscoting on white walls will look amazing when paired in the right style.
You can also add wall doodling in black color to give the place a more authentic look. It will brighten up the mood of the room while keeping the color combination mellow and classic. Black wooden furniture will go very well with this type of interior and give an overall creative, artistic, and elegant look to the house
The Final Takeaway
Wainscoting not only covers the already existing dents and scratches on the walls of your house but also acts as wall protection to prevent such dents from happening again. All this is done in a very beautiful-looking way. This is a great idea to add some texture and depth to the walls of your home while protecting them at the same time.
Apart from the above-mentioned techniques, styles, and color combinations of wainscoting, there are plenty of ideas you can choose from. All you need to do is look around a little to find inspiration for the perfect wainscoting style and colors which will suit the interior of your house and match your taste as well. The above mentioned are some of the best and most popular wainscoting ideas for the walls of your house. So the next time you plan on remodeling your house, make sure that you consider these wainscoting ideas to include in your home interior to give it a more stylish and appealing look.