So… The entry. As of today, it’s the only room of the house that’s basically finished. If it were socially acceptable, we’d invite people in and just sit them down on the floor of the entry, feed and entertain them there, and send them home. “What?!? You want to see more of the house? That’s awfully presumptuous of you, really. I think we ought to call it a night. Thanks for visiting our entry.”
The layout: L-shaped, which makes for a private, intimate space when you walk in, as you have to turn a corner before you enter. We also lowered the ceilings here, which goes against all instinct but it adds to the intimacy and makes the raised ceilings that much more dramatic when you enter the rest of the house.
The wainscoting, window & door trim: … was tricky. G built it all, but ran into some issues where the wainscoting met the windows and doors. 
We found a trim style we liked from Fine Homebuilding* (sub. req.), which we are repeating through the rest of the main floor, only in stained quarter sawn oak.
The trim needed to be thicker (or “proud”) of the wainscoting, and since the wood was all the same thickness, he added 1/8’’ strips around the window and doors. (G bought the Gary M. Katz DVD “Paneling & Wainscoting” to help with the details – want a used copy? Email us. SOLD) Next – he framed the rails and stiles of the wainscoting and routed out the 
backs for the panels. We used sanded plywood for the panels but UGH we would not do this again as the finished panels are way too rough. Then we snapped chalk lines for the height, G added the baseboard, the caps, and we painted it all with Benjamin Moore Impervo (because it can withstand repeated scrubbing and washing). Voila – there you have it.
*Seriousness Time: If you’re a DIY-er, do yourself a favor and subscribe to Fine Homebuilding’s online membership. You get access to PDFs of everything they’ve ever written. Tips, tricks, the whole bag. I know I’m a step away from “Set It and Forget It!” informercial territory here. But seriously. Do it.
Entry Wall Paint: Benjamin Moore in Woodstock Tan
Tile: Motawi songbird tile – an anniversary gift from friends J and L.
The sconces: Cannot. Stand. Them. Bought ‘em on clearance just as placeholders. I think they were like $14. Finding beautiful Craftsman glass sconces at a reasonable price is tough, so these will have to do. If you see any (maybe square glass shades? I’d love mica but it’s way out of the budget) let me know. So I guess this room really isn’t done, after all…
***COMING ATTRACTIONS***: As I write this, G is hard at work on our next Mr. Wayne Scott invitation: wainscoting in the living room. We learned our paneling lesson here, and are doing quarter sawn oak, which will be stained mahogany. Look for a post coming soon to an isitahouseyet blog near you.
Seriously, seriously gorgeous. I love it!
Thanks! It’s so nice to finally have a room done(ish).
This is gorgeous! We were just thinking about doing a room in this style. How did you calculate out the size of the panels in-between the rails/stiles? I was thinking about it and since each of my walls is a different length, I thought it would be a task and a half to make it all the same. But maybe there’s a trick to it?
Hi Derek – We had the same situation. It’s pretty much unavoidable. Each wall will have different widths, but they’ll be close enough that you won’t notice. Check out Gary Katz’s formula/calculator on his site. He is the master.
This is GORGEOUS!! The wife wants this in our dining room…seems like a lot of work but worth it.
Thanks for sharing,
Chris
This looks amazing. I think I am less scared of it now. I want this in the basement. Guess we’ll just get going and see how it turns out.
This looks fantastic! I am in the process of something similar and I am wondering if you could tell me how what size material you used for your rails and stiles?
Hello! Our stiles are 4 inches, and both rails are 5 1/2. However, only 4 1/2 inches of the bottom rail technically shows, since an inch is covered by the bottom base board. In total, the bottom is 12 inches from the ground.
Hello,
Great looking work! What were the materials you used for this project? Most importantly was the stiles and rails pre primed wood or mdf?
Thankfully yours Chris
Hi Chris – Thanks. We didn’t use the highest quality stuff (to keep the cost down). We bought pre-primed figer-jointed pine for the stiles and rails.
For the panels, we used 1/4” plywood (from Home Depot) – if we could do it over, we would have done MDF for the panels, because the plywood needed a lot of sanding, and the ply-layers are so thin, we almost sanded through it. We could have just painted a ton of layers of primer on it, and then sanded down the primer, but MDF would have just been easier.
My name’s Wayne Scott, and, you guessed it, I install wainscot.