More examples of my obsession

So now that I've explained how to add molding to your home, I thought I would share more ways I think it has transformed our house.

Our master bathroom is one of my favorite examples. We have extremely high ceilings that I painted with a mossy green color. After a while I realized how dark it was in there, but there was NO WAY I was repainting those walls again. I thought about adding tile around our tub, but figured it would be at least $1000 to do that. So I ended up using molding around the tub to lighten up the space.

Here is the before:





And here is it after, with the magic of molding! :)






I added rectangles to the walls around the tub with molding, a chair rail around the top and painted it all out white. Then I used beadboard around the marble base of the tub and painted it a shade darker than the walls.

The BEST PART! This whole project was $40! The molding is the only purchase I had to make -- the beadboard was leftover from another project and the paint I already had. You can't beat it! We'd still like to change out the tub fixtures, but that will be later -- for the plumber. :)

The squares on my walls.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! We had a great one -- full of marching band. ;) I swear I feel like I have 300 more children every weekend, I am so proud when I watch them perform. Sniff.

Today I'm not feeling so great -- no fever thank goodness, just general crap. Hopefully I can sleep it off tonight. I cannot stand being down and out. Gives me hives!!

So yes, this is yet another post about molding. I swear after this I won't mention it again for a whole WEEK! OK, maybe a month. Grumble. I got so many questions about determining the size of the boxes, so I thought I would answer that, and while I'm at it, show you the various ways I've used molding around our home...

The family room I worked on just weeks after the Bub was born. I was itching to get back to "normal" -- doesn't everyone feel like that? So a home improvement project was in order to scratch that itch. :) The Bub was in his bouncy seat the whole time I did this room -- and he slept through the whole thing!:

I used the foam molding in this room, and many of you who have seen pictures of our family room have asked about these boxes. I used a large stencil (I get mine from Hobby Lobby) to make the design inside the boxes. I wanted it to be really light and barely noticeable, so I used my faux iridescent paint only for the stencil.

I have loved it for years, but every once and a while I want to get rid of the swirls. They are fun and very subtle, but now I have a new look in mind. I'm thinking I'm going to paint the insides of those boxes with a color slightly darker than the walls. Stay tuned for that one!

In our chocolate powder room, I used real wood for the chair rail (I wanted it real thick and chunky) and the foam stuff for the boxes:

I never even painted them!:

Love that stuff!

The million dollar question -- how big do you make your boxes? It's a bit of math (ewwww!!) and some trial and error. First, you'll need to measure the wall. Then, decide how many inches you want between all of your boxes. I do a standard three inches all the way around:

Say your wall is 14 feet. (They are rarely a perfect number like that, for explanation purposes, let's go easy.) Fourteen feet is 168 inches. So maybe you want six boxes on that wall -- take out the three inches next to each box and figure out the final number. If we did six boxes, there would be seven three inch sections equalling 21 inches. Take 21 from 168 -- the number you have to work with is 147 inches.

Like this:

3" (box) 3" (box) 3" (box) 3" (box) 3" (box) 3" (box) 3"

Take the remaining 147 inches and divide it by six boxes -- each box will be 24.5 inches wide. Does that make sense? If you want to vary the sizes of the boxes (I do this often) -- decide on the larger size first and then figure out what you have to work with to determine the smaller sized boxes.

I highly suggest starting at each end of the wall, and working in. So if any are slightly off, it will be the middle box on the wall. If it's off just a bit, it will look like it's supposed to be, since it's in the center. This has saved me a couple of times. ;)

I also use molding to highlight parts of our home -- the columns between our living room and dining room:

Our super duper tall staircase:
And the half wall in our loft:

This molding was from Home Depot and is plastic! Can you believe it? It's in the molding area, but down at the outdoor trim area. It's got a great shape:
They cut like butta with a miter box and saw. Awesome.

Oooo, I almost for got our master bathroom!:

Told you I need a support group for this stuff. Don't worry, there are plenty of rooms in this house that don't have it. Darn it.

So I hope that helps! Did I make sense? Remember, you do not need a nail gun to do this in your home. It just makes it a heckuva lot more fun. ;) If you do it with a hammer and nails, you'll want long finishing nails and a drill bit to match. Drill into your wood first, then put the nail in and hang the molding. If you pound a nail in without a hole first, it will most likely split the wood.

Let me know if you decide to do it!! I'd love to see. You'll be hooked, watch out. Serious.

A dining room reveal!

Well, its not completely done, but I thought I would stop the torture and just show you already!! :)


I have long said there are three rooms I think you can do totally dramatic and fun. Your laundry room, powder room and your dining room. The first two because they are usually small and can take pretty much whatever color you want. The last, because I think dining rooms should have a little bling and drama, just because they can.


Drama it is:
The bench I will show you more of soon. It's drivin' me batty! Argh!! It's going to be gorgeous when I get it just right. (Dad is to the rescue this week -- I'll explain more later.)
The hutch redo I showed you here, and now I love that I can see what's inside:
The window redo I showed you here. I added molding, bamboo roman shades and made my new drapes:

Joann Etc. is STILL out of my trim to finish off the two head chairs. (Pout.) I was thisclose to driving 45 minutes today to get it from another store, but I held back. Have I mentioned I'm insanely impatient?

