Lesson 5: Champagne Results on a Chianti Budget
It's in the Details
If you prefer a more traditional look in your newer house, try these fairly inexpensive and simple tricks:
- Add molding to the top of walls where they meet the ceiling. Simple molding, attached with finish nails or adhesive, goes up quickly. Rent a miter-box and saw to cut the corners accurately, and a nail gun. Layered molding can recreate the look of expensive carved crown molding. Your home center or building supply store can help you determine which kinds of molding designs look well together.
- Add a ceiling medallion (now made of molded plastic compounds, which are indistinguishable from plaster when viewed from a few feet away). If you have a ceiling fixture or fan, this immediately adds interest and visual appeal at very little cost.
- Baseboard moldings are an easy way to dress up the room and add value to your house. They also help protect your walls when you vacuum and move furniture around.
- If you plan to paint the molding consider MDF which is cheaper and comes pre-primed, although it chips more easily than solid wood. Plastic moldings are not recommended, as it may depreciate the value of your house to some potential buyers.
Wainscoting is paneling used on the bottom half of a wall, often in the dining room or in family rooms and dens. It gives a warm, traditional look to plain walls. A popular version is "bead board" which is narrow widths of evenly spaced "slats", either installed individually or as a simulated pattern in sheet paneling. Paneling can hide uneven or damaged walls, and is relatively easy to install.
Some woods come pre-packaged and need to be air-cured before installation. This helps prevent gaps in the paneling due to expansion and contraction of the materials.
Another way to achieve the same visual effect is to add a chair rail around the width of the room, and either paint the area below it in a complementary color, or add wallpaper in a design that works with your décor. Using a wallpaper border instead of a chair rail is even less expensive and easier to install.
