Wallpaper Borders with Wainscoting Create Room Elegance

You can achieve elegant room décor by matching wallpaper borders with wainscoting. Simple painted walls look very plain even when using colorful paints. At one time, wainscoting was seen only in very expensive homes, but it's now used in all size of houses as a way to add a decorative touch. When the wainscoting is offset with wallpaper borders, it looks like the room was decorated by a professional interior decorator.

Before adding wallpaper borders with wainscoting, it's important to understand exactly what your decorating plan involves for the room finishing. Wainscoting is paneling that covers half the wall from mid-section to floor. It is then finished on top and bottom with decorative strips called chair rail on top and floor base molding on bottom.

Wallpaper Borders with Wainscoting

Wallpaper borders are strips of wallpaper that run horizontally on the walls. Though most people apply it where the ceiling and walls meet, you can be more creative if you want. Borders can be set below the ceiling or on top of the wainscoting for example. Some people run borders between the top of the wall and the wainscoting. Using your imagination, wallpaper borders can also be run around windows and doorframes. The wallpaper borders with wainscoting add color and depth turning a plain room into a decorated room.

Wainscoting was originally installed one hardwood board at a time. Now you can buy sheets of wainscoting that look just like individual hardwood planks. You can buy them already stained, or you can buy them unfinished and stain them yourself. Most of the unfinished panels are already sanded so all that's necessary is to apply stain and a top coat of clear sealer or varnish. Installation of the wainscoting sheets is easy, because the edges are like tongue-and-groove so all you have to do is arrange the panels so they fit flush.

Wallpaper borders come in hundreds of patterns, prints and colors. You can find elegant patterns for living and dining rooms and fun prints for kid's rooms. Some have straight edges while others have a scalloped or designer edge. Adding wallpaper borders with wainscoting is a great way to decorate almost any room in the house.

If you plan on remodeling the room yourself, installing both wallpaper borders and wainscoting is easy when you follow the advice of professionals. If you don't want to do it yourself, it's not difficult to find licensed professional installers.