Faux Wainscoting Part 2

         To continue the How To on faux wainscoting, you need to take a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up the cheap picture frames that don't have glass in them.  They're wood, and at my Wal-Mart they're on an end cap and they are sold for around $3.96 a piece which is dramatically cheaper than purchasing molding and cutting it.  Then you're going to need spackling (I'll tell you why in a bit).  I get mine at Home Depot and a small jug is around $4.00 and you'll need one per frame, so I need 2 because on the wall I'm doing at the moment, there are 4 frames (Don't forget a small putty knife!).

         So then you'll go home and measure where you want your frames to be.  You'll either want your frames horizontal or vertical; I picked horizontal.  Make sure that the frame is in the middle of the bottom portion.  Now, they say to use wood glue and nails to get them on, but apparently I'm cheap and hate wood glue because I will wind up smearing it all over the wall trying to get the frame lined up.  Okay, now space them apart evenly and attach to the wall.  They should look something like this:

         Then you'll notice that there's a gap between where the picture is supposed to go in the frames, and the wall.  This proposes a beauty no no and so that's where the putty comes in!  Here is the frame on the wall after I have attached it with the nails.  Notice the gap?  Gross.

         You'll take your putty knife and scoop some spackling out of the jug (don't worry if it gets messy, it's very easy to clean up and takes 24 hours to dry) and push it into the hole.  Make sure that when you do this, you drag the knife along the frame to pick up any stray spackling.  Do this on all sides and let dry for 24 hours.  Doesn't this look fantastic?

         Now, because I have to paint the chair railing and these frames still, I decided to go ahead and paint the rest of my top wall.  You'll notice that my amazing self, made boo boos lol but that's okay because they are easily fixed.  Now remember, when you're painting the wall a color and you've already done the trim - your wall is going to look lighter than the trim because it is wet.  Please let it have time to dry.  The associates at Home Depot Paint would be greatly appreciative haha!

         The chair molding is the next item you want to put up.  This part is tricky, because Home Depot does not cut corners on wood for you.  My advice, cut enough off the chair molding to fit the other chair molding from the other wall.  Yes, it's going to look horribly odd but I'll show you how to fix it on Faux Wainscoting Part 3.  So once you've measured the wall and have your chair molding, have someone go to the opposite end of the wall to hold the other side of the chair molding for you.  Then tap long skinny nails into it every 6-9 inches.  Once again, I hate wood glue, but you should use it.  See?  Told you that you wouldn't see the majority of my screw ups (= haha.

         Now the only thing left to do on this side of the wall is paint the top ceiling board, the frames, and the chair molding and this side of the room will be done!  Oh, and I'm replacing my receptical plate.  To paint the moldings without getting white paint on the brown, just use painters tape!

Stay tuned for the last installment of faux wainscoting!

Faux Wainscoting Part 1

        So, I'm usually great with getting things done in the house but I've found out that right now, that's not the case.  I have such a heavy work load with my customers, that my house and the renovations are going crazy slow, which is making me really tired.  I get excited with new ideas for my house and the cheaper, and more craftier ways the better!  So here's what I'm *attempting* at the moment. 
         I am going to turn our junk room (literally filled with junk) into an office, because we've decided that my son is going to start attending school online in the fall; so he's going to need a good space.  So here are a few before and during to help you visualize the mess I have currently found myself in.
         A little background before you see the pictures LOL!  I have had family staying with me since September and they have occupied my room and like dominos, the house and its insides have blended into every room and most of the small items have wound up in what is known as our junk room.  Okay, now you can look haha!

        The photo on the left is what it looked like when I walked in there to start the project.  I wanted an honest picture of what kind of crazy thing can happen when you let family move in lol!  The padding on the floor is from my son.  He would come in here some times to be alone and watch tv so he wouldn't hear the loud noises.  The photo on the right is when I began picking up the majority of the junk and actually moved it to the dining room lol!

         So what I'm going to be doing is faux wainscoting in here and so I need to split the walls in two.  To do that, you need to know the average height of a chair railing, which is 3ft.  Measure 3ft up on one side of the wall and then go to the other side of the wall and do the same.  (Have someone help you with this next portion) Get your painters tape and place it on one side of the wall above the 3ft marking and have your helper hold this tape here to make sure it goes on level and well, doesn't pop off the wall because you'll be pulling the tape tight to the other side of the wall where the other marking is.  Then you can take the color you're going to have for the bottom and paint the trim twice if you get good paint; I only use Behr.

         Once you've done the two coats of trim, take your roller and paint the bottom portion (once again, you should only need 2 coats).  Then, remove the blue painters tape!

         As you can see, I did not place new blue painters tape down but that's because I trust myself to make a fairly straight line with the paint for the top portion.  Besides, I can cheat, chair molding will cover the majority of the imperfections!  So, this is as far as I got, because I had to complete an order for a customers of mine, a blue dresser/mirror.