![]() Often wooden double hung windows have beaded stops. The beads obscure all the individual boards and the ceiling looks like one single element. Bead board is an excellent example of that. The fillet, or space, created between the round of the bead and the flat next to it allows for a shadow line to hide a joint. It can also be used in conjunction with other profiles to create more complicated moldings, such as the nose and cove. A beaded face frame on a cabinet is a good example here. Standing alone, it is often used as a transition from one architectural feature to another or a termination point for a molding. However, it is most recognized as a feature of the colonial period. As a casing type it easy fits many design styles. It has a simple elegance when used alone, such as on a flat casing, baseboard, and window aprons. Howard Walker’s “Theory of Moldings” has a much better and detailed explanation of the bead then I can offer here. The rounded profile softens the edges of the elements it is used on and creates shadow lines. The first is form, as a decorative element. A quick look at the classical orders of architecture or an 18th century pattern book like William pain’s “The Practical Builder” shows the bead in use. The mighty bead has been in use since at least the Greeks and Romans. Some years and many old buildings later I had begun to appreciate the true value of the bead as an architectural element with both form and function. We used it on casing, baseboard, bead board, everything. After a couple of years I was tired of seeing the bead everywhere. Even the new projects were in a similar aesthetic and without fail there would be a bead present in some fashion, mostly as beaded casing. I began my carpentry career with a company that did mostly historic restoration.
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