Each room of the Nickerson House uses a single main wood species for its decorative paneling. The Front Parlor is finished throughout in mahogany. The division of the walls into a series of horizontal bands was advocated in contemporary literature on the decoration of houses. A tripartite division of the wall treatment was generally preferred for rooms on the scale of those in the Nickerson House. The walls of the parlor are thus comprised of wainscoting in the lowest third of the room, wall fill above and a frieze that completes the wall treatment.