New Year Project

Monday, January 3, 2011

New Year Project

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year! Hubby and I took our boys to our first 3D movie and McDonalds. And we were all tucked in our warm beds by 10:30 pm. We're such the party animals.

I started a project a few days ago that I'm happy to share with you today!

It might look small on screen but it was a time consuming project...that I have been puting off for years.

The ugly hallway.

The original part of our house is from the 1960's. Which means no personality what-so-ever.

This hall was dirty, grungy, chippy. A real eye sore. And there was no way to stray my guests from seeing this "mess". This passage way is walked through hundreds of times as it leads to the new addition of our house, the office, the bathroom, the toy room and living room/kitchen.

Yes 5 doorways. So when I thought of even attempting to paint this little hallway, my stomach turned with all the doors and trim screaming out my name.

Most doors were white but new "wood" doors/trim have been added to the new addition end. So that meant priming. Another bummer.

Our thermostat was replaced a couple years ago so it was always fun to see the outline of the old one.

So I sucked it up and planned an attack last month. I was going to face this monster once and for all. Like it or not.

I've been liking the board and batten look for quite sometime. I thought this hallway would be an excellent candidate.

So I went to my local home improvement store and went trim shopping.

I have to be honest, the trim department is intimidating. So many styles and finishes. Very overwhelming but I got the job done and found the pieces I wanted to use.

I bought 1x4 pine boards for the base molding. The hallway still had the original 60's trim and I wanted to kick that to the curb. So if you plan on doing this project, the pine molding is optional.

Then I bought 1 inch wide lattice and 3 1/4 inch wide casing. These pieces are already primed to paint. Bonus!

I bought my molding at Menards which tends to be cheaper than the other BIG name home improvement stores.

Lattice 40 cents/foot

Casing 90 cents/foot

1x4 Pine 40 cents/foot

Before I started adding the molding to the wall, I painted like a mad woman. I painted all the trim and 4 doors. And I could of stopped there because that made such a HUGE difference. Goodbye grunge!

But I didn't. :)

This was the time I added my trim. Note: if you don't want to cut yourself, have the home improvement store do it for FREE.

I first added my base molding. Then one by one I added the lattice. I cut these 4 1/2 feet long.

I don't like to measure and I try to do something the easy way out. So for my "template", I used a ruler and that marked my spot to place the piece of lattice vertically. I did this all the way around the hallway. I had a level just in case but the ruler worked out great!

I used a nail gun to attach my pieces to the wall. You could also use an adhesive like liquid nails if you like.

I then cut my casing trim to length and set it right on top of the lattice molding. This should automatically be level since all your latice pieces are cut the same length.

I then painted the "new trim" and the bottom half of the wall the same color as the doors and existing trim. The color I used was Behr Paint: Swiss Coffee (but I color matched it for Pittsburgh paints)

And for an extra bonus, make sure you have a super cute helper. :)

And here it is today!

I forgot to mention that I painted the top half Behr: Sandstone Cove

And really I psyched myself out. Because really this project wasn't that bad. I wish I would of done this a lot sooner! The trim was the easiest part! My 7 year old and I did it together. :)