A piece of chair railing plus pre-made frames add instant character at an affordable price. Add some glue and a few finishing nails and it’s up!

Our house was a big blank, white box when we moved in and I’m on a mission to fix that! Moulding adds so much depth and it doesn’t have to be difficult. I added chair rail and pre-formed frames to the kids’ bathrooms and our hallway and I couldn’t be happier!

I’ll walk you through the before and afters. All three happen to be the three worst places for lighting and photos in the whole house!

Hallway

Bottom paint color: Pure White – semi-gloss (just as it comes in the can!)
Top paint color: Light French Gray – eggshell

Boys’ bathroom

I had to take down the towel rack and toilet paper holder. My patch job was subpar to put it nicely.

I decided to paint the moulding French Gray in this bathroom. I’m not quite done in here, but a room reveal is coming soon!

Girl’s bathroom

I showed you Clara’s bathroom a few weeks ago and how I painted the tile ombré coral.

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Tutorial

The process is very simple. If you don’t have corners to do, you can do it by yourself in no time! That’s what I loved about the bathrooms. I did just one wall and finished quickly.

Materials

• chair rail moulding
• pre-made moulding panels
• Liquid Nails
• caulk gun
• hammer
• finishing nails nails
• nail setter
• level
• measuring tape
• caulk
• paintbrush
• paint
• pencil
• file (optional)

Directions

1. If you would like the top a different color than the bottom, go ahead and do that first. I taped off at 40 inches.
2. Measure walls.
3. Order correct size and amount of needed pre-made frames.
4. Chose the chair rail moulding at the hardware store. I actually used crown moulding here.
5. Cut the chair rail to size. If there aren’t too many cuts, you can ask to have it cut to size at the store. We used a handsaw for the hallway, but had the bathrooms cut to size because we only need one piece.
6. File necessary end pieces. If you don’t have a miter saw, it’s near impossible to create an end cap, so my clever father-in-law filed down ends without an ending point.
7. We only had a few angled corners in the hallway and managed to tackle them with a handsaw and wood filler. If you have a saw and 90 degree angles, you’ll do great.
8. I measured, leveled, and marked where the rails should go. The halls have high ceilings, so I choose to do my chair rail 40 inches from the ground.
9. Then we squirted some glue on the back of each piece, and using a level, used finishing nails to nail them on.
10. Use a nail setter to inset the nails. That way when you caulk over them, they’ll be invisible!
11. We did the same with the pre-made moulding rectangles. Measure where they should go. Put a small amount of glue on the back, use a few finishing nails to hold it in place.
12. I caulked each and every piece and allowed time to dry.
13. And finally, I painted the moulding the same color as the wall. Semi-gloss finish is nice for wiping off dust.

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A post shared by Kate | Home & DIY Blog (@housemixblog) on Sep 5, 2019 at 6:04am PDT

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