Monday, May 10, 2010

Oooh! A project!!

So here's what I did with my birthday money. I got inspired at this blog. Well, actually, this is kind of a trend that is everywhere on blogs these days, and I am a sucker for architectural details. Especially wainscoting of all kinds. My house has ZERO architectural detail. No moulding, nothing. That just means I get to add it all myself, right? Yeah!! I finally decided on a faux board and batten treatment for this wall, and I must say I am *in love* with it! It was actually very cheap and easy to do. I followed the instructions from this blog and did the cheap version.

This is my wall before. Just a plain wall, right?


Basically, here's what I did:
I went to home depot and bought a few pieces of 1/4 inch thick mdf. It was 2ft. by 4ft, I think. Then I went to my friend's house and her husband used his table saw to cut it into 2 inch and 3 inch wide strips (4 ft long) for me.Then I used my new baby:

to cut 12 inches off each 2 inch wide strip, since I wanted a 3ft. strip and a 1 ft. strip. Then I just used liquid nails and stuck everything up where I wanted it. I did add a few nails to hold everything in place really well. I had to make a few cuts to go around the outlet and light switch plate. Oh yeah--before I started glueing and such, I did some measuring to see how far apart to make my vertical boards. I decided about 12 inches apart was ideal. I also just went on top of my baseboard. Easy peasy.

This is the 3 foot layer done:

I added the one foot layer on top of that. Then I painted 3 coats of Behr semi gloss Swiss Coffee and voila!!
Hmmm! Now the door looked really bad, so I painted that, too.

Much better!Next it's going to be the table's turn to get a paint job. I'm thinking black would be the best. I would really love white, but TOTALLY not practical for my family. (as I speak, Dr. D is watercoloring and there are drips of black paint all over the table. Yes, I believe black would be best! LOL)

7 comments:

Mandi@TidbitsfromtheTremaynes said...

Ooh it's beautiful! I love it! Great job.

Mandi@TidbitsfromtheTremaynes said...

Oh p.s., are you a Whetten? That means we are distantly related.

Jen said...

Oh I can't wait to come over. I LOVE this!!!!
I wish I had larger walls so I could do this.

House Of P said...

You never cease to AMAZE me! How do you manage to get all these projects done?! It looks fabulous!

Anonymous said...

you amaze me...That looks wonderful. You are awesome sally. GOOD JOB!

Anonymous said...

AWESOME! I love the new look. I want to paint my kitchen table too :)

Mandi@TidbitsfromtheTremaynes said...

Sally- I will have to ask my sister. She is the Whetten. Her husband is Conal. Have any cousins named Conal?