Here’s A Simple Wainscoting Calculator

To use the Wainscoting calculator, change the numbers below to reflect what you have in your wainscoting project.

I put the Wainscoting calculator up on the top of the page to make it easier to find. The last thing you need is having to go hunting for the calculator on this page when all you want to do is figure out your wainscoting frame width. 🙂

I made the wainscoting wall calculator because I remember searching a loooong time for something similar to it when I started my wainscoting project.

I think the math behind a DIY wainscoting project is the biggest road block for wainscoting, this will hopefully remove a lot of that. 🙂

How to measure for wainscoting and how do you figure out the wainscoting measurements are probably the two biggest questions that came to my mind initially… and I’m sure that I’m not alone (I hope so anyways 😄).

What Makes This Wainscoting Calculator Different?

It’s A Simple Wainscoting Calculator

I’ve seen other picture frame wainscoting calculators out there but they all seem crazy confusing and complicated. I think a lot of them focus on the layout. Many of them even show you a visual of what it would look like… but all the ones I found were so confusing – I ended up using a pen and paper!

This wainscoting wall calculator was created to help with the picture frame molding measurements that change with every wall you do. The height and spacing from the chair molding to your picture frames will be the same throughout your project, but the width of each picture frame molding will change with each wall width.

When you need to calculate the wainscoting frame widths for a new wall – this is the picture frame wainscoting calculator you should use. 🙂

It Uses Tape Measure Fractions

The results from this calculator are in fractions that you can use on your tape measure. The conversion from decimal to simple tape measure fractions is THE MAIN REASON I did that because when I was doing my wainscoting, I spent a whole lotta time figuring out the frame dimensions, and then my answer was in decimal.

Then I spent almost the same amount of time trying to convert the decimal amount to a fraction that I could then use on a tape measure.

It would take me a little time to figure out 16.6 is 16 11/16!  LOL This tool replaces all that crazy math. 🙂

My goal with the wainscoting calculator was simple. Give it the numbers you have from your tape measure and it gives you back numbers you can use on your tape measure (did I mention that you can use the results on a tape measure!).

If you’re interested in how the picture frame wainscoting calculator figures out the numbers, here’s a brief breakdown of how I calculated my wainscoting frames using pen and paper during my project.

How To Measure For Wainscoting Width

Tip:  The Picture Frame Wainscoting Calculator above is basically doing all this math for you. If you want to see the steps it takes, click the Show details button at the bottom of the picture frame molding calculator. 

If you want more info about my wainscoting project check out these posts:

DIY Wainscoting – Part 1 – Design And Layout

DIY Wainscoting – Part 2 – Cutting The Frames

DIY Wainscoting – Part 3 – Installing The Molding

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In the first post I went over how you go about designing the wainscoting, what things you should consider and how you go about laying it all out.

Now that you’ve designed the layout of your wainscoting, it’s time to get cutting!!

Cutting wainscoting is one of the two areas where you can save TONS of time… if you use the tips that you’ll find here.

 In this post we’ll cover how to cut wainscoting trim, the moldings for the rectangular wainscoting frames. Since the wainscoting frames are rectangular, all the moldings used for these frames will have 45 degree angled cuts.

 I’ll probably do a post on the non-45 degree angle cuts later. Those are much trickier. The frames that we installed in the stairs have a non-45 degree angle to follow the lines of the staircase.

Anyways, Let’s get to the tips! 

The Shopping List

Why You Need To Make A Jig

I’m sure this isn’t a surprise, but when doing picture frame wainscoting, you are going to be cutting A LOT of molding. Many of the pieces you’ll be cutting will also be the same length.

By spending a little time in the beginning creating a jig, you’ll save a TON of time cutting those same sized pieces to length.

The jig basically extends the miter saw platform and allows you to add stoppers at the length of the molding you want to cut.

By using the jig you’ll only need to measure the molding size for the first piece of molding.

Then you’ll use that piece to set the stopper and all the other pieces of the same size can be cut by butting the end of the molding against the stopper and cutting.

No need to measure after that. 🙂

Making The Cutting Jig

Using Your Cutting Jig

Now that you have a jig made here’s how you use it.

1- Cut The First Molding

You’ll need to cut your first piece of molding to the size you want first. Once it’s cut you’ll use that molding to set the stopper.

And with the stopper in place you’ll be able to cut all the other same sized moldings without having to measure again.

2- Use The Closed Blade To Keep Molding In Place

3- Set The Stopper

Tip:  I also wrote the molding measurement on the backstop (as you can see in the picture) That way if I needed to cut another piece of molding the same size again I’d already have the stopper placement without having to measure again.

4- Cut The Angle That Will Be Against The Stopper First

5- Place The Molding Against The Stopper To Cut To Size

Tip:  Instead of cutting the left angle then the right angle on each molding, it’s faster to cut all the left angles first, then spin the miter saw to the other side and do all the right angles.

Otherwise you spend a lot of time just spinning the miter saw left and right.

