Molding for Beginners!

 

Here’s a quick tutorial on chair rail (a form of molding) and I will share everything I learned by ….screwing up!  Remember I put some up in our laundry room?  I had no idea what I was doing, but it was actually pretty easy.  I tried to be really detailed here to help with all the questions I had, so settle in and let me know if I missed anything.

First things first!  I explored Lowe’s one day and found this awesome MDF molding.  It’s lightweight, comes pre-painted, and it’s really easy to cut. 

  

Because my laundry area is small, I didn’t choose actual chair rail molding because it is pretty chunky.  I went with the “Ogee Stop” trim because it was daintier and it still had a pretty shape. (Also, I looked for the same stuff at other hardware stores and Lowe’s was the only place I could find it.) Ogee stop is the same stuff used on the inside of door jambs – little tidbit for you

There are tons of different types of molding and I hesitated for a sec, thinking I should use the “proper” trim for the job I was doing.  Then I came to my senses!  Use what works best!  

I was dumb naive and bought only enough trim for the perimeter I needed.  Cuz I’m an expert and never make mistakes…..  Arg.  All total I think I bought twice as much as I needed –across three or four separate trips to the store- because I kept messing up the longest cut.  I wasted a few pieces, but at $4 apiece it didn’t get me down.  Lesson: buy extra and cut your longest pieces first!

Then I bought this little gadget for about $10:  

It’s a miter box (comes with the saw too) and it allows you to cut those pretty angles you need for the inside and outside corners.  Super easy and super cheap.  Or if you’re brave you could use a real miter saw, but that’s not me…yet.  Maybe someday…

You’ll also need:

• Caulking (and painters tape)
• Spackling
• Sandpaper (I went for a multi pack of grits because I am clueless which one is the “right” one)
• Liquid Nails glue 
• Finish nails (any helpful guy at the hardware store will help with the right length you’ll need) for about every 16-32” of molding
• Electric drill for the pilot holes

When you cut your trim, try a few practice cuts first.  Once you’re comfortable with how the saw feels, your goal is to cut the “front 45” off the inside corner pieces, and the “back 45” off the outside corner pieces.  Here are pictures to help:

A “front 45” cut will result in seeing the raw wood when you’re looking at the front of the trim, like shown above. (The front and back thing are my own layman’s terms.)

A “back 45” cut will result in the raw portion of the wood facing the back.

 

 

“Front 45” cut

 

“Back 45” cut

 

 

See how two “front 45” cuts (on opposite ends of two pieces of molding) make an inside angle?  Easy as pie!

Here are the steps:

1. Measure your wall and cut your trim to length.  Remember that the back of the trim is the length to cut to (ie on an outside corner the back will come to the corner of the wall and then the front will stick out a bit).  This took me a few tries.  It’s cheap stuff, so don’t get discouraged if you mess up a few times.  Use sandpaper to sand off any splinters.
2. Hold it up to the wall to make sure it fits
3. Use a stud finder to find your studs – mark them with a pencil and then mark on the back of your trim with a pencil where they are as well.  You don’t need to put a nail at every stud unless you really want to.  I think I did every other stud plus one nail at each end.
4. Drill pilot holes to avoid splitting your trim:   Put one of your nails in your drill.  Yep.  Sounds weird, I know, but it works great and makes perfect sized pilot holes.  Just get the nail so the head of the nail is as far down as it will go (half the nail or so should still be sticking out) and make sure the drill jaws are tight.  Use this to drill pilot holes where you marked the stud location on the back of your trim.  Be sure to drill from the front (painted side), and try to drill in a discreet area on the trim detail.  It will take a little extra pressure than you’re probably used to, but just keep going.
5. (This step is for doing your chair rail BEFORE any paneling – if you are using trim that has a lip that goes over paneling, obviously do not affix the chair rail to the wall before the paneling goes up.) Put a line of liquid nails (glue) on the back of the trim and glue it to the wall so that the top edge is in line with the desired height, making sure it’s level.  You can skip the glue, but it really helps to hold the molding in place so you can nail.
6. Nail in your finish nails through your pilot holes. Countersink those nails with a nail kit (countersink = the nail head is just slightly deeper than the surface of the wood).  A “nail kit” is a funky little metal guy that you rest on the nail head and hit with a hammer.  The one I got was about $6.  I tried cheaping out by using another nail….again bad idea.
7. Use spackling to fill in your countersunk nail divots and any cracks where your trim angles meet.  Caulking also works great for the cracks.  Caulk the top edge of the trim (tape your walls first ) and your chair rail is done.

Gaps can be filled with spackle or caulk.  I used caulk for a bad outside corner, but I’ll probably try to fix this one of these days.

You have to get THISCLOSE to notice it.  If your corners aren’t square, you may have a little gap too.

And how do you END your chair rail at an outside corner? 

On the outside corners where the laundry doors are, I did a straight cut flush with the wall.

And on the outside corners, I did a tapered “front 45” cut.

There’s also a slightly different way to do inside corners (called coping) that I finally figured out, and it makes perfect inside angles.  I will save the coping for another post so this doesn’t get too long 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!