Wainscoting Tutorial

I believe you’ve seen the wainscoting that I made in this diorama project. Today I am going to introduce that how I made a simple background with wainscoting. I’ve been asked by couple friends who are also interested in making one. I was a little bit afraid that I couldn’t describe it clearly in words. But I really want to give it a try and do my best. Hope it will be helpful and inspiring.

Use the diorama project as an example, first I prepared those materials and tools:

Big wood pieces*3: but if you want a diorama with 3-side walls you need 4 big wood pieces. The one used for the floor base should be bigger and firmer. If it’s for a 1/6 doll, the size I recommend is (the thickness of my wood piece is 0.4 inch):

A handy craft saw (or any other kind): in case you need to cut the thick wood pieces into the size you want.

Thin, easy-to-cut wood pieces: used to make wainscoting, buy enough to cover all the walls. I recommend a 6-inch-tall wainscoting. The size in the photo is too short. I just use it as an example to make a smaller one. And the material of this piece is Balsa which is really easy to cut.

Scissors: good enough to cut the thin wood piece into small pieces. I got my scissors on Amazon (link).

Glue: I used the craft glue found in dollar store. But you may use anything that you are confident to glue the wainscoting to a thick paper.

Miniature baseboard: I directly bought them from store. You can find them on eBay too. Here is one link.

Thick craft paper *1: Any thick flat paper. I took one that I don’t like very much from the craft paper lot. Because you only need it as a base. I glue wainscoting to the thick paper first, then glue a whole piece to the diorama wall.

Pigment and brush: Any kind that you think is easy to use. The pigment should be attached to the wood.

I will show an example in this post. Notice it’s not a complete size for a diorama to use. I just make it as an example.

First, use hammer to nail the 3 big wood pieces together. This part is easy so I don’t really make it this time. It will look like a diorama base just like this:

Next, mark the strip that you will cut from the thin Balsa wood. The interval of my real wainscoting project is 1.5cm.

And you cut it. I use the same scissors shown above. You may have a better way.

Glue it to a thick craft paper. At this point you need to make sure the total length of the wainscoting is what you need for the wall that you will later glue to.

Notice it’s not very flat because the glue is not dry yet. Wipe away extra glue and place any heavy object on it for a night (at least couple hours) to make it dry and flat. If you don’t want glue attach to the object you use you can put a napkin in between. I use a stack of printing paper.

Now it’s flat so you can paint the color you want.While wait the paint to dry you can cut 2 strips of miniature baseboards (the same length as the wainscoting) and paint it the same color.

Cut off the extra paper.

Glue the miniature baseboards to the wainscoting and make so it looks like margin. Fix any painting defects.

Now you finish one piece of wainscoting. Keep working until you have the entire wall covered. I recommend that you spread the wallpaper on the wall first before glue the wainscoting to the wall so you can hide any unsmooth part existing on the wall paper.

Basically it’s not hard to make. It needs patience and takes time. I hope the instruction is clear and it will be helpful.

Good luck with your project friends!