Family Handyman Wainscot progress

[atgcpaul]

I had a long weekend so right after Christmas dinner, I started the
Family Handyman wainscot dining room. The key was to not spend as
much as they did in the magazine (I think $500 or so). I used long
poplar boards for the baseboard along the bottom (thanks to member
"vanguard" for the use of his planer) rather than splicing shorter
boards together. I would have saved some money if I had done the
splicing but my normal lumber guy had nothing over 8'. Everything
above the base is MDF. First thing I had to do was frame the window
with new trim. Then create the "Princeton stop molding". I had no
idea what that was so I routed a 3/8" ogee profile and tacked it next
to the window trim. I pretty much followed the instructions in the
magazine. Getting the stiles to avoid the wall outlets was the
hardest part. Anyway, here are some before and after pictures.

Things to do: apply cove molding under cap molding, smooth out
texture in current "wall panels" with joint compound, make quarter
round molding for panels, and paint.

Paul

[dlminehart]

Looks a lot classier! Nice to work on a project that really shows once you're done.

[Jan]

Nice job. Your room will have real elegance when you're finishe

BTW Princeton Wood Products manufactures wood moldings. The stop would be one of their door stop profiles. Most likely you made something nearly identical.

[monte]

Looking good Paul.

[jhart]

Nice job. Really makes an improvement in the room.

[billwmeyer]

What a difference. I hope my office turns out half as nice.
Bill

[lkazista]

Paul,

Wow, that looks great. I do have a couple of questions for you though. Firstly, why the Poplar on the bottom? Why not just go MDF all the way? And can you post a photo of the window detail that you mentioned. That is the thing that I am having a hard time visualizing.

Again, looks great, and thanks for sharing!

Lee

[atgcpaul]

quote:Originally posted by lkazista

Paul,

Wow, that looks great. I do have a couple of questions for you though. Firstly, why the Poplar on the bottom? Why not just go MDF all the way? And can you post a photo of the window detail that you mentioned. That is the thing that I am having a hard time visualizing.

Again, looks great, and thanks for sharing!

Lee

Lee, I chose poplar for 2 reasons:

1) Two of the three walls were longer than 8' and I didn't want to
use two shorter pieces of MDF with a scarf joint. Just my personal
preference. The third wall next to all the Christmas cards does
use MDF.

2) The bottom board isn't tacked on yet but all three walls will
use poplar. That's because I didn't want the edges or faces getting
dinged up too much by shoes and chair legs. The cap rail is also
poplar for the same reason.

The molding detail around the window is 1"x1/2" MDF with a
3/8" classical Roman ogee routed on the longer dimension. The
1/2" edge goes against the wall with the flat 1" surface on the
outside of the frame and ogee on the inside. When I get home I'll
take a closeup picture. I'm thinking I should have used poplar for
this now for durability because it does protrude from
the wall 1/4". Too late.

I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I tried to use MDF where
I could. I only saved $150-$200 doing this, but it has taken me
A LOT longer to get ready to paint because I've had to go back and
seal and sand all the cut edges of the MDF with spackle to get a
smooth surface for painting. I'd probably be done a week earlier
and have a lot less mess if I'd used poplar.


Paul

[lkazista]

quote:Originally posted by atgcpaul

The molding detail around the window is 1"x1/2" MDF with a
3/8" classical Roman ogee routed on the longer dimension. The
1/2" edge goes against the wall with the flat 1" surface on the
outside of the frame and ogee on the inside. When I get home I'll
take a closeup picture. I'm thinking I should have used poplar for
this now for durability because it does protrude from
the wall 1/4". Too late.

Paul, how about the window photo, and maybe an updated photo of the room?

Thanks,

Lee

[atgcpaul]

Sorry about the delay. Got a lot of things going on.

Here's the finished wainscot project. The wall "panels" originally
had knockdown texture which would have looked strange framed by the
rails and stiles so I made the knockdown smooth with joint compound
and sanded/painted it smooth. The popcorn ceiling was also scraped
and painted. My wife did most of the painting so that saved me a
lot of time and aggravation. Gotta' love that!

I still need to replace the beige outlets with white ones.

Paul

[monte]

Very nice Paul!

[leehljp]

Super Job! I really like that.

[ivwshane]

That looks really nice!

Nice work!

[gad5264]

Awesome outcome, that looks great.