There You Have It

Now you can cut all the moldings you need for the rectangular wainscoting frames. In the next post I’ll share how I installed the wainscoting moldings.

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If you look on Pinterest for wainscoting you’ll find all kinds of different styles and versions of wainscoting, from the super simple to the incredibly ornate.

I wanted a wainscoting design that looked fancy without going over the top and I didn’t want it to be too difficult to install.

I think what we chose did just that, it added a ton of style and character and looks great. And it didn’t take a ton of time to do.

I did the wainscoting in the downstairs first, then about a year later I decided to also do wainscoting upstairs. If I added up the time between the upstairs and the downstairs it probably took a total of roughly 2 weeks for both… but keep in mind they are pretty big spaces.

The project is going to be broken down into a bunch of posts.

In this post we’ll focus on the design we chose and why we chose it, how we came up with our wainscoting sizes, and how to measure for wainscoting.

Then in future posts we’ll go over cutting the wainscoting, installing the wainscoting and I think I’ll do another one on wainscoting in the stairs, (spoiler alert, there’s more math lol).

No matter what style you choose, you’ll find tips in here to make your install go smoother.

I think the secret to installing wainscoting is using templates and spacers. Since most of the pieces of the wainscoting are the same size you can make templates to cut them faster and spacers allow a consistent spacing without having to measure every space.

Using templates and spacers with your diy wainscoting will make a huge impact on the length of your installation time.

Deciding On A Wainscoting Style

We looked at a lot of Pinterest pins of wainscoting to find one that fit the style we had in mind.

Honestly, if you don’t know what style you’d like, doing a search on Pinterest is a great way to find out what choices you have.

Of course if you like the wainscoting layout and moldings we used, feel free to copy what we did. 🙂

DIY Wainscoting Ideas – There are So Many Options

There are so many wainscotting ideas out there, and they all look great in their own way.

Take a look a the different wainscotting layouts that exist on Pinterest, do a search and you’ll find countless wainscotting designs.  If you don’t find exactly what you want, come up with your own wainscoting flavor that’s a mix of one or two designs you like.

Here are a few wainscoting designs that we liked:

The Pin The Inspired Us

The Wainscoting Design We Used

The Style

We looked at a lot of Pinterest pins of wainscoting to find one that fit the style we had in mind.

We liked the wainscoting frames to be more rectangular than square and taller rather than wider.

Initially, we were only going to have the chair molding on top of the frames, but after trying it we realized it needed an extra little something, so we added another horizontal molding between the chair molding and the frames.

The Wainscoting Height

How high do you want your wainscoting to go?

I came across a post that discusses wainscoting height in detail. Her tip was to use the rule of thirds, meaning the wainscoting shouldn’t go higher than a third of the way up the wall.

Here’s the link if you’d like to find out more.

I didn’t come across the article until I started writing this post, but even if I had come across it before, I probably still wouldn’t have followed the rule of thirds. That’s because for each floor we wanted the wainscoting height to line up with something else in the space – and that didn’t line up with a third of the wall height.

On the first floor it was the kitchen bar top and on the second floor it was the half wall in the loft space.

If you’re trying to figure out a height to use, try the rule of thirds, or line it up with something else in the space, or if there isn’t something in the space that you’d like the wainscoting to line up with then you can use the measurements we used as a starting point and adjust however you need to. 🙂

The height (from the floor to the top of the chair-molding) on the 1st floor was 41″ and the height on the 2nd floor was 41 1/2″.

Figure Out The Frame Width

This was one of the biggest stumbling blocks for me when I started this project. How was I going to make all the frames the same width?

Since all the walls are different sizes it seemed impossible to make them all the same width… and well – it is.

I figured out in the end that every wainscoting frame doesn’t need to be the same width or even the same height. In fact it is impossible for them to be the same width since the wall sizes will all be different.

I didn’t want the frames to be square-shaped if I could avoid it and based on the height of the wainscoting I aimed for frames that were around 18 inches wide.

I made a tool that you can use to calculate the width of the picture frames, check it out by clicking the button below. 

The Wainscoting Dimensions

I wanted to emphasis this. The wainscoting dimensions will be different for each wall you do. The wainscoting frame dimensions on the same wall will be the same, but they will be different when on a new wall since more likely than not the new wall will be a different width.

That’s because even though the frame height stays the same, the wainscoting frame width will change based on the width of the wall and number of wainscoting frames.

The Space Around The Frames

The spacing between the frames is THE thing that needs to be consistent. Keep the spacing the same and your brain will think all the picture frames are the same size.

As long as the spacing around the frames is the same everything will flow.

For ours, we chose a spacing of 3 1/2″ all around each frame, that way we could use pieces of 2×4 as a spacers. 😉

Figuring Out The Width Of The Wainscotting Frames

Ok, you’ve figured out the style, molding, height, spacing and the colors – now it’s time for some math!

This part may feel a little intimidating but trust me, it’s much easier to do than it seems. 

