Board Horizontal Colonial Wall Treatments

Clapboard Siding

• Horizontal siding called clapboarding made use of colonists' most available building material: wood. Laid bottom to top across vertical stringers with a narrow overlap, clapboard could be cut in colonial sawmills and took fewer nails to mount than wood shakes. The beveled overlap repelled rain and snow. Finer craftsmen built tongue-and-groove and shiplap variations on clapboard, creating houses especially valued in New England winter weather. Especially in maritime communities, shipbuilders saw to the water-tightness of houses, as well as ships. Farther south, clay soils and longer warm seasons supported brick manufacture for house construction, but in the cold north, clapboard ruled.

Interior Wall Wood Siding

• Post and beam construction led naturally to the repetition of horizontal paneling as one interior colonial wall-covering. Shaker interior wood paneling was both vertical and horizontal, featuring built-in drawers and cupboards. As communities became more established, interior wood siding gave way to plaster and more elaborate wood paneling.

Interior Paneling

• Colonial paneling, reminiscent of the fine work in wealthy English houses, made abundant use of available hardwoods like oak and cherry. Custom-milled, paneling addressed two issues: interior beautification and increased warmth. Paneling might be installed either horizontally or vertically. One frequent treatment emphasizes smaller, horizontally oriented panels on the bottom of walls, with larger vertically directed panels above.

Wainscoting

• Another Colonial combination of horizontal and vertical wall decoration and insulation is wainscoting. Wainscoting, originally made of horizontal planks, gradually transformed into several kinds of decoration, all extending approximately up the lowest third of the wall. Horizontal wainscot was joined by larger panels and courses of vertically fixed beadboard, leaving upper walls plastered, ready for whitewash, paint or the more expensive ornamentation of wallpaper.

Modern Versions

• Early colonial architecture established traditions still observed in American building and decoration. Clapboard remains a frequent exterior choice, available in wood, aluminum and vinyl versions. Wooden clapboard is still mounted and repaired as it once was, although housewraps and other materials provide the draft-proofing only partially managed in colonial times. All styles of wainscoting can be found in kit as well as raw-materials form, and computer programs custom-mill the richest paneling.