Excited doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel about this room reveal. When I moved into my first home a little over a year ago, I didn’t even know what to do with a formal dining room. I dreamed of having large holiday dinners in there, but otherwise it’s been a bit of a dead space. And since I don’t yet own a dining room table, I won’t be hosting any large dinner parties for a while. Currently I eat at a pub table in my kitchen and use the dining room for…well nothing really.
However, that is all about to change, because I’ve finished a big TO DO item on my list.
First, let’s take a little trip back in time…to when I bought the house. A dining room was not on my wish list, but I lucked out and got one that has a very open feeling. The floor plan is a little wacky, so I’ll have to share a full post on a home tour soon, but the dining room opens to the first floor so it is literally very open.
Before… (gotta love that green carpet and walls – I’m slowly trying to get rid of it)
About 6 months ago I decided to do a chair rail and had visions of a pretty grey on the bottom separating the top with crisp white moulding. I also found those incredible sconces at Homegoods and snapped them up right away. The white wood blinds came with the house.
The grey turned out a little funky, but I left it alone because I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I also purchased some curtains from IKEA (that need to be hemmed).
I ended up loving the sconces and curtains, but the wall color looked awful with the dark grey curtains. Why does every grey paint I pick out look purple or blue? Anyone have recommendations for a shade of grey that doesn’t have bruise like undertones?
I still wasn’t sure how I wanted to replace the wall color so I kept going and added my Knock Off Pottery Barn Bar, built by my dad. As well as a few accessories.
After a bit of Googling and DIY research online, I settled on installing moulding along the bottom of the wall. I purchased 8 foot boards that were 1/4 inch thick. They ran about $8 a board which was more than I wanted to pay, but I had to have 1/4 inch thick which is difficult to find. Why did I need 1/4 inch boards? I have very simple baseboards and I didn’t want to remove or replace them. The 1/4 inch boards are the exact thickness for the baseboards so they butt up against them perfectly.
I purchased 13 boards (only used 10) and 3 – 8 foot lengths of a simple chair rail.
After measuring out the proper height, I started installing the top moulding. I’m incredibly paranoid about moulding falling off the wall so I used both Liquid Nails and finishing nails to secure them to the wall. There is no way these boards are coming down…sorry future homeowners. I hope you like it.
After the top piece was secure, I added the chair rail using Liquid Nails.
Once the top board and chair rail was installed, I measured out the distance between the vertical boards. I settled on 14 inches which meant that I didn’t need to cut around any of the outlets. Yay!
This whole process would have been much easier if I had a electric saw, but instead I used a miter box and handsaw. Honestly, it was a total pain and I finished the day with my hand in blisters. But I wanted to use what I had and not go out and buy equipment on a whim.
However, now my Christmas list is filled with tools and other equipment.
All the vertical boards were installed with the Liquid Nail/Finishing Nail combo, and left to cure for a few days.
After installing the boards, there were days of finishing.
Wood filler…
Sanding…
…more sanding…
Priming…
and Painting.
Overall installation took 1 full day and the prep/finishing took about 3 days (but I was only working on it at night).
Every minute of work and every blister was well worth it.
After…
One more look back…
Before:
After:
I love, love, LOVE it.
Project Cost Breakdown (estimated):
1/4 Inch board – 8 feet long (Qty: 10) (Lowes) = $80
Chair Rail – 8 feet long (Qty: 3) (Lowes) = $15
Liquid Nails (Lowes) = $2
Nails/Hammer/Saw/Miter Box/Nail Set/Sander (Already Owned) = $0
Wood Filler/Kilz Primer/Semi Gloss White Paint (Already Owned) = $0
Total Project Cost: $97
SHOWING THE LOVE:
Linking to: Addicted 2 Decorating, Funky Junk Interiors, Between Naps On The Porch, Craft-O-Maniac, Making The World Cuter, Today’s Creative Blog, Ginger Snap Crafts, Blue Cricket Design, Very Merry Vintage Style, Savvy Southern Style, Thrifty Decor Chick
You did a great job on the moulding. The room looks great!
Visiting from Metamorphosis Monday.
Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
Thanks for this! I want to do this to our dining room. Your tutorial helps big time. I found you on Blue Cricket Designs
Nicely done. That adds so much to the room.
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This looks so daggone good. Did you do all the work yourself? I’d be working solo on the project and I’m trying to work up the courage to start adding moulding to my home.
Yep, I did this one all on my own. The moulding was lightweight so it was easy to work with. I did do a little extra work of putting guide lines on the walls with pencil first. I did this because I didn’t have anyone behind me to see if the moulding was even when I adhered it to the wall. Just use a level to add the lines, then you can line up the moulding when you glue it down. You could definitely do this project solo and it will turn out GREAT!
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