Panel and Picture Frame Moulding

I mentioned in my last post that we officially decided on Picture Frame moulding. Due to the texture of my walls, We decided to panel the walls first.  After measuring everything out we went to Lowe's to look at various paneling options. A lot of people use plain headboard paneling. I didn't like the texture and how easily it seemed to scratch and chip. After placing two boards side by side in the store, I was convinced the seams would look awful. Most of all the other paneling was more of a tranditional wainscoting with ridges. I was getting frustrated and ALMOST settled on the headboard when my dad suggested that we use  Lauan plywood boards. It would be more work to prep but better quality with a more seamless look.

So this is what we left the store with...

Shopping List:
 4- Sheets of 4X8 Lauan- $46.14
1- sheet 4X4 Lauan- $8.98
11-  8 ft pieces of Base cap moulding (we would have preferred to use 12 ft pieces but they were in BAD shape, so we opted for the 8 ft pieces) - 77.77
3-  12 ft pieces of Chair rail moulding- 39.96
4-  Tubes of Power Grab All- purpose- 12.8

You will also need primer, paint and pins for the pin gun... all of which we had on hand.

After my shopping adventure with my dad, Tim and I went home to start all the prep work. Since all of the moulding was pre-primed, we just covered it with two thin coats of Benjamin Moore Advance paint in Super White. The Lauan got trimmed to size followed by a thick coat of primer and two coats of paint.

I parked in the driveway for the night and we covered our epoxy floors with plastic tarps so that we could lay everything out to dry.  With the fan on overnight, everything was ready for install the next morning.

We ended up using 3 ft height on the Lauan panels. We started with the "easy" walls. We used Power Grab on the back of the panels to secure the panels to the wall but then also used a Pin nailer to ensure a nice snug fit to the wall. We used a table saw to cut the Lauan panels to size where needed, like on this wall.

And a jigsaw to cut around holes for the outlets and a/c vent.

Speaking of the air vent. We decided that it would like dingy on the freshly painted paneling so since we already removed it, we gave it a coat of white spray paint. More on the vent shortly.

Next up, chair rail. Because the room is really only three full walls, we were able to get away with three 12 foot pieces of trim. This left no room for error but it ended up working out perfectly!  We used a miter saw to cut all the chair rail.. You can either install the chair rail directly above your paneling, adding a bit more height or on top of the paneling, if you want to stick with height of the paneling itself. We thought things would looks more seamless if we installed it directly above.

After a quick lunch break, we measured a second time for our picture frames. Since we ended up with 8 ft moulding, we were able to get two frames from each piece. We went with a height of 21 inches for each frame but adjusted the width based on the wall.  We preassembled six 21x32" frames for the two "easy walls". Again, we used the miter saw to cut all the base cap to size.

The a/c vent gave us some trouble. Since there was no room under the vent for any moulding, we weren't able to encapsulate it in a frame, like we did with the outlets. Because of that, the only real option was to make one larger ( 21 X 38") frame for this wall.

And of course we made a small frame ( 21 X 9") for the closet wall, just so everything was uniform.

We attached all the frames with the pin gun. And here is a little before and after comparison with one of our seams.

Barely visible after the frames went on! We still have have a few touch ups and some caulking to do but I LOVE it.  We will also be adding crown moulding to the nursery and guest room in the next few weeks, since they are the only two places in the house without it.

We spent just under $200 ( $198.65 to be exact), 3 hours prepping everything and about 5 hours on the installation. We seriously could not have done this project ( well at least not as successfully) without my dad!

I will post more ( hopefully better) pictures once we finish the touch ups and the installation of the crown moulding.