From Craft Room to Baby Room
I’m not just talking about crafting. It’s been said time and time again that it’s the cheapest thing you can do to transform a room in your house. Well MY personal other cheap favorite… molding!!! I don’t think in general people realize how inexpensive it really is. Yet when you shop for a home it is some huge luxury selling point.
When our second son arrived in the spring of 2011 I honestly didn’t want to give up my scrapbook/craft room. One, it was my only hiding place to get away. Two, LOOK AT THE PICTURE! Would you really want to deal with moving ALL of that and find a new home for it. Y’all are only seeing a small portion of the room. All four walls were covered with storage and shelves full of crafting supplies (not to mention the huge closet full of stuff).
Anyway, after the boys trying to share a room (there is a 7 year age difference), which resulted more in mommy being stressed out because they were waking each other up I gave in. THIS is where everything went to live, our game room. At least til I figured out what to do with it. Now the transformation begins.
I chose to do a chair rail and two different colors on the wall. It’s not complicated and makes painting easier because you only really have to worry about a clean line at the baseboards. To section off the two parts use a chalk line. Make sure you measure and use a level when marking the walls so you know where to hold the chalk line before snapping it. If you look closely in the second picture I didn’t bring the paint together in the middle or at the ceiling because the molding will cover it. Plus you want the chalk like showing so you know how to line up your chair rail. Save yourself some grief and paint your molding BEFORE you cut and put it up. It’s easier to touch up after it’s up than try to paint it while it’s on the wall.
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Once all the painting is done, here is the fun part… power tools!! You need a compound miter saw, nail gun and air compressor. If you don’t have these things borrow one or rent one from Home Depot. Putting up the chair rail is typically a two man (or woman) job, but a little trick you can use… nail a couple finishing nails to the wall using your chalk line and a level as a guild to help hold up the molding while you nail in place. If you’re not comfortable doing that get an extra set of hands. There are TONS of YouTube videos to show you how to cut chair and crown molding.
Now I’d be lying if I said I did it all by myself. My dad was my extra set of hands for the chair rail and I had asked my father in law to help with this weird angle (pictured below) because he has had a lot of experience in this area. What I DIDN’T know was that he’d want to do all of it himself, so the crown molding he did for me. (FYI the blue tape you see on the walls – that’s were the studs are… you want to make sure that you get some of the nails in the studs so the molding is well secured).
Drumroll…. TADA!!! My sweet baby Andrew’s room. We’ll get to the DIY décor next time 😉