BUT I did have a couple lumbar pillows made for them, and those make me feel soooo much better about the unfinished chairs:

Aren't they adorable?!

I used scrap fabrics from the chairs and I adore them.

The table setting I showed here. I pieced together dishes from HomeGoods, Target and Pier 1:

The centerpiece is one of my favorite parts of the room, and it all started with a $4 mirror. You can see the how-to here.

Everything works so great with my cedar chest I redid months ago:

I showed you how incredibly annoying easy it was to reupholster dining chairs here. I used a brown faux silk on the backs, a creamy linen on the seats, and a pattern with all of the colors on the fronts:

Reason #7,839 I love my husband -- when I put the fabric on the chairs to show him what it would look like, I asked, do you think it's too much? His response -- "Maybe for some people, but not for us." LURVE that man.

I love to paint our ceilings, and I showed you how I did this one here.

It makes the molding POP!
The light. THE LIGHT I LOVE!! It was a knock of a Pottery Barn light I showed you here.
My version is from Home Depot and cost about $100 less (plus free shipping!).

I need to lower it just a couple inches, but for now, it's just fine. :)

My favorite time to enjoy this room is at night:

I'm not lyin' when I tell you I've had the chandy turned on every. single. evening, whether or not we're downstairs. I don't turn it off till we go to bed. It's so lovely to look at when we come down the stairs throughout the evening:

And because I'm a sucker for a good before and after, here's how the room looked years ago:

Then, a couple years later:

And last year...

Now:

Last year:

Today:

DRAMA!! I love it!! It is a dining room after all...so it's allowed. ;)

The winner of the ABCD Images giveaway is Erin @ Thimble Ambitions! Congrats Erin, email me and I'll get you in touch with Angie!

The table is set.

I am adding this to Susan's Tablescape Thursdays! :)

First of all, can I tell you how much you are my Squeezies? Your responses to my cord covering post absolutely had me cracking. up. You guys get me. Double pound to the chest to y'all.

So the dining room is turning out so great, I can barely stand it. I love it so much! I am getting there with the reupholstering of the chairs. I tore off the backs of three more this evening, and although my hand looks like a claw now, I have four almost done. I think I've finally figured out how to get the backs back on the chair, which is kind of important. ;) I cannot wait to show you -- they make the whole room!

Part of my birthday gift to myself (doesn't everyone do that?) was new dishes for the dining room. I never registered for china when we got married -- if people wanted to get us something, I wanted it to be something we would really use. Instead I bought a set of Pier 1 gold and red dishes that went perfect with the old dining room.

Obviously, they don't any more. Now, they are our everyday dishes and I have no idea why I waited so long to do that! Funny how at 34 I finally feel like an adult every day when we eat, not using the dishes from college. ;) So last week I was on the hunt for new, luscious dinnerware that I could piece together for the dining table.

Yesterday I needed the final piece -- the placemats. I bought three items -- two chargers and a placemat (I have to see how things work!) and ended up keeping the placemat:
It's simple and the brown matches the chairs and walls perfectly. I like how simply elegant they are. (From Stein Mart.)

Next up, my HomeGoods plates:Ummm. I love them. The room is fairly simple with the colors, so I wanted to bring in some flair with the dishes. They have a little accent of brown in them:

Next up, I wanted a square salad plate, and found some at Target:

They don't match the other browns exactly but I only notice it when taking a picture in this light. ;)

Then, simple white linens, (again from Stein Mart) placed on the plate like Pottery Barn. Cause I like how Pottery Barn sets a table:

Simple detail:

I found PERFECT bowls at Pier 1:

With a little touch of curvy:

To finish it off for the season, I added metallic pumpkins (more on those later!) inside each bowl:

To finish off each setting, I added the water goblets I've been collecting at Goodwill (for 49 cents each!) over time:

And I absolutely ADORE how it turned out!

But it still needed just a little something. Little white votives at each setting finished it off:
GORG!!

You have no idea how much I wanted to eat our dinner of leftovers here tonight. ;) We will eat here much, much more, when the room is complete.

As a reward, I am going to fix a fab meal for us when I'm done. I just ordered the new light fixture tonight, and in my head, it absolutely completes the room. Let's just hope it turns out like in my noggin!

Once I finish up the chairs and the bench for the seating, and get that light installed...it's done! I hope to show you the final reveal next week. You won't believe the before and after. Wowzers.

Don't you all love the look of a set table? Do you keep yours set all the time? I never have because of the fear of DUST. But now I'm so tempted to leave it like this all the time. (Well, maybe without the silverware. We kinda need that.) I just love it.

I'll be back tomorrow with another fab giveaway! Stay tuned.

P.S. I was thrilled to be featured at Foxnews.com! Check out their highlight of my "Fall glow" post here.