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“The history of wainscoting dates back centuries, when it was used to cover damp stone walls. Today, wainscoting creates understated yet refined wall designs,” says Bu Shukun, director of Architology.
There are many wainscoting styles, including minimalist abstract frames, contemporary sleek lines and even ornate Victorian designs. While browsing and shopping for wainscoting ideas, always be sure to match your furnishings to a suitable wainscoting style for a holistic finish.
What happens when you take wainscoting - a style that’s as ornate and traditional as the classic style and give it a fresh, modern spin?
These homes chose a pared down colour scheme, toned the antiquated aesthetics down a notch, and ended up with a space that’s easy on the eyes and timeless without losing its palace-inspired grandiose!
Here are some wainscoting you can easily do for your HDB flat in Singapore:
Moulding and mirrors add elegance, while a drop ceiling delineates the living room subtly. Dining chairs, tableware and cushion, all from Cottage Crafts.
Wainscotting Wall Mirror
With a consistent white and gold colour palette, this open concept living and dining area comes together in a unified elegance that’s absolutely striking! The space also looks significantly bigger thanks to its large wainscoting moulding mirrors, white surfaces, and natural light.
The dining hall is accented with plush banquette seating and mood lighting to recreate the ambience of an exclusive corner in a posh restaurant.
Designed to mimic a VIP table at an upscale restaurant, this dining area features darker, more sensual shades and textures. Contrasted with a contemporary dining table and chair, this space gives off an effortlessly eclectic charm as well!
Wainscotting Wall in Kitchen
Customise wainscoting kitchen cabinets and fit your sink with with antique-looking tap mixers, and voila, you get a quaint cooking space that’s evocative of country homes in Europe. For a dash of glamour, opt for a crystal chandelier to bling it up.
DIY Wainscotting Wall for bedroom
Put together by the homeowners themselves, this HDB bedroom is a toned down interpretation of the classic style. By pairing the French blue walls with the gentle curves of the bed frame, this space exudes a quiet charm that’s both soothing and inviting.
Paintings would have disrupted the serenity of the bedroom, yet a blank wall would have looked empty. The clever solution: painted frames with nothing inside to provide texture and structure.
In a rather mini and abstract interpretation of classical wainscoting, this home features a peculiar chandelier and white, empty photo frames (sans photos as the homeowners felt that a collage of images would take away the serenity of this space).
Wainscotting Wardrobe
The unexpected splash of tiffany blue against the decorative ceiling moulding mirrors the blue skies outside and brings a fresh air into the home’s interior.
Wall panelling and bedside chandeliers lend the bedroom a dose of classical character. The boudoir stays soothing to the eye in cream tones.
Wainscotting wall panel for bedroom
While many associate the classical décor style with gaudy furniture and garish colours, it can also be expressed in a variety of subdued elements and creamy tones like in this bedroom. Subtle wall paneling and a plush headboard is sometimes all you need to pay homage to the timeless style.
Also, ensure proportionate line work. The wall space should be scaled according to the size of the room – for example, use smaller wainscoting panels in an HDB flat, and larger wainscoting panels for a large bungalow's living room.
For this apartment, the designer combined an airy resort style with classical elements.
Simple Wainscotting Designs
It was legendary fashion icon Coco Chanel who said: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off .” While her tip was in reference to the amount of jewellery and accessories one has on the body, the same rule can be applied to home styling.
All too often, we see instances of a beautifully designed home being laid to waste, simply because of its horrible interior styling. Most of the time, it’s the result of an overzealous homeowner or stylist, who went overboard with playing up several big ideas and themes at the same time.
Imagine walking into a room filled with classical wainscotting, but oddly complemented by bar stools and a chinoiserie-styled console filled with way too many picture frames. Such are things nightmares are made of and, unfortunately, bad dreams turn into stark reality in the hands of a stylist who thinks more can always be, well, more.
As Coco mentioned, is to go back into the room after you are done styling it, and remove one to three items from the look. Be warned, though, because it can take several attempts before you can perfect the art of restraint. Once achieved, you can rest assured that anyone entering your domain will see your home as the reflection of the tasteful and sophisticated individual you really are.
Wainscotting is a type of wood-paneling, usually seen on traditional or classical-style homes. You can apply this accent on the entire wall, or simply the bottom half. Let's see how these interior designers did it!
Minimalist Wainscotting Wall
The trimmings, to achieve these wainscotting feature walls, are slim and minimal -- one way to update the classical look!
In this house, bottom half wainscotting wall panels for a white and grey classic European interior design look.
Wainscotting Kitchen Cabinets
The full-height, shaker-style cabinetry wraps around the odd corners of the apartment.
Vibrant Peranakan tiles and blue-hued shaker-style cabinetry come together in this bright and airy kitchen.
Wainscotting Walls for Bedroom
These wainscotting panels were customised to frame the tall tufted bed headboard.
This bedroom is anchored with a tufted bedframe, which is accompanied with the right amount of wall wainscoting, and then offset with dark draperies.
Opt for pale, gentle colours for the bedroom’s wainscotting walls so that you can put your mind to ease and lull you into a deep sleep every night.
Modern, simple, and minimal wainscotting for an elegant ivory and white bedroom in London.
Black Wainscotting
The black trimmings along the wainscotting cabinet doors create the illusion of height in this walk-in wardrobe.
We love that the interior designers used wood with distinctive and characteristic grains for these wainscotting doors.
Black wainscoting walls for a classy dining room with herringbone wooden flooring.
White Wainscotting Wall
Wainscotting walls for an all-white living room with wooden louvre windows.
In this classical European interior design-styled apartment, decorative wainscotting was white-washed for a modern look.
French style wall panels and classic wainscotting imbues a sense of grandeur and formality into this living room.
Colourful Wainscotting Wall
Although white is the most common colour for wainscotting, you can amp up a feature wall or statement sitting room with a pop of teal (or another bright colour).