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| And up goes the wainscoting. |
I've made some good progress in the our sunroom, or back porch, or breakfast nook, or bar...we're not quite sure what we want to call it. After finally selecting a paint color, I had no option but to move ahead. After painting the room it was time to begin the process of installing the wainscoting, on three of the walls. It's mainly held on with
Liquid Nails, but is also tacked in place. The trickiest part was around the windows, where I mitered in molding to make a nicer transition to the wood framing already in place there. Across the top I put in a cap rail to transition to the wall.
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Stained wainscoting showing the contrast between the
existing hardwood floor and window frames. Varathane
goes on next. |
After the everything was installed, it was time to stain the wainscoting and the molding. Once again, the challenge was to pick the right color. I didn't want to go as dark as the original woodwork in the room, but not as light as the hardwood floor. My compromise was a light walnut that ended up looking pretty good, but in a perfect world I would have preferred something slightly lighter. Finally, three coats of satin finish
Varathane. I was originally going with the convenience of a water based Varathane but was advised that in damp situations, it can become sticky. So, I went old school with the oil based original version and three coats.
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| Finished. Came out better than I expected. |
Now that that the wainscoting is done, the "only" thing left is the crown molding. My first thought was to go with the same
pre-finished white molding that I have in the dining and living room. But it occurs to me that with all of the stained woodwork in the room it may be better to go with a natural wood stained to the color of the wainscoting. There's a couple of difficulties there. First, I will need to stain and coat the molding before installing it. It's just too messy to stain it after installation. Second it's a two person job, which most likely means drafting Cindy into the job of carpenter's apprentice. She has ably helped me before and generally stays in good spirits despite my slow and methodical work pace.
Finally, I'd like to think that my increasing skill level and ability is a tribute to good genes and otherworldly supervision from my
grandfather, a skilled master carpenter that built is own home. I used a square I that was passed down to me from him, and a hammer he bought for me when I was a teenager.
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