Worth the pain!

As I mentioned in this post, I decided in all my wisdom to make like the Abbey and install some (faux) wainscoting in our dining room. Why is it faux you ask? Real wainscoting, as invented by now dead people long, long ago, was meant to insulate the room from cold and dampness. It would consist of full wood panels, completely covering the existing wall surface. This is when walls used to be stone. Modern walls have insulation, and so there's no good reason to completely cover your walls in actual wood panelling anymore. So to fake it, we just installed a chair rail (also known as dado rail?? Who knew.), as well as decorative moulding to form the boxes.

Super awesome parents and dutiful husband
craptacular iphone picture

Might sound hard - but that was the easy part!

Since this was "my project", once the mouldings were up, it was my job to caulk and paint. And caulk I did! (That's what she said!). To make everything appear smooth and finished, I caulked all the nail holes, all along the edges of the trim, and the corners where the chair rail pieces meet. I would say I probably spent 5 or 6 hours doing this, over the span of a week.

And then the painting. I primed, twice. Then, I painted everything white. This is where things got stupid. Since we didn't paint the baseboards and door trim (and it was done only 5 years ago and I didn't feel it needed to be done again), it was my best guess as to which of the ELEVENTY BILLION different whites was already on there. Turns out it was Benjamin Moore Cloud White. But I didn't know this at the time.

The people's trim colour of choice, BM CC-40

(I'll just say this: OF COURSE IT WAS. If you are touching up your baseboards and you don't know what colour of white they are, I will save you the hassle and tell you that they are probably Cloud White. People love them some Cloud White. See discussions on this here, and here, if you're interested.)

But first I tried SW Westhighland White. (I like Sherwin William's more, because their store is closer)



It was so bright white next to the baseboards it made them look filthy. Fail. Then I tried SW Roman Column (on the chip it looked positively yellow next to Westhighland White). 


Still, it was shockingly white next to the (unbeknownst to me) cloud white baseboards. So, after priming, and then painting - twice - I was at a crossroads. We figured out it was cloud white when my husband went digging in the basement and found an old paint can from previous owners labelled the ubiquitous CC-40.

Why yes, I am an idiot for not looking first, thank you.

I had two choices, I could head over to Ben Moore and pick up some of their famous trim colour and paint a third time, or just slather my Roman Column all over the baseboards and pretend like none of this ever happened. I went with option two, because I am very, very lazy. But I'm glad I did. The trim around the doors is still Cloud White, as is the trim in the adjacent living room, but I don't feel like you can really notice. Besides, Cloud White is VERY creamy. It goes really well with the colour that's on the walls now, but I'm going to change that soon, and since I'm more a fan of gray based, cooler colours, I think the Roman Column will complement it much better.

In any case, it's done now. I love it, and I have extra satisfaction from the fact that it was all my idea and (mostly) my sweat and tears. I high five myself every time I walk past the dining room.

Before:


And after:
Yuh-huh, the mirror is crooked.

Close-up:

Next up for the dining room - painting OR wallpapering (!!!) above the trim.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

4 comments:

  1. yes, cloud white.. the most popular white when I worked for Benjamin Moore almost 10 years ago! Good to know its still so popular! I love your wainscoting! And I say go for wallpaper!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So SO pretty! I'm still trying to talk myself into doing some sort of trim work in our family room, something more than just baseboards. This is inspiration in the right direction! Beautiful job! :)

    ReplyDelete

Popular Posts