It’s been almost 4 months, but the updates to our dining room are finally done!  Thought we’d share some “Before & After” pictures of the changes we’ve made:

The "Before" Picture

The "After" Picture

We started work in the dining room back in July by removing the old wallpaper.  Once the wallpaper was down, we ran new wiring for the wall sconces to replace the old knob-and-tube.  We then had the walls skim-coated with a fresh layer of plaster to fill in some holes and cracks and smooth everything out.  With the plaster work complete, we installed picture frame molding below the chair rail and then painted the upper portion of the walls gray and the bottom the same shade of white as the rest of the trim in the house.

We still think the room needs some work from a decorating perspective, but we’re so happy to finally be done with the other updates.

We’re just finishing up a project to install picture frame molding below the existing chair rail in our dining room.  Thought I’d post what we did to install it in case it’s useful to someone else.

Step 1

Decide on the spacing to use for the picture frame molding so that it’s fairly consistent & symmetrical around the room.  Don’t worry too much about the placement of outlets, etc. in relation to where the molding will go.

For our dining room, since the chair rail is so low, we decided to use the following spacing for long, skinny rectangles on the wall:

• 2″ from the bottom of the chair rail to the top of the picture frame molding
• 2″ from the bottom of the picture frame molding to the top of the base board
• 4″ between vertical pieces of picture frame molding and corners, door casing, etc.

For help visualizing what would look right, use painters tape where the molding will be.  (Just remember to remove it relatively soon to avoid damage to the wall!)

Painters Tape to Visualize Spacing

Step 2

Use a compass to draw guide lines on the wall where the molding will go.  These lines should be parallel to any existing trim, etc. in the room.

Draw Guidelines for Molding

Step 3

Using the guide lines drawn on the wall, individually measure the exact length needed for each piece of trim.

We found that it’s not uncommon for each side of the frame to be a slightly different length, most probably because the house is old and not everything is exactly square.  We decided it was more important that the frames look level and square on the wall next to the existing trim rather than that they actually are level and square, so we used the exact measurements taken from the wall for each piece rather than assuming anything.

Step 4

For each piece measured, cut the ends of the molding at a 45 degree angle.  For this, we used a compound miter saw.  Even though our frames weren’t completely square in some cases, we only had one where we had to modify the angle from 45 degrees.

In the case where an outlet was positioned in the path of the picture frame molding, we cut it at a 45 degree angle and left a gap of about 3/4″ between the edge of the molding and the outlet covers.

Molding Around Outlets

Step 5

Starting with the top side of the frame, attach the molding to the wall with construction adhesive and a nail gun so that it’s aligned with the guide lines.  After the top side is attached, install the two vertical pieces of molding, followed by the bottom piece.  For each piece, we found it really helpful to test fit first to make sure the length and corner miters aligned correctly.

Our walls are plaster and we were concerned at first about using a nail gun for fear that it might cause the plaster to shatter.  We tested in a closet and didn’t have any problems, so we decided to use it for attaching the molding.  It worked great, with no damage to the wall, but we found that the construction adhesive was still needed to help the molding stay attached to the wall in the places where the wall was a little wavy.

Attaching the Molding

Step 6

With all of the molding attached to the wall, fill the nail holes, sand the edges off of the molding, and apply caulk around the edges of each frame to fill in any gaps between the molding and the wall.  We also used a really small amount of caulk to help fill in and smooth out the corners of the frames.

Step 7

Prime and paint the walls & new molding.

Since our walls were plaster, we needed to prime the walls with a concrete primer and the molding with a wood primer.  If we do this project again, we’d probably choose to prime the walls and molding before installing the molding to avoid all of the cutting in that was needed for the 2 different types of primers.

We chose to paint our picture frame molding and the wall behind it a semi-gloss enamel in the same color as the rest of the trim in our house.  For the outlet covers, we bought some unfinished wood ones that are being primed and painted the same color as the molding so they’ll blend in nicely.

Painting the Picture Frame Molding

With the plaster work done, we started installing picture frame molding below the chair rail in the dining room yesterday.  We’re only about half way done, but I really like how it looks so far:

Picture Frame Molding in the Dining Room

We were initially a little uncertain of the scale and dimensions to use since our chair rail is uncommonly low.  Given the dimensions of the room, though, we finally decided it would be best to do a smaller number of long, skinny boxes rather than a bunch of square ones and we decided to use 1″ trim pieces.  The measurements we decided on were a 2″ gap between the bottom of the chair rail and the top of the picture frame molding, a 2″ gap from the top of the baseboard and the bottom of the picture frame molding, and 4″ gaps on the sides and/or between boxes.

We were also a little concerned about how to attach the molding to the wall.  We were concerned that the nail gun would cause the plaster to crack and thought we might have to screw the molding to the walls instead, which would be a lot more time consuming.  We tested a spot in the kitchen closet and there were no signs of cracking, so we decided to go ahead and use it in the dining room and we haven’t had any problems so far.  For good measure, we also decided to use construction adhesive to make up for the places where the walls were a little wavy or there wasn’t an appropriately located stud to nail into.  So far, the installation is going pretty well.

We still need to do some sanding to knock the edges off of the the trim pieces before we paint and we probably need to put some caulk along the edges of the molding to fill in some small gaps between the trim and the wall and then I think we’ll be ready to paint.  I’m excited to see what the room will look like once all of the molding is the same color.