Recently I’ve been doing projects for friends and family which is super exciting! I obviously love doing this kind of thing, and sprinkling in projects for others helps make the projects at my house last a little longer. And if you know me, you know I never want them to run out! So I took a trip down to South Florida a couple weeks ago to help a good friend with her new house and I’m excited to share it with you all. Her new home is gorgeous with a huge open floor plan, but was in need of some interest, or a focal point.
When you walk in the front door, the dining room is directly to your right. There’s a wall that divides the kitchen and dining room and is a big blank slate when you walk in:
It needed some interest and something that catches you eye when you walk in the house. After showing them the different moldings I thought were an option, they settled on a box molding, similar to my master bedroom framed out walls.
The only supply needed for this project is chair rail molding. We bought 8, 96″ pieces and the whole thing cost about $60.
The first thing I did was measure the height and width of the wall and draw up the plans.
I based the proportions off the mirror they found that would go in the center box. It was 36″ wide. I thought the middle box being about 2/3 of the wall and the 2 side boxes being about 1/3 of the wall would look good. I tinkered with the dimensions of the boxes until I found a proportion I liked.
Next, I taped off the wall to paint the inside of the boxes. I drew the lines on the wall with pencil and a level and drew the lines where the CENTER of the molding would lie. For example, when starting from the left side of the wall, I measured 3 inches in, plus half the dimension of the molding (2.5″ / 2 = 1.25″). So 3″ + 1.25″ = 4.25″ from the left edge. The reason I did this is because it leaves room for error when painting and attaching the molding.
Side note: this Frog tape was amazing. I usually use regular blue painters tape, but they had this Frog tape and I will never be going back to the blue tape.
Next I rolled on the gray paint that went inside the boxes.
I waited about 45 minutes for it to dry and then removed the frog tape and started hanging the molding. We cut the pieces according to the drawing and each angle was cut at 45 degrees. I held up the molding against the wall with a level, ensuring the bottom was flush with the baseboard.
I used a nail gun to put a nail in about every 18″.
I nailed up all 6 of the vertical pieces before I add the top 3 “caps”. This ensured the best accuracy with measurements and tightest fit.
Here’s a close up of the corners.
Caulking the nail holes and edges, and touch up paint were the last steps to finish it! Then I drilled the holes in the center to hang the mirror
I also painted the outlet covers the same color as the wall to disguise them.
And a reminder of the before:
And the AFTER!
What do you think of the transformation? Comment and let me know your thoughts or if you have any questions. I love hearing from you all!