Trimming the house

Hello!  This post is not a (very) belated Christmas decoration update, but instead a peek at our new white baseboards.  Just in case you are offended that my blog didn't provide any Christmasy inspiration, I submit the only good holiday-esque photo I took this year...and that isn't even our tree!  

I could not get this child to sit remotely still or even stand by our tree, so I put a cookie on the branch of my mom's tree and told him he could eat it if he could find it.  Success!  I had to act fast though, he can sniff out a cookie like a bloodhound.  So, back to our baseboards!  We started our installation in the dining room because it seemed like the easiest space to handle. 

It was exactly as I had envisioned it with the pale gray walls.  We had this space between the back of the cabinet and the floor that needed to be addressed.

We got a simple lattice trim to cover it, I will either paint it white to match the trim, or paint it the color of the cabinets.  I'm thinking it will be the cabinet color - whenever those get painted!  I'm not even close to deciding on that. 

The problem we have on the main level is all the tile next to the hardwoods in the entries and kitchen.  We don't have a table saw, or any other way to rip the trim to fit over the tile, so I'm not sure if we will buy the tools we need, or hire it out.   

I was a little worried about the area butting up to the coat closet door.

Luckily, the little piece on that side fit fine and the door was not a problem. 

Every little piece of trim that goes over the ugly bare spots is a victory!  I was worried about the white trim looking weird with the white tile, but I think the paint color I chose (Behr Popped Corn) looks fresh without being too stark against the creamy tile. 

The real test of how this was going to look was in the hallway.  There are a lot of doorways with original 70s casing.

I was unsure about keeping the casing and doors dark when this was going in. 

But when it was all in, I liked it much more!

I think it will be even better when I get more things on the walls, and a new brighter light fixture. 

The next thing up was addressing the stairs.  While I really like the rich look of the wood, I knew the risers and stringers needed to be white to match the baseboards. 

I used my absolute favorite primer, BIN to prime everything.  It looked terrible but was ready for paint! 

I freaked out a little because when we refinished the treads, there was a little build up of poly on the edges, so it made a clean line with the paint almost impossible.  Also, these stairs probably weren't meant to be stained, the treads are cheap pine and not super even along the edges. 

Even still, it looks pretty good after two coats of paint!  I still have to buy and stain some cove trim for underneath the lip of the treads to make it look more finished.  I also have to figure out how to transition the top of the stairs to the hallway trim.  Oh, and restain the handrail. 

Here you can see I also have some caulking to do!  So, that is what I've been doing since December.  I appreciate everyone reading the blog, even though I don't post very often.  I have been working on other spaces over the holidays, too...I hope to post about those sooner than a month from now this time!  Does anyone have any tips on ripping the base trim to fit over the tile?

Picture molding is up

I promised you I'd post the art room walls this week, so without further ado let's take a spin around and see how it's looking!

Check out the Heidi Montag-sized makeover this room got!  (Only it looks better now) 

It's kind of exhausting looking at all these pictures in a row.

The paint color is Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore, and the first pic of the post is the truest representation of this fab color.  We used 17 (7') pieces of molding for this room.  I will put together a how-to on the molding application next week!  And maybe I will be able to make this a functioning space with actual furniture by next week, too...we'll see.  I still have to paint the window, second coat the doors, and we need a storm door so we can remove the lovely plastic on the outside of the door (you can see the blue painters tape hanging out there).  Never done, I tell ya! 

Have a great weekend!

Dining room picture molding FAQ

Here are the steps we took to add picture moldings to our dining room.  We did this project long before I started this blog, so I didn't take any "action" shots while we were working on it.  Sorry! 

Smooth the walls completely:  We used lots of joint compound to get the walls perfectly smooth so it would look like wood instead of wall.  Expect to cry and scream and eat dust for days!  Or get extra thin MDF or plywood and attach that to the wall instead.  We wanted to preserve our baseboards without removing them, so that plan didn't work for us. 

Pick the molding style:  The decorative molding we used was about 3/4 inch thick. It wasn't a fancy design, just a simple profile. You could easily use something thicker, but I liked that they looked like picture frames, and it seemed to fit the age of our house better than more modern flat pieces.

Map out the boxes:  I had the whole room mapped out on a piece of paper, how long every wall was, and how many boxes would fit.  I decided that keeping the top and the bottom of the boxes about 3" from the chair rail and base, and from each other, was the best look for us. We did have to fudge this a little bit due to space constraints on smaller walls, but it was between 2.5 - 3" always. We always kept it 3 inches from the chair rail, though.  Because I had wildly different wall lengths (from 21" to 90"!) I measured the outside width of the boxes to be anywhere from 18" wide to 22" wide.  As long as you have all the boxes on one wall the same height and width, it looks great.  You will have to tinker with the numbers until you find the magic ones that won't leave you with 24" wide boxes on one side of the room and 14" wide on the other! Your heights should all be the same.  Because we put the bottom of our chair rail piece at 34" from the floor, and the baseboards were about 5" tall, we had a height of 23" for all the boxes, with 3 inches space on top and on the bottom.

Attach the chair rail:  We chose to have the bottom of our chair rail at 34 inches.  It's very important to have it perfectly level because the boxes will be based off this line.  We used a nail gun, caulked the joints, and filled the nail holes with white wood filler before painting.  And then we lived with it like this for about a month before finishing the project!

Attach the molding:  We used paneling adhesive and our nail gun to attach the pieces to the wall.  The hardest part is mitering the edges and having them line up on the wall in a nice box pattern.  When they didn't, we'd either cut them down more or fill the gap with some caulk - a nice safety net when you plan on painting everything!  Once you get the first box up, it's easier to level the next one out based on the first one. I will tell you that it's better to eyeball it.  If the level says its 'level' but your eye says 'that's jacked up', then go with your eye instead.  Most of the time sometimes walls and floors aren't even!  It is definitely a two-person project because one of you will hold it up and level, then someone has to stand back to check it out.  We always put the top piece on first, because that is what you see first and it will be painfully obvious if it is not even with the chair rail.

For more visual help, please head over to Bower Power to see Katie's instructions, pictures, and diagrams.  She did such a great job putting together her play-by-play!