Molding...tons of molding!

There has been a lot of work going on in our home the past few weeks.  Lots and lots of painting! I love adding wainscoting to a room, but it is a lot of work.  Cutting, sanding, caulking, priming, and painting two coats of white. But it is worth it! Here is a peek of how some of the rooms are coming along.
Here is the family room the day we moved in.  I am so so so over brown!

We took out the harth and added some molding around the fireplace.

We spray painted the brass grills on the fireplace and painted the whole wall white.

This is our dining room the day we moved in. I was so excited to have a dining room, but not one that looked like this!

We added some wainscoting to the bottom.

I painted the bottom half white, then it was ready for some color!

I went for red. I have always wanted a red dining room. I got rid of the antler chandelier, and hung a pretty crystal one instead.

Here is my living room the day we moved in.  Surprise, brown and boring!

We added some wood.

Painted it white....

and added some color! It gave the room a ton of character.

The last spot we added some wainscoting to was the upstairs stair landing.

We already re-finished the stair railings, and just by adding some molding, and a fun new light fixture, I have a totally fun, modern and updated space.
We still have a ton of work to do, but it is so fun watching everything come together and finally become something we love. Pin It

Accent walls

We have still been working on finishing the main floor wainscoting this past week. We have the fireplace wall done...not painted, but framed out, and I love it!

It started out a plain wall with just backer board nailed to it.  We then measured, measured again, and measured again until we came up with the right dimensions for the molding. We ripped four inch MDF boards, measured again, and cut them to fit.

Once the boards were ripped and cut we started assembling.  It went pretty quickly at that point.

We decided to trim around the fireplace with two inch boards.  I want the wall to have a clean look to it, so I decided to not have any stone or tile around the fireplace.

This is how it looks today.  I love the results.  We are going to caulk it, add crown and base moldings, then paint the whole thing white. I am going to add a wood mantle to it once the painting is done.
I think this added just the right amount of character to this room.

I love feature walls, they quickly become my favorite thing in a room.  I have been using a lot of molding, and light colors in this house, but I have painted a lot of feature walls in my other homes using bold pops of color.

This was a wall in my other home. We didn't use molding on that wall, but I used paint colors. I measured out the squares, taped them off, then picked my color pattern I wanted to use.  It was fast, affordable, and fun.  I just used those sample paints you can get at Lowes for three dollars each and went to work.  I love the molding, but there are a lot of other alternatives to do if you want to add a little personality to a room just by using paint.

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Over Christmas we demo'd some walls to make an opening for new columns for our staircase.  Well, after finishing the wood upstairs, painting the stairway, and painting the upstairs and entry, we finally are making progress on the columns.

We drew up some plans, and went to work covering the two by fours with MDF and backerboard.  Both products paint up nicely.

We measured how big we want the recessed panel to be, and ripped some MDF strips on the table saw. We brought them in, put them together, and then nailed them when we were happy with how the seams looked.

We decided to build out the bottom with wainscoting and leave the top plain.  I liked the way it still kept the entry open, but adds a lot of character and detail.  I need to fill the holes in with spackle, we need to caulk, then I can paint them a lovely shade of white.

We are also busy putting the backer board up for the rest of the wainscoting on the main level.  It is a lot of work, but it is also  fun watching it come together. Pin It

Pop of color

We moved into this house two years ago with the intention of re-doing just about everything. This is not our first house reno and we are very seasoned DIYers. This house is just taking longer to complete than I hoped it would. There were a lot of not so fun projects that we needed to take care of first.  I was prepared to be patient, live with the house the way it was until we got to each room, but I couldn't do it any longer. I had to make a minor change on my main level to stay sane this winter.  I had to do something with the dark brown accent wall in my family room.  I majorly dislike the color brown, and I could live with it no longer.  I needed COLOR! So for the cost of one gallon of paint, shopping around the house, and some spray paint in the garage, I have a new room!

Here is the room before. Not bad, but the brown just bugged me. I loved the color of the shutter on the mantle, and decided that I would paint the brown wall that color.

Can I just say, so much better. It really lightened up that room and made it feel less like a dungeon. So with that project done, I needed a little more color other places.

I found this ottoman at an antique store, and had to bring it home.

These frames were in the basement, and decided to do a collage above my couch.

I sprayed them to add some color.

The room came together great. Quickly and without spending a lot of money. It no longer feels like a big brown hole, and I actually like spending time in that room. It is funny what a difference a little color can make. Pin It