Dining Room Project

I’ve been wanting, for months now, to upgrade my dining room to a more elegant look by adding a chair rail and painting the bare white walls. It’s been a few years since we moved in, and I was thinking it’s about time this room got some color! First step in the process was picking out the colors. I wanted the two tone painting scheme with the chair rail dividing the colors. I picked a darker yet subtle color for the top and a classic cream for the bottom. I chose the dark to be on the top because it would cover more wall space thus adding optimal color to the room. The dark color on the top would flow with the more brilliant colors painted on the walls in adjacent rooms.

A chair rail can be anywhere from 32 to 36 inches in height, we chose the 36 inch height because the walls are ten foot in height. First, I drew a level line on the wall at 36 inches from the floor all around the room. Next I painted the top half of the wall and went slightly below the 36 inch line. After the paint dried, I painted the lower wall up to the dark color above. Next, was the hard part, the chair rails.

I took measurements of the widths of the walls, and brought them with me to the local hardware store. The chair rail was going to have two layers of molding. The first layer against the wall was two base moldings. The second layer was a standard molding that would be installed on top of the base moldings. I made sure I purchased enough base molding times two because I would be putting one base molding on my 36 inch line and a second inverted base molding just below it. For the second layer of molding, I just needed one standard molding that would be nailed up against the base moldings across the middle which will hide their meeting point. I advise purchasing the white pre-primed molding.

Once home, I installed the first base molding so the top was at the 36 inch line. (I remarked the 36 line since I had painted it). I next installed the inverted base molding below so the flat edges met in the middle. I used drywall screws to insure the molding would stay attached to the wall. The drywall screws were placed in the middle of the wood lengths, which would later be covered up by the second layer of molding. At the corners of the walls I cut the wood at 45 degree angles with a minter saw. There was some minor degree of gap at the corner joints which are easily filled in with white caulk. At points where the wall ended and there was an opening into or out of the room, I cut the wood at a 45 degree angle.

Applying the second layer of molding was a bit trickier. Again at the corners the wood was cut at a 45 degree angle, and also at the end edge of the room to match the base moldings. I attached the second layer of molding to the base moldings with a finishing nail with a hammer. A better choice may have been to purchase an electric nailer which would send a finishing nail into the wood without much damage to the chair rail. Because I installed the nails by hand, and since I’m not perfect, I did manage to hit the chair rail and inflict minor nicks into the wood. I knew this was a potential hazard and almost impossible to avoid. Fortunately the damage was minimal and easily corrected with caulk. I also applied some caulk to the top of the chair rail to cover up little gaps where the wall was slightly uneven and not perfectly flush with the chair rail. The final step was to repaint the chair rail with a coat of white satin interior paint, to give it that nice subtle glossy look.