Molding Makeover

Chris and Lauren Pippin share their neat cul-de-sac home with their daughters Charlotte Ann and Chloe. The family has lived there for 12 years, but a few months ago a heavy rainstorm caused flooding in their home.

The Pippins made the best of an unfortunate situation and replaced the damaged floors. However, some of the baseboards and other moldings were mismatched or missing altogether. Plus, the living room stood out with painted paneling.

To make the rest of the living area look as good as the new floors, we helped Chris and Lauren disguise the old paneling and gave the space a molding makeover.

Disguising Wood Paneling and Adding Molding

Paneling is more durable than drywall, but it can be a chore to cover. The first step to disguising the paneling was sanding and wiping down the walls. Then we applied drywall joint compound to fill in the paneling grooves, followed by more sanding, more joint compound, and more sanding.

After lots of elbow grease and a few coats of paint, you’d never know the paneling was there. Watch How to Fill in Grooves in Paneling Before Painting for some tips on this process.

We used the TrimPuller to remove all the baseboards and shoe molding, case and corner molding that were damaged and mismatched. In addition to replacing all of those, we added crown molding to the dining area so it matched the living room.

Now the new floors really shine because the crisp, clean moldings that frame them all match, with consistent margins and finishes.

Watch Installing Crown Molding and check out Tips for Cutting Moldings for ways to add character to your home with molding.

Installing a Rustic Wood Accent Wall

To create a rustic focal point for the dining room, we cut sheets of 1/8-inch luan plywood along their length to form the boards. For the width, we decided on 7-7/8 inches so we could get six pieces out of each sheet. The idea was the make the wall look like exposed siding, so we stained the boards gray to look like weathered wood.

Next, we marked each stud in the wall with a vertical line and used these lines to mark the cuts on each board. Random vertical seams were part of the look we were aiming for, but they still needed to land on studs so we could secure the edges. Then we applied construction adhesive to the back of each board and drove two finishing nails at each stud to secure them to the wall.

Once all the boards were in place, we applied a coat of sealer to the whole wall.

Watch Creating a Wood Accent Wall for step-by-step instructions on this project.

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