Part 1: DIY Wainscoting, Board and Batten in Entryway Foyer

I've had this project in my head for ages.  I knew it would take a long time and so when my hubby had a long trip for work I knew it was just the time to get started.  I wanted to have it all up and done before he got home.  Well,  I may have underestimated the time it was going to take to complete this project- ha!  

(Most of these pics were taken with my iphone. No time to get out the big camera in the midst of this project.)

Step 1:  Order the mdf online at the Home Depot, I love being able to pick it up at the front rather than going to and hauling each piece onto the cart myself.  I used 1x6's for the baseboards and 1x3's for the stiles.  I also got some 1x1 trim pieces for the inside of the boxes.  

Step 2:  Paint all the  primed mdf in the garage.

Step 3: Clean all the junk off your work bench so you can work.

Step 4: Get all 3 kids off to school finally and gather all essential tools:-)

Step 5: Take before shots!

Entryway Before:

Step 6: Use your chisel, putty knife and hammer to carefully take off the existing baseboard, I put this back on at the end to layer on top of the new 1x6 taller baseboards.  Love this look!

Step 6 1/2:  Measure and cut your chair rail and base.  

While I usually describe myself as a delicate flower and am NOT a feminist, I love being able to build things myself.  There's always a learning curve on each project, and after a few past projects  I feel pretty confident with a miter saw.  During this project I finally figured out my air compressor and nail gun.  Don't have to ask the hubby for help anymore:-)

Someone took all the ear and eye protection with him on a trip, (including my Women on Target ears I just got!),  so I was forced to improvise for safety gear.  Enter my  blingy sunglasses, and I found some of my hub's racing headbands to help dull the noisy saw.  Don't forget to pull your hair back too, you don't want that getting stuck in your tools or in the way!

Step 7:   Using your Level, make a line and tack the new chair rail in place, mitering the corners.   Also the baseboard.  Then measure and add the stiles with your nailer.  Don't forget to use your glue too!

Step 8: DESIGN TIP!  Make sure there are always stiles at both ends of the wall!  You don't want a 3 sided box up against your door frame, there needs to be 4 sides of molding and then your door frame, or it will look unfinished.  Same with the corners, make sure there is a stile at the corners.  Don't let the wall corner hang out by itself.

Step 9: Repeat process for each wall.

I'm loving our new hand scraped hardwood floors we got last year... 

I really should have covered them up with some brown paper stuff to avoid getting sawdust in the cracks.  It was a real pain to get out.  I put my air compressor on a piece of cardboard so I didn't scratch the floors.

Step 10: Once boxes are up, go around with your smaller trim and add to the boxes.  This helps hide any gaps between the mdf and the wall not being plumb.    Putty and sand nail holes and joints.  

This takes forever!!

Step 11: If you're running into other existing trim, like up the stairs, use a coping saw to cut the trim away where you need to.  Like on this small piece below.

I'll be back with PART 2 for the final reveal!

DIY Window Framing and Box Molding

Before:

Please ignore the ghetto kitchen- baby steps people:-)

During:

I taped off horizontal boxes first, then vertical boxes to decide which shape  I wanted to do. Usually I like the look of horizontal boxes.  However, I did a higher chair rail and so the vertical boxes looked better proportionally.    I think they were about 24h x 22w, we just did the math to find out how many would equally fit on the wall.

After:

First we cut all the boxes and then used wood glue and clamped them together.  Then I took each box out to the garage and spray primed each one a couple of times.  Once they were primed we tacked them to the wall with our nail gun.

This is what the room looked like for a few months....

(1 coat of primer on the walls)

Then I finally got my rear in gear with the help of my awesome step-dad, and when he's around, things get done:-)   (and thanks mom for watching the kids too:-))

The window we framed out earlier, light fixture needs replacing,  not crooked in real life. This is a good shot of the builder blinds,  see how I transformed them into cute roman shades here.

I used Behr's Pure Ultra White paint for everything.  I would normally recommend a satin finish for trim, but I decided to go full on glossy finish since eventually this is going to be a more modern room, (even with the traditional box moldings) I love it.  

So now that the moldings are done and the roman shades are in, the next phase of the plan is painting the walls and putting together some art I got for the walls and some new fabric ordered.  When I'm done there will be no more red in this room.  TTFN.:-)