Fablous Foyer here we come!

I have a problem, I can not finish a project before I start another one. It is TERRIBLE. My focus right now should be on L's room redo but I can't control myself, our foyer was just begging to be started. I blame this on a steal of a deal table that I found at Marshall's.

I found the table for less than $90 (there's a scratch on the back but who cares?!) and had to get it. But now I had a great table, crappy lamp and NOTHING else. Pretty impressive front entrance, right? So after looking at this for a week I decided it was time to get stuff done. One Sunday I just jumped up and started measuring. We were doing faux wainscoting!

I started with where I wanted the chair rail to be. We already have one in our dining room (we also plan on doing wainscoting in there) so I used that as my guide. Measuring from the floor, my first tape line was to determine where the chair rail would be- about 30 inches from the floor. After taping the "chair rail" around the foyer, I started on the boxes. I decided how many boxes I wanted on each wall, then determined how far away I wanted them from the chair rail, baseboard and each other. I decided after looking at several other blogger's tutorials that 4 inches was a good number...and just went with it! 

Taping- DONE! Just having things taped looked better than before...maybe we should have just left up that beautiful blue stuff. Ha!

Now it was time for a trip to Home Depot. We needed a Miter saw and trim! Thankfully we were able to find the same chair rail material that's in the dining room and then just used piece of flat wood trim that we liked for the boxes. Neither of these were primed so we saved some dough there (plus I am a freak and LOVE priming and painting). Here's a quick pic of our materials:

Time to get down to business. Bryan took over from here because I don't go near machinery. He took all the measurements he needed (SO easy since he just had to measure the tape) and went to his work room to cut the materials. He made all cuts at a 45 degree angle and fitted them on the floor of his work room before brining them up to make sure they all had nice clean fits.

Next up- putting the trim on the walls! Now stop. Hammer time. Haha...I crack myself up. Using my tape as a guide, Bryan used 2 1/2 inch trim nails and hammered the trim to the walls making sure to hit the studs for maximum "stayness". Yep, I just invented a word. Also...a nail gun would be easier but we like to do things the hard way. Here was our first completed wall:

Eeek! Such a huge difference. The corner to the left is the start of our living room. Eventually we will continue the "wainscoting" there and into the dining room. For now, that chair rail is just cut at a 45 degree angle and will hang out as is.

We ran into a bit of a problem when we started to do the next wall:  

First issue with pocket door: we have a wall with no studs. Second issue with a pocket door: there's a pocket door. I have a feeling it would be no longer in use after using 2 1/2 inch nails to attach a chair rail to that side of the wall. And this is why I have my husband...because you better believe I would have just nailed those suckers up, caulked and painted the whole thing and one day realize "hey, I can't pull out the pocket door!".

So we decided to use some Power Grab adhesive ($8 at Home Depot) to "glue" the trim to the wall then the 2 1/2 inch nails further along the wall where the studs started back up. We had to "tape" the trim to the walls for 24 hours while the adhesive set, but I think this turned out to be a pretty good solution.

 Then we ran into problem #2 on the other end of the foyer. We are not continuing the chair rail down the hallway so we have another dead end.

Again, my genius husband crafted this cute little teeny tiny piece to fit snugly into the crack for a nice finished look. Pretty good right?!

 

After using a nail punch to get the nail heads further in the trim, we used wood putty to fill in the holes and lightly sanded down any excess after it dried. Then it was time to caulk along the edges of all wood and fill in any gaps. This helps things look nice and crisp after the trim is painted (aka- no gaps or cracks along the wall).  

 

We used a tube of Alex Plus and it went on very easily. Just applied at a 45 degree angle with the caulking gun doing a "line" at a time...caulking then pressing the white stuff into the cracks with a wet finger. Have LOTS of wet and dry paper towels with you so you aren't running back and forth to the sink. We also used a wet paper towel to wipe up any spills and "oopses". 

Finally we can prime and paint! Using a latex primer (because that's what we had) I primed all the trim. I used painters tape so I wouldn't get any on the existing trim and baseboard...but I didn't bother with the walls since they are getting a fresh coat of paint as well. 

Bryan didn't trust me to keep paint off the wood floors so he used masking tape to secure a drop cloth. Instead of taping the floor...he taped the baseboard. Guess I didn't need that blue painters tape...baseboard will now need to be sanded, primed and repainted. Me to Bryan after discovering this: "I'm going to KILL YOU". Bryan to me "At least there's no paint on the FLOOR". 

In his defense, all of the trim in this entire house needs redone. The trim itself is in great shape, even after 30 years! But the contractor that updated the house before we bought it painted right on the wood...no primer. So we get the job of sanding, priming and painting ALL of the doors, closet doors, trim and baseboards in the entire house. We'll be doing this room by room as we go. Talk about a lot of work! 

After 2 coats of primer and 1 coat of paint on the trim, and 2 coats of paint on the walls, our faux wainscoting is finished! We couldn't be happier with the way it turned out!

I think the first thing you notice in the before/afters is the wainscoting...second thing is my crooked lampshade. Ha! That lamp and the candle sticks will be getting a fresh coat of paint...along with the top part of the walls. I'm really thinking a light gray will look gorgeous in this room but I'm waiting to find a rug that I fall in love with to coordinate. 

Although I'd love to cross a line through this room on our to do list, I'm not going to rush the paint color decision. For now, I'll just sit back and enjoy the faux wainscoting transformation!