Entrance Hallway Molding DIY

I am jumping up and down ecstatic to show you today’s Before and After!  You might remember this image as our hallway entrance wall.  It was a long blank wall that was boring and rather drab.  That’s our front door to the right.  Clearly, we were debating paint color choices at the time this was snapped, but you get the idea.  LONG BLANK BORING WALL ZZZZZZ.

Well, after a lot of debating and even more sweat equity (mostly on Floyd’s part) it now looks like this:

I still have some decorating to do, in particular replacing that ol’ runner and adding in some fun hallway accessories, but, hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day and we are loving this new look.  Walking through the front door to a polished and airy vibe feels amazing after two years of the snoozefest.

It all started when over the summer Floyd took a week off with Shelby before she started her internship.  I mean what college student doesn’t want to bond over nail guns and measuring tapes on their vacay?!  It took a lot of measuring and getting the angles just right, and both reported each night when I got home from work (see how I avoided being around during this o’ so fun project!) that the math involved was the hardest part.  Floyd set up a make-shift work bench in our garage and borrowed this miter saw from a neighbor.   For those who are new to DIY, a miter saw equals a saw that can cut angles.  It’s pretty fancy in the whole world of tools.

First up was installing the chair rail using a nail gun.  Here Floyd works to make sure it’s nice and level before pulling that nail gun trigger.  Please note the protective eyewear.  Very important!  What a stud, hee hee.

Once the chair rail was up it was a matter of adding the boxes using shoe molding.  Here is where math with angles really came into play.  Painters tape was used to map out the process.  Afterwards, we filled the nail holes with putty, the seams where each piece of wood met with caulking, and painted the whole thing with two coats of a high gloss paint.  Folks are constantly asking if the whole section of wall is wood.  It’s not.  The truth is that the high gloss paint gives off a great shiny wood-like illusion and is a lot less work and expensive than adding wood paneling for the entire section of wall.

To bring it all home we decided on Sherwin-Williams March Wind, a grey paint color with a slightly blue hue for the top portion of the wall.  We then framed three of Floyd’s photos for a cohesive architectural theme of landmarks we love.

So, there you have it.  One of our many summer project that finally came together.  The entire project including paint cost a few hunndred dollars which was much more doable than the quote we received for several thousand (wowsers!).  It was a lot of sweat equity, but at least we can all sleep better knowing that Shelby now can handle a nail gun with the best of them!

Tagged as: DIY, Floyd, Hallway molding, Megan, photo, Yarmuth Photography