Since moving into our home two years ago I have been on a mission to update, improve and add character to this builder basic home. The main entry and staircase are a focal point that I wanted to emphasize with moulding. I am so excited to be partnering with Metrie to use their beautiful mouldings to add the style and substance to our home.
I chose this chair rail for its thick profile and rounded shape that would work with the rest of the home. I had been searching for the moulding to use below the chair rail for quite some time then I came across panel mouding from Metrie’s French Curves Collection. It has lines that coordinated well with the chair rail I had selected.
I started out by painting the walls and doors as well as refinishing the banister railing to get the other main elements in the room ready. Since I knew that I wanted a chair rail, I went ahead and painted the wall white, using painter’s tape to make a clean line on the lower portion of the wall. Going up the staircase I used the shadow that was cast by the railing to get an idea of the angle and adjusted it from there. Painting gave me an instant visual for how the walls would look with the moulding.
The installation of the chair rail has been a huge learning curve. When I started out, I had no idea about the angles so I bought a very basic mitre box, hand saw and nail setter. Thinking about how wood panelling would have been installed by carpenters before power tools gave me the confidence to ease into the project with limited hand tools.
These are the tools that I used to install the chair rail. If I had known how much I would use my mitre box and saw, I would have bought a slightly better quality one. This one works fine but there are others available for not too much more.
Here’s a look at how the front entry is looking so far. The moulding makes the space seem larger in this tight space.
Working through the main entrance was pretty easy once I got the hang of understanding how to cut the angles. What I didn’t consider was how angles would get a bit trickier on walls that aren’t square and staircases that have complicated angles.
Here’s a look at the upstairs hallway where I’m continuing the moulding for a cohesive look.
I’ve begun cutting the panel moulding and I’m in the process of creating jigs to assemble the frames before attaching them to the wall. For this part and the complex angles on the stairs, I am using books for guidance and technical advice.
Once I start to get the frames cut and up on the wall, I’ll make a tutorial showing more of the steps. What I’ve learned so far is that installing interior mouldings is much easier than I thought it would be when you’re sticking to rooms with square corners. Installing a chair rail in a powder room or hallway could easily be done with a hand saw if you don’t have a mitre saw.
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