Wainscot for older homes

Adding wainscot to an older home can be a tricky proposition especially if the base molding and the door casings are not going to be removed. 

We are fanatical about maintaining the integrity of home interiors and a recent client asked us to add wainscot in their dining room so we came up with a solution that left window and door casing intact. 

The walls in this 1920's home are lath and plaster which is not very smooth. But rather than adding wood to the walls we had the walls skimmed smooth. This enabled us to add a wall frame and chair rail treatment that left the plaster walls original above our wainscot. As with any wall frame treatment, flawless layout and leveling using lasers, careful selection of right size details and and knowledge of proper proportions is a necessity to make wall frames look believable as wainscot. 

Here's a picture of the top rail over the smooth wall below. The final look after additional frames and paint will look like this. Check out other wall frame and wainscot examples at SpectacularTrim.com

Update: see a video of the finished project here 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThO0CzZKhZY