Boxy and boring! Our dining room needed all the help it could get! We added ceiling interest with a faux tray and chandelier moulding here. And a new chandelier. Added a chair rail. Then came picture frame moulding to change everything. Adding picture frame moulding is a quick and relatively inexpensive way to add architectural interest to a room. It was well worth the learning curve, the time and energy doing it and every penny it cost. Setting down with paper and pencil and thinking things through beforehand is a huge time and money saver! The first step is to determine placement of top and bottom of picture frame molding. I used the Golden Ratio formula to determine a pleasing placement for the chair rail. It made sense to use the same formula to determine where to ... [Read More]
wood trim
How to Install a Chair Rail
Installing a chair rail was a step in giving our boxy plain dining room some architectural character. Here's what we did: You can purchase 12, 10 or 8 foot lengths of moulding and trim. Before buying, measure the room and take note of windows and doors. Determine the longest unbroken run and that will determine the length of the stock moulding. For example, if the measurement is over 10 foot, buy 12 foot long stock. This will allow you to make as few splices as possible and save you time and work. With a little thought, you can figure out how to make those three dimensions work in your room to make as few cuts as possible. Just be sure the pattern is exactly the same in all lengths. Remember when figuring length of stock that straight ends will butt up against door and window ... [Read More]
Choosing and installing crown moulding
Adding crown molding to our boxy room was part of the Great Dining Room Makeover. Love the extra charm and detail! It makes the room look surprisingly bigger and the white against the deep colored wall really pops!! Best of all, it was easy to do. The hardest part was making decisions beforehand. You, too, can install crown molding in three easy steps! 1) Choose a moulding and style. MDF is lightweight and relatively inexpensive. It is pre primed, ready to paint and, in general, handles just like wood. This was the type we chose. This was our first time doing this and I reasoned that if we messed up it would at least be cheaper than wood. (How’s that for confident decision making?!) It went so well, that this material would be first choice again. Our ceiling is standard ... [Read More]
How to create a faux tray ceiling and give your room character
How to create a faux tray ceiling – and take very bad photos in rainy weather when trying to show it! That’s really what the title of this post should be! Have you ever tried to take a picture of your ceiling? Did you know that chandeliers look very different when you are lying on the floor? Just roll with the pictures today – you’ll get the idea! I saw a room photo once upon a time, who remembers where, but the ceiling trim shown came to mind when we decided to redo the dining room. Our dining room was basically a square box with openings on three sides and no distinguishing characteristics whatsoever. We set out to give it a little character. As our confidence grew, so did the character! I love it now – including the ceiling. Visitors don’t see that detail right away, but ... [Read More]
