Horizontal. Add more interest and dimension to room. You have enough height with out accentuating it.

I agree, horizontal...especially if you are trying to create a real wood look.

Me too, horizontal!

I know it's not the same as it painted and real wood - but the ceilings are high and we felt horizontal worked best - so adding snap shot of our T&G room !

I say vertical about 3/4 of the way up. This is done in a lot of homes with high ceilings.

Vertical.

Vertical wainscotting 3/4 of the way up will actually bring the height of the room down.

Vertical...but what will you finish the top off with?

Horizontal, it's much more interesting!

My vote goes to Horizonal;)

Thanks everyone for your feedback! The tile will be capped with an off-white 1x4. Base is 6" and also painted off-white.

I like the horizontal with 10' ceilings.

My vote is for vertical in this room from the information that you have provided.

Horizontal in random lengths "staggered"

Vertical.

I would install it vertically, you have the height. Also, it gives the flexibility to to do something decorative to cap it, or even add a pop of color if you decide to.

Thank you,everyone, for such great feedback. We still haven't made a decision, but we did decide to raise the height of the wainscot to about 72" instead of 48". Does that change anyone's opinions? We are still torn. Thanks again for the comments. Keep them coming!

I am so glad you are raising the height to five feet. That will be a much better balance. I think that horizontal is the way to go. It looks like you have about a 50-50 mix of opinions here. Not much help..lol

Ooops! poor math skills here...yes...72" is 6 feet and that leaves 4 feet above which makes it look just right...:)

I worry about your using white wood trim with the stained wood looking wall. That seems an odd combination.
Carolyn Albert-Kincl, ASID

Vertical all the way.

First off you should start a poll to see the true numbers after all this country loves to vote haha. I think you go horizontal though make the walls look tall enjoy having 10' ceilings the last thing you would want to do is make the ceilings look shorter. Especially if you are going 6 feet now on the walls. If it was real wood you would want to go vertically simply because it isn't as easy to put up as tile allows a better lay on the wall. Also since it is gray the horizontal lines I think will look really sharp.

Well wainscoating or wainscoting depending on what state or country you live in is vertical. I think horizontal would create a siding effect and not look as finished as vertical. Plus you can go the a lumber yard NOT lowes or the depot a real one and get a rough piece of wood and use it as your chair rail to finish off the look. Of course I don't know what you want but if you did that it would look good from my house.

Also I know for me in rooms we use a lot I try to not get too custom because eventually it goes out of style or get sick of it. Just my two cents

Thank you again for your helpful comments, everyone! We really appreciate the advice and feedback. It was a battle, but in the end as we laid the tiles against the wall and looked at them, horizontal seemed like the way to go with the rest of the space. We begin the installation tonight! We will post photos when it's complete. Thanks again.

Just wanted to attach a photo of the "almost finished" project. We love it! And it was much easier to install than we were expecting. Thank you everyone for your feedback.

WOW!! This looks amazing, I love it! Horizontal looks so nice, great job!

Where did you get that from? Is it actual tile ?

So glad you went horizontal.....that is how houses used to be built, you know, and it just looks...right.

Love it !

Yes, it is a porcelain color-body tile made by Mediterranea called "Crate". We used the 8x48 for our project. The tile is made in the USA, too!

That looks amazing!!! You did a fabulous job. Congratulations.