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Beading - TO MATCH.
Wooden beading made to match, in any timber and to any profile. Every bead quoted here is made to order by a UK joinery manufacturer, so the section, the radius and the species are cut to your sample, your photo or your drawing. Nothing on this page is off-the-shelf stock.
Beading is the small stuff that has to be exactly right: window beading and glazing beads, door beading, sash window staff bead and parting bead, quadrant and scotia, half round and D mould, square, splayed and chamfered sections, panel and staircase beading, and thin beading for panelling or ceilings. Decorative profiles such as ogee, ovolo, torus, bullnose and lambs tongue are all replicable.
Because it is machined to order, this is the practical route for renovation and especially heritage restoration: listed buildings, conservation areas and Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian, Regency and Arts and Crafts properties, where a modern stock bead will not sit right against original joinery.
Pick the closest match type below and give us your width and thickness. Wooduchoose puts that one enquiry in front of several UK timber suppliers at once, so you get an instant guide price and then multiple quotes to compare. One enquiry, several quotes, no obligation.
Beading - TO MATCH - Further Reading:
How to match an existing beading profile
Matching a bead is easier than most people expect. A manufacturer needs one of three things, in order of preference:
- A sample. A 100mm offcut of the original is the gold standard. It can be copied exactly, including the shallow wear that period beads pick up over a century.
- A photograph. Shoot the bead end-on, square to the cut, with a ruler or a coin alongside it so both the profile and the scale read clearly.
- A drawing. A simple sketch with width, thickness and the radius of any curve is enough to grind a cutter.
If you cannot lift a sample without damaging the original, press a strip of card or modelling clay onto the end of the bead, cut round the impression and photograph that instead. On a sash window, the easiest sample is usually a short length of parting bead, which lifts out of its groove without tools.
What to measure before you enquire
- Width and thickness in millimetres, taken at the widest and deepest points. Small beads commonly run 6mm, 10mm, 12mm, 15mm, 18mm, 20mm and 25mm, but made to order means you are not tied to those.
- Total run length required, plus 10 to 15 per cent for mitres, cuts and wastage.
- The flat land or rebate. On a glazing bead the flat face that beds onto the glass matters more than the decorative face, because it sets the sight line and the glazing depth.
- Fixing method. Pinned, screwed, or self-adhesive 'stick on' beading for glazing work.
- Interior or exterior, and whether the bead needs a groove for a brush draught seal (common on staff bead and parting bead).
Beading profiles that can be matched
- Glazing bead and window beading - holds the pane into a timber window, internal or external, usually with a rebate to the glass.
- Staff bead and parting bead - the two beads that make a traditional box sash window work. Parting bead separates the sliding sashes inside the box; staff bead holds the inner sash in place. Both can be run with or without a draught-seal groove.
- Quadrant and scotia - quarter-round and concave cover beads, used at floor, skirting and worktop junctions.
- Half round and D mould - simple curved cover beads for joints and edges.
- Square, splayed and chamfered - plain sections for panelling, doors, shelving and framing.
- Ogee, ovolo, torus, bullnose and lambs tongue - the decorative period profiles found in Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian joinery.
Any wood you choose
Because each run is machined for the order, the species is your call. Common choices are European oak and American white oak for hardwood beading, sapele, idigbo, ash, tulipwood and teak, and European redwood or pine for softwood beading and paint-grade work. For exterior window beading, ask about durable or modified species that hold paint and resist movement. If you are matching into existing joinery, name the species you are matching so the grain and the colour take stain and finish the same way.
Where wooden beading is used
Windows and glazing, internal and external doors, box sash windows, stairs and staircase strings, wall panelling and beaded panels, ceilings, shelving, cabinetry, floor and skirting junctions, and covering the joint where two materials meet. Thin beading is often the only sensible fix when a period window has been reglazed and the original bead no longer exists.
Renovation and heritage restoration
This is where a made-to-match bead earns its keep. In a listed building or a conservation area, replacing an original profile with the nearest stock section is usually the wrong answer, and can be a planning problem as well as an aesthetic one. Copying the existing profile in the same species keeps the sight lines, the shadow lines and the character of the original joinery. See also our period wood mouldings and the wider made to match service for architrave, skirting, dado rail and coving on the same job.
How the quote process works
- Choose the closest beading match type above and enter your width and thickness for an instant guide price.
- Add your sample photo, drawing or profile notes, your species, your length and your delivery postcode.
- One click sends that single enquiry to UK timber suppliers and joinery manufacturers who make this kind of work.
- Quotes come back to you to compare on price, lead time and specification. There is no obligation to proceed, and you are not buying from stock at any point.
Solid timber only
Everything quoted through this category is solid timber. We do not supply MDF, PVCu or plastic beading, polystyrene, polyurethane or plaster mouldings, or laminate and vinyl floor trim. If you need a bead in real wood, matched to something you already have, this is the right place to start. Get your beading quote now, in the wood you choose.