Joinery & Panelling

Painted Panelling

Painted panelling, mouldings and fitted joinery, designed around the room and finished in the colour of your choice.

Painted Panelling

Good painted panelling begins with the architecture of the room.

Painted panelling gives a room its structure: a dado line that runs unbroken from wall to wall, panels set out around the windows and doors, and mouldings that catch the light beneath a single colour. We design and make painted panelling for period homes, listed buildings and traditionally designed interiors, from dado-height schemes to full-height rooms.
Painted panelling with a geometric circle-and-square motif beneath fitted shelving

A Complete Joinery Scheme

More Than Wall Panelling

A scheme may be full height or dado height, with flat, fielded or bolection-moulded panels chosen to suit the character of the room. Panel designs can also be more decorative, such as the geometric circle-and-square panels shown here beneath fitted shelving.

Painted panelling often extends into door surrounds, architraves, window shutters, cabinetry and fireplace joinery, so these elements can be designed as one composition. The design may draw on Georgian, Victorian or Arts & Crafts interiors, with proportions, mouldings and ornament adapted to the building rather than copied as a standard pattern.

Full-height painted panelling around an arched window and two sash windows at Alderwick House

Full-height painted panelling around an arched window and two sash windows at Alderwick House

Tailored Design

Drawn Around The Room

A panelled room is read as a sequence. Stiles set its vertical divisions, rails and dado lines carry from one wall to the next, and the scale of the panels gives important walls emphasis or calm. We begin with the wall lengths and ceiling height, together with the position of existing openings, skirtings and cornices.

Radiators, switches and sockets are built into the setting-out so practical requirements do not interrupt the panel layout. At Alderwick House, painted panelling was set out around a tall arched window and the sash windows either side.

Close view along painted dado panelling with projecting mouldings
Close view along painted dado panelling with projecting mouldings
Painted door surround with a dentil cornice beside a timber door
Painted door surround with a dentil cornice beside a timber door
Close view of shaped painted bolection mouldings where panel frames meet

Materials, Mouldings & Finish

The Details Beneath The Paint

A painted surface does not conceal the quality of the design beneath it. Material, panel form, moulding profile and finishing method all influence how the completed joinery reads in the room.

01

Timber For Painted Work

We mainly make painted panelling in tulipwood, sapele or maple. Heritage projects sometimes call for pitch pine, usually reclaimed.

02

Historic & Matching Mouldings

Mouldings and bolection profiles can be developed from Georgian, Victorian or Arts & Crafts precedents. Where existing joinery should continue through the room, we can produce a bespoke profile to match it.

03

Finished In The Workshop Or On Site

Panelling can be spray-finished in our workshop, supplied primed, or hand-brushed on site. If a decorator is already working in the house, we usually recommend they apply the final coat; otherwise we can arrange it. Any paint brand can be used, mixed to the colour you choose.

Work In Context

Rooms, Openings & Mouldings

Related Panelling & Joinery

Continue The Architectural Language

Oak Panelled Rooms 18th Century Georgian Panelling Fireplaces & Overmantels Marwood House Entrance Hall Little Peacock Cottage Bedroom Alderwick House

Commissioning Painted Panelling

Resolved on the drawings before it is made.

For a first conversation, photographs and room dimensions are the most useful starting point, together with any plans, examples of existing mouldings and interior design references. It also helps to know how far the panelling should extend and which openings, radiators or fitted pieces it needs to include.

We then prepare CAD drawings so that panel layout, moulding profiles and finish can be agreed before the panelling is made in our Somerset workshop. To start a conversation, use the button below or email project@dcflimited.co.uk.