Like every other aspect of this project, there are probably a million other ways to figure this out but here’s an example of how I measured it.

 Let’s use the wall in the picture for the example, the wall measured 124 1/2″ and I ended up using 6 wainscoting frames.

Update: I decided to create a simple wainscoting calculator that you give it the wall width, the width of the spaces between the frames and the number of frames and it gives you the width of each wainscoting frame.

Click the button below and you won’t need to do the math. 

Calculating For The 6 Frames Shown

First, I subtract the left spacing from the total, which for me is 3 1/2″ or 3.5″, take a look at the picture for more of a visual.

That gives me 121″, now divide 121″ by the number of frames you think would fit. In the pictured example I used 6.

 121″ / 6 = 20.16″

So each frame + it’s spacing on the right would equal 20.16″ in width (The red arrows).

So the frames size would be 20.16 minus the spacing on the right.

The frame size would now be 20.16 – 3.5″ = 16.6″ (The blue arrows)

Since I wanted a rectangular shape, 16.6″ worked well. Basically, I try the same formula with an additional frame or minus a frame, and figure out the one that looks best.

Let’s Say We Calculated for 5 frames

If I tried 5, it would be 121″ / 5 = 24.2 That means each frame + the spacing on it’s right would be 24.2″. So the frame size would be 24.2″ – 3.5″ (the spacing size) which would be 20.7″

The thing to keep in mind there is no right or wrong for any of this. I wanted my frames to look more rectangular in shape than square and a width of 20.7″ would be pretty close to the height of 23″ so instead of doing 5 frames I opted for 6.

Converting Decimal to Fractions

So now you know the frames should be 16.6″… how the heck do you figure that out on a tape measure?!

Figuring out the numbers was definitely easier using a calculator but I ran into a problem of converting the decimal from the calculator back to a fraction I could use with a tape measure.

The answer at the time was a widget I came across that converts decimals to fractions that can be used with a tape measure. It wasn’t 100% because sometimes the fraction it gave me was 231/356… which doesn’t help. lol

Now, I’ve created a wainscoting calculator. Give it the measurements in fractions you’d find on a tape measure and it figures out the wainscoting frame with and gives you the width in fractions you can use on the tape measure. No more math and no more 231/356! lol

How To Handle Windows With Wainscoting

This is something I thought of afterwards. If the window goes below the height of your wainscoting then it would be best to measure that wall in sections, with the space below the window as it’s own section.

I’ve seen some wainscoting pics where they kind of use “L” shaped frames to conform around the window… I don’t think it looks that great.

I think it looks more put together if the frames under the window are a different width and height – as long as the spacing around the frames is the same as the rest of the wall it will all fit together.

I only had one window that affected my wainscoting layout, and luckily it happened to not affect things too much. Once I did it I realized it would have looked better if I divided the wall into pieces and treated each piece like a seperate wall.

Take a look a the pic below, that is the window that I’m talking about. It doesn’t look bad, but it was luck more than anything else. I was going from right to left when installing my wainscoting, got to the window realized I’d need to do something different under the window (notice the two boxes under the window are not as wide as the ones next to them), skipped it for later and resumed my picture frames on the other side of the window.

Instead, I should have it would have been better if I had the picture frames under the window line up with the window width and treated the spaces on each side of the window as separate walls and did calculations for each side separately.

I edited the picture to show what it would have looked like if I had the frames under the window line up with the window’s edges. Excuse the rough editing, but I think it does give an idea of what how it would have looked better.

Again, the window luckily didn’t muck it up too much for me, but I can see where it could get really ugly if you don’t plan for the window beforehand.

The Molding We Used

We used two different pieces of molding for the wainscoting, one for the chair-molding and the other for the frames and the horizontal molding between the chair-molding and frames.

We bought both of them from Home Depot. Here they are, you can click on the image if you’d like to get the same molding. 

The Molding For The Frames

This is the molding we used for the frames and as the second horizontal molding (below the chair molding).

It’s a poly molding so it was really inexpensive… luckily because we bought A LOT of it. 🙂

Our Colors

For the wall colors we chose greige colors (a mix of grey and beige).

A lot of wainscoting pics we came across left the wainscoting frames white on a different colored wall.  That makes the wainscoting frame pop out more, but we chose to paint the frames the same color as the wall instead.

Painting the wainscoting the same color as the wall gives it a built-in look, which we liked.

If you’d like to use the same colors here are the two colors we used:

That’s It For The Wainscoting Designing And Layout

That’s it for the designing and laying out your wainscoting diy. Now that you figured out all the nitty gritty for your wainscoting it’s time to start cutting some molding! I’ll cover that in the next post!

 Click on the button below to keep reading:

Some Pictures Of The Finished Wainscoting

Here’s some more pics of the wainscoting. I’m thinking of doing a post on the wainscoting in the stairs since that was a bit trickier. I haven’t used math like that since High school! lol

Let me know what you think, is there something you would have done different?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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