A year and a half living in this house, I'm finally starting to feel 'settled in.' I guess all it took was addressing the dining room- why didn't I do it sooner?? Warning- this is going to be a long one. Lots of steps.
Before I get to the "HOW," lets take a look again at the results
Ok, so how did someone with zero moulding/trim experience add detail to my dining room that looks like it's been there 100 years?
Well, the first step was paint. I measured down from the ceiling, then used a laser level to connect the dots. Since the trim was going over the line, I didn't have to be precise.
I ordered actual picture rail online from here since the local big box stores don't carry such specialized trim.
When it comes to cutting the trim, this guy certainly helped. Meet my new adjustable miter saw. 45 degrees? no prob! 60 degrees? piece of cake! 70? no sweat. Ok, so it couldn't really do anything in between increments of 5, but that's where caulk and wood filler come in.
The room has some wonky corners, so it was like putting a puzzle together.
So why not treat it as a puzzle? I picked a starting point and numbered the wall where each piece of trim needed to be.
As I cut each piece, I numbered it accordingly to avoid the inevitable confusion later.
Even with all my planning, I still managed to forget to cut one piece and had to go back and cut it once all the rest were painted and installed. That's how it goes.
I primed and painted the pieces before installing. That way I would only have to do touch-ups once all the trim was up.
I'm just noticing now that I think I got a little overeager. I did get pictures of the rest of the process, but they're so rushed! Sorry! I got a little too excited about the end result.
But how can you not be excited when a corner like this
ends up like this
I swear that's the same corner!
I borrowed Handy Dad's nail gun and attached the trim to the wall at the studs with finish nails. I neglected to get pictures before I started with the fillers, though. Wood filler covered the nail holes and caulk filled the gaps at edges, corners, and the bottom edge of the trim (since my walls were shockingly not totally straight). The caulk/lack of gaps is really what makes the trim look like it's always been there.
After sanding the wood filler and touching up lots of paint, I got to do my happy dance. Although my happy dance looked deceptively like melting into the couch exhausted. In my head I was doing cartwheels, though, I assure you.
Without any heavy construction, somehow the room feels 2 times the size. Mission accomplished!