Howdy nutty folk!!
Hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend!
We've been dealing with crown molding here. More like, wasting crown molding. Sheesh! That stuff messes up my brain BIG time!! But, we're working it out.
Did I mention that I got a new compressor and nail gun??? I'm never putting it away.
One of my goals for 2012 was to learn to do woodworking. First, I got the miter saw. Now, with the power of the nail gun I can finally learn projects I've seen all over blogland.
Now, I'm not going to give you a B&B tutorial. There are thousands out there. Believe me, I know. I've been studying them for the past couple weeks in preparation.
I started with this:
Our dining room.
I took the advice to start on a simple wall with no corners to start. I got very lucky. This wall is exactly 12 feet long. I had the guy at Home Depot cut the sheets of MDF in half (4 feet) and then in 4 inch strips. I did this to make it easier to transport. I got a little over excited and got 2 sheets of MDF cut. I have lots left over.
I like the chunkier B&B. Maybe it's actually considered paneling this way, I'm not sure. But, I prefer the boards & battens to all be the same width. Looks cleaner and symmetrical. I also added a 2 inch ledge to the top with a piece of quarter round molding underneath.
This was easy. Like, SO easy! I'm sure it was because the wall was such a good length. I added a 4 inch strip on top of the current baseboard, then a strip on the outside edge of each wall. I cut one of the extra pieces to 2 1/2 feet and used that as a spacer for my battens. Then, I capped the top and used the 2 1/2 foot pieces to add another strip 12 inches down from the top. Added the ledge and molding.
I caulked all the nail holes and seams:
Let this dry overnight and used my electric palm sander to sand it all nice and even. I don't know what the heck I was thinking... there was dust EVERYWHERE!! AHHH!! I have OCD and so after I finished sanding I had to go through and vacuum and dust everywhere before I could carry on. Weirdo.
I had originally painted this all plain old white straight off the shelf. Now, this may be the one time that you hear me say "It was TOO white!". Is that even possible?? Yes, in this case. Since everything was nice and primed and painted, I decided to use the same luscious paint that I used on my cabinets. And, since the B&B butts up to the cabinets, I don't know why it wasn't obvious that the paint needed to match. Quickly repainted it the off white/cream color... and this is how it turned out:
I'm beyond thrilled with this. I was pretty pleasantly surprised how easy this was. Now, I'm sure if the wall had been different measurements it might have been more difficult.
This makes me giddy with pride & joy!!
Now my dilemma is how to stage the top and ledge area. I may make a new chalkboard and head to Ikea for a bunch of frames... turn that area into a picture wall. Any suggestions??
I did this all. By. Myself. SO proud!!
*SQUEE*
What do ya think?? Like??
I have tons of MDF strips left. Look out, I'm nailing it everywhere...
XOXO