Shawlands, Glasgow Southside
Wall panelling in Shawlands
Panelling in a tenement lives or dies on proportion. A layout that looks right in a room with a 2.4 metre ceiling looks squat and wrong in one with a three metre ceiling, and most of the panelling that disappoints people is panelling that was set out to a standard rather than to the room.
Setting out to the room
In a tall room the panel height, the rail position and the spacing all need to scale up together. We set out full size on the wall and look at it before anything is cut. Where there is a picture rail or cornice already, the panelling has to relate to those rather than ignore them, which usually means the top rail sits at a height dictated by the room instead of by a rule of thumb.
Which style suits which room
Slatted panelling is contemporary and works well as a single feature wall or behind a bed; it does not sit comfortably alongside heavy period cornice. Shaker and board-and-batten are quieter and suit a hallway or a period living room, and half-height panelling under a picture rail is usually the most sympathetic option in a traditional tenement.
Scribing around what is there
Tenement walls bow, skirtings are deep and moulded, and there will be sockets and a radiator in the way. All of it gets scribed around rather than butted up to with a bead of filler. On a bowed wall the battens are packed so the finished face is flat even though what is behind it is not.
Finishing
Filled, caulked, sanded and painted so the joints disappear. Painting the panelling the same colour as the wall above it, rather than picking it out in a contrast, almost always looks better and lets the relief do the work.