Kim and I have recently started a new site all about remodeling and design ideas and pictures. This article was inspired by one of the images Kim found for the new blog – you can find it here: Beautiful Workspaces {Dreamy Desks}.
This photo is one of those that I could write ten posts about. Just for fun, let me point out a couple of cool ideas here before getting into the real subject matter of this post. Starting in the foreground and working back:
- Old fashioned crystal door hardware… hot!
- Using mounted accessories such as a coat hook and a thoothbrush holder on a desk… smart!
- Painting or wallpapering the inside of that desk an accent color… sexy!
- Check out that door… it’s a good old fashioned Dutch Door… proof of mad skills!
But none of that is the real thing I want to look at. Let’s take a look at the beadboard wainscot and topping molding, which could be called a picture molding, a chair rail (not so much), a cap rail, or any other make-it-up-so-you-like-the-sound name.
How High Should Beadboard Go Up A Wall?
First, there are two answers. One applys to the low version, which is much more common. That’s the one where you see wainscot go up the wall about 1/3 and be capped by a proper chair rail.
I answered that question in detail at Remodeling Guy Answers (where you’re encouraged to ask your own questions)… here is the link: https://www.remodelingguy.net/answers/?p=61
Second, is when the beadboard paneling is covering a much larger portion of the wall and only leaving a small section of smooth wall surface showing at the top. This is what’s seen in this picture. The same tool applies to both options.
The Golden Ratio
I’ll refrain from a lengthy diatribe about the Golden Ratio and all the ways it proves that life was designed by a Master Architect. If you want to believe in mindless evolution of life and the world we see, be my guest, just don’t look too hard at the science which proves otherwise.
The Golden Ratio is a naturally occuring mathematical formula that essentially dictates what looks right to most people. You can start learning about it at Wikipedia if you’re so inclined.
But if you want to know how high to run your paneling up the wall, you can use the Golden Ratio as a guide. Here are the exact numbers using the Golden Ratio Calculator:
Wall Height —- Low Wall Wainscot —- High Wall Wainscot
96″ —- 37″ —- 59″
120″ —- 46″ —- 74″
Adjust To Taste
Here’s the thing… there are no exact right answers. If you apply the Golden Ratio as a guide it can help you, but as a steadfast rule it might steer you wrong.
What if your walls are 12′ tall, should your chair rail be over 4′ high? No. It would look ridiculous. I usually won’t take a chair rail above 42″ no matter how tall the wall is.
Another example is the photo above which looks like an 8′ tall room. (I figure that based on the roof overhang visible outside) The paneling goes higher than 59″, but not by much. It looks to me that it’s about 64″ above the floor. (you can assume that the door is 80″)
Like I said, it’s a guide. I hope it’s useful for you. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how high chair rail or wainscot paneling should go. I’ve been running a survey on this monumental question for awhile now and I could use more input!
~RG
Stating that evolution is mindless rather than the fact that it’s a drawn out process over time finding the perfect efficiency leads me to think that your crazy and I won’t believe a single thing you write.
I didn’t really say evolution is mindless… I actually said “mindless evolution” and by that I meant evolution guided simply by pure coincidence and no intelligent design whatsoever… or mindless evolution.
I don’t think that concept is plausible. The odds against it are too great. Especially when we’re clearly given an alternative in the idea of being in a created world.
In any case, why bother to come to my blog and call me crazy? I can write anything I want here. It’s my website.
I’m afraid I have to agree with Ryan here. I found your website by Googling “How high should wainscoting be”, or something to that effect; I wasn’t expecting to stumble into a debate on evolution. But when you make some absurd statement like “If you want to believe in mindless evolution of life… don’t look too hard at the science which proves otherwise” then you have to expect some backlash. Evolution is not ‘guided by pure coincidence” as you say, it is shaped by natural selection. It will seem more plausible to you if you take the trouble to read about it, and not instantly dismiss it as an affront to God.
Guys…He is actually saying that science proves that it is not mindless, or purely coincidental. He agrees with you.
“If you want to believe in mindless evolution of life and the world we see, be my guest, just don’t look too hard at the science which proves otherwise” This is his segue to explain the golden ratio.- a scientific, mathematical concept found in nature and also pleasing to the eye. I don’t see anywhere that he has written evolution is guided by ‘pure coincidence’, which you have stated.
To me, this is a remodelling guy with no agenda, except to share info and maybe earn a few cents from google ads.
Thank you, Pat. I truly don’t have an agenda in this debate. I don’t really care exactly how things got to be the way they are. I don’t really care if God built the world in a literal 7 Days (24 hour days as we know them now) or if He took 7000 years or 7 million. I’m not an expert on either the science or the theology that would back a position on this point.
None of those options really change my position which is that I, Tim Layton, RemodelingGuy…. believe in God. And I think God made the world.
I find the concept that the world “just is” to be very hard for my mind to grasp. It seems to me, that somewhere at some point there had to be “nothing”. And nothing doesn’t become something without help. I can stare at a blank plot of land for a billion years and a house will not appear there unless someone builds it. And the vast diversity of the world we live in is infinitely more complex than a house.
Look at our weather systems and seasons and ecosystems. Look at the process of photosynthesis and the provision of oxygen. Look at how the human body can run on dozens of different types of fuels and adapt to them by actually changing the chemicals the organs produce.
Looking deeper we find universal commonalities like the Golden Ratio that just “appear” throughout our world in all kinds of hidden places. I can’t remember the scientific videos I’ve seen that go deeper and deeper and deeper into DNA and cells and just continue to find further levels of intricacy beyond what we thought just a few decades ago was “the basic building block of life”… we find the building blocks have building blocks with no end in sight. Or at least that’s how I remember the things I’ve seen… I’m no expert. In the context of this blog I’m a remodeling expert and nothing more.
