Living Room Progress

Let’s have a quick reminder of what my living room started out like..

Progress is well under way here on the living room project!  Oh how I love a good project!  Here’s what has happened so far.
I’ve brought the paint up and over the dividing wall and painted to where the trim will meet.

All of my supplies I got at Lowe’s.  I was really debating what to do with the baseboards, I wanted to beef them up but wondered how I would do that.  I didn’t really like the idea of ripping all my existing baseboards out and starting over.. too much work.  So after much deliberation and lots of research, I decided on a really simple 4″ baseboard like this one:

 I flipped it upside down so the top would be meet up better with the existing baseboard.

And I love it!

It adds just the right amount of height that I was looking for and really brings weight to the entire project.

 I measured the distance from the base to where I wanted the top of the trim, drew a level line measuring every foot or so, and then glued and nailed a plain 4″ board all along the wall.

The reason I used nails and glue, is because I knew much of this trim project would not be anchored to studs, and the glue gives it extra reinforcement.  I glue I used was Titebond wood glue click HERE.

It worked great! 

Once the base and the top were done, it was time to move onto the fun part!  

For the trim I used an 8X5 ft sheet of 1/2″ MDF and had the guy at Lowe’s cut it into 3″ strips for me.  I thought my miter saw was cool..this guy’s saw is the ultimate!!!

I measured every 24″ and drew a vertical line where the center of each board would go. Then, I used the same wood glue and fixed it secure with nails.  Once the vertical boards were up, I began cutting my horizontal boards and added them about 22″ from (the bottom of) the top trim piece.  Does that make sense?  I just eyeballed it to decide how big I wanted my panels to look and decided 22″ was my personal preference.

I capped the top trim off with a little piece of 2″ to give it a nice finished look.

The same stuff that I used on my stairway wall in this picture below.

(More about my stairway project HERE.)

Back to the living room!!

Just look how great it is looking!!!
At this point I think I was beginning to drool from the mouth…

On to nail holes.

I found the best EVER spackle and wish I had known about this stuff when I started my other projects!  Dry Dex, where have you been all my life?  There are some seriously bad spackling products out there, but this is a dream!

I love how it goes on pink and so smooth, then turns white when it dries.  Once it dried, I gave it a good sanding and started the painting process.

Oh my heart is a’flutterin!  Check back to see the finished product!