Wainscoting: A Formal Affair

“Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely;

and leave something of the happiness you bring.” —-Bram Stoker

Your foyer offers the first impression of your home to all who enter. And mine was really boring. Not exactly the vibe I wanted to present to our holiday guests. Wainscoting offered the perfect solution, adding a formal flair and breaking up the monotony of the walls.

I cheated a bit with my wainscot, opting for a simple method to create the look of the formal wood panels. First, I nailed chair-rail moulding on the walls 36 inches from the floor.  Be sure to use a level—a crooked chair rail can make you dizzy! Then using some rudimentary math, I determined the size and quantity of “boxes” needed for each wall, taking care to keep a uniform space between the boxes as well as between the chair-rail and the bottom trim. I used a level to draw the boxes on the wall with pencil so I could judge how they’d look and make any adjustments before I started cutting the wood.

Using 1.5 inch trim moulding, I miter cut the ends at a 45-degree angle, forming picture frame boxes.

These trim pieces were placed on the wall with liquid nails and finishing nails, using the pencil-drawn boxes as a guide.

The picture-frame boxes provide the optical illusion of raised wainscot panels.

I painted the chair rail and wainscot portion of the wall in Linen White, providing contrast to the taupe wall above.

The finished foyer, in all its formal flair. Happy Holidays!

Haint Paint

On a trip to the charming city of Charleston, I became a fan of “haint” paint. “Haint” is southern slang for “haunt,” and legend holds that painting a porch ceiling in a lovely shade of blue will guard your home against evil spirits. Many swear it also wards off insects! While I unfortunately don’t have the charming wrap-around porch that graces many a Charleston home, I employed the concept of “haint paint” to help transform my dark family room to more of a beachy, cottage look.

Add Some Fire to the Bedroom

I’ve always dreamed of falling asleep to the crackle of a roaring fire. Nothing screams romantic B & B like a fireplace in the bedroom. Alas, no such luxury existed in our bedroom, though that is not to say that sparks don’t occasionally fly in the master suite.

A chance sighting of a vintage mantle in a local salvage yard brought my dream to life. Sort of. I bought the piece and sanded it down to remove the worn, chipped paint. I repainted it, then did some sanding of my own to add the character back into the mantle.