So I have NO agenda with regard to evolution.
The whole point of the controversial sentence in my post is this: “WOW… look at this amazing fact… The Golden Ratio… that seems like a perfect little clue to the inquiring mind that there is a Designer of this world… awesome!”
But if I was an athiest, maybe I would see a different reasoning. I don’t know… that’s not my perspective. My perspective is from a worldview that there is a Creator. Don’t I have as much right to my worldview as anyone else does to theirs?
Seems obvious that I would have that right.
So God is a Mind!??!
Like I’ve said, this is a remodeling blog… I really don’t feel like the right person to answer questions about this. I’m pretty sure my original statement actually said, in effect, “believe what you want to believe, but here’s what I think”… so I’m really not trying to claim some extreme level of intelligence or better knowledge of the exact nature of God than other people might have.
That said, I do have my beliefs and they’ve been established by many things over the course of my life. Teaching, events and experiences, personal research and discovery, prayer, and the world around me.
So I’ll rephrase your question. THIS is the question I’m answering: “So you believe God is a mind?”
The answer to that is no. I believe God is an entity or being… not limited in the same way we are but more than a mind.
I consider a mind as something different than a brain. The brain being the actual organ and the mind being the product of the owner of that brain. I think one’s mind includes heart, soul, brain, emotion, memory, experience, and who knows what all else.
So I believe that God has a mind. And that mind was used in the effort of creating the world in which we live via a method, manner, or timeframe that I don’t claim to know.
I’m having a pretty hard time seeing how my answers or viewpoints could actually offend anyone at all.
I guess the original term used “mindless evolution” is an offense against someone who believes in total randomness. But I’m not sure why, because in the event that total randomness was indeed the actual fact, then me having different ideas than someone else seems totally plausible in the event of “randomness”. If I have an audience of a thousand people each choose a random number between one and 1 million… we’re going to have a pretty good variety in the results.
So what’s the issue with variety in what we believe?
Have you ever been to a National Cemetery? There are these massive cemeteries spread all around the world, many in the United States. They are remarkable places to visit because they bring real tangible reality to just how many people have been down the road of life ahead of us and how many have served in the military, many having given their life in that service.
The point is that there are a vast number of belief systems represented in these places. Some graves are marked with the Star of David, others with a Cross, others with a Star and Crescent, and many many many more. Many are also not marked with a religious affiliation at all.
Yet there is an obvious commonality… in a National Cemetery (United States) every single person, bar none, took an oath as an American. So they had common ground and they served together.
I would imagine that all of the world’s nations have places like this. I’m sure it’s not unique to my country.
So the point I’m making is that it seems counterproductive to seek the places we disagree… which many of the comments in this thread seem to focus on. Why can’t we have a decent discussion and then find common ground?
Wow! I still don’t know how high my wainscotting should be!! My window opening is 36″ and has no sill, so I was thinking of making it 36″ Including the top cap. Does this sound right? Or should it be a little higher and go lower under the window?
I loved your comment here! Will be faithful follower from now on!
Hey Tim! I believe in God and His intelligent design too. It really piqued my interest when you started talking about that. So…I am going to follow your blog! Thank you!
I second what Hope says. If you don’t believe in His intelligent design, just leave. No harsh words or criticisms necessary. We live in a semi free country…enjoy it while you can.
So glad to find you! We just bought an older house that will need a lot of updating. Your blog has just been added to my favorites!
This helped a lot. I thought I had it figured out until I realized my light switches were different heights. This is the first search I made and it answered my questions. 36″ it is.
Thanks for your blog Tim. I too am a do it yourselfer and will add you to my favorites.
Most liberal fanatics would have you silenced for what you believe. They only want to hear what advances their earthly cause.
If they asked God, with a sincere heart, to show them that he is indeed real then God will not turn them away. This is the most important thing that they can do in their short time here on earth for when they die they will be accepted into eternity to live with our heavenly Father. This can only happen if they ask His Son Jesus into their lives and believe that he sacrificed his life, which was pure, to save our lives which are full of sin. You alone are not good enough to enter into God’s presence, That’s why Jesus sacrificed his pure life for ours.
Thank you Tim for this opportunity to hopefully save some lives…….
Yours in Christ
Larry
Think about this my friend before you say no. Swallow your pride and at least consider this for your own sake. Eternal life is unimaginable and if you die without God then eternity still goes on but it won’t be with God.
You see eternal life without sin with our Heavenly Father will mean no more sorrow nor sickness or sadness or pain of any kind. You will never want for anything. You will never be thirsty or hungry again. You will never again have to watch your back because you will have no enemies because there is no more sin when you live with our Father in Heaven.
If you go to an eternal life outside of heaven; well you pretty much have to suffer all of the above for ever and ever.
Just think, like in the hymn, in 10,000 years my life will have just begun.
Now you can choose to turn this down and go on the way you’re living now but just ask yourself “what if there really is something to all of this”.
If you still say no it’ll be the biggest gamble you’ll ever take.
You see, you absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.
I want to surprise my wife while she is away on a trip by installing wainscoting either batten or bead board in the entry foyer. We have a craftsman style home with bead or v-groove accents on interior doors and bookshelf walls. I realize this contact page on your web site is likely not for design advice, but I’ll take a chance. Our ceilings throughout the main floor open floor space including the wide entry hallway are 10′ height. I am going crazy trying to determine how high the wainscoting should be. The traditional chair rail height of 32″ average seems way too short to me.. then I begin to debate whether something higher will look right. I do like the look of taller builds but do not want to make a mistake. I WOULD ask my wife’s opinion (you can never ere going with that answer ..:) – but that ruins the desire for a surprise.
Can you help?
Signed, handy husband who wants to surprise.