Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Molding Rocks!

I have a new obsession-Thrifty Decor Chick was really the one to get me started-her moldings are fab-I didn't know where to begin-I wanted the board and batten kind, I wanted my hollow doors covered in picture frame molding, I wanted big wide molding in my living room and dining room-whoa-not soo fast-Although molding doesn't have to be expensive-let's face it-it's not free. So, I needed to take baby steps.  I have stalked every blog I could find with any mention of molding-LOVE IT!  My next "problem" was the whole power tool thing.  We had a saw  but it was very scary looking and really loud! As you read this attempt at my direction giving, you may notice that it's abit scattered but being it's my very first tutorial on just about anything, forgive my choppy instructions! So my first step was to buy molding. I bought two 8 foot pieces of chair rail molding. I think they were just under $6 each. Then I got verrry cheap-I found 8 foot lattice strips for $1.28-I do love a bargain!! I bought 15 of these.  The total molding bill was about $32-not bad!  I decided I was going to not waste these 8 foot strips and cut them in half (with the big scary saw-yikes!).  Then I added the chair rail on top of these strips.  It was pretty easy, and it was a great way to cheat on the board and batten look I so dearly loved.  First though, I had to paint my front hall, it was due for an overhaul-two colors that were separated by some old stenciling.  I painted the bottom 4 feet white-Behr's pure white primer and paint and the top half was called Behr's real cream primer and paint in one.The Behr paint and primer in one can is kind of expensive, about $30 but it definitely saves you some steps. I found I needed two coats of this versus one of primer and one of paint separately. Then I started nailing up the strips of lattice wood.  I am not the most accurate when I am hot into a project, so I basically eye-balled the strips and their distance from each other. Slapped a few finishing nails into the slats and was off to the next one.  That was the quick part.  I then nailed the chair rail along the top of these strips-I forgot to mention I have an old house, nothing is even, nothing is level, so although the level I used said it was "perfect", there were some strips that didn't quite reach the chair rail-so what's a girl to do?  Fill it is with spackle of all sorts.  It worked-kind of.  You'll see once it's been painted. I do love it and I'm off to the next molding project-Gotta fly! Claire
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2 comments:

  1. Hi Claire!
    Your hallway looks great! Good job!
    TDC has so many fantastic ideas to 'borrow', doesn't she?!
    Thanks for stopping by for a visit today : )
    Have a wonderful weekend!
    emily

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  2. THANKS FOR VISITING MY BLOG. I LOVE THIS WALL TREATMENT AND SUCH A THRIFTY IDEA! I AM NOW A FOLLOWER.

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