Current Project

When my mother-in-law came to visit in May, she inspired us with a vision for our formal dining room. We were going to use a Boston theme for the artwork and dress it up with some new curtains and picture frame molding on the walls. Before she left, she drew a little sketch of the finished room to guide us, and finished the curtains literally right before she left.

It was so motivating, I couldn't help but get started too. First I had to go visit my neighbor to borrow all the tools I'd need. Shop vac, electric sander, mitre saw, air compressor and nail gun. Just for fun, he threw in the brads (nails), a large spackle trowel and a bucket of spackle too!

Since our walls are textured, I sanded them and then applied a skim coat of spackle. Then I sanded it and applied another coat, and then I did it again, and again.



Lisa and I picked out the molding and I got to buy a new tool - a T-square! There's definitely a learning curve to building this, but I caught on and was able to make all the frames pretty quickly.


We had a big celebration when I got the first frame onto the wall. The rest went up in quick order too.



When I got to the last frame, I hit my first major snag. The last frame dropped directly over the outlet. I couldn't really change the frame since I'd already established a clear spacing pattern. I got stuck for weeks trying to figure out what I wanted to do and then another couple weeks to find the right tools. In the end, I got a table saw to cut a block, a router to shape the edges (see closeup photo below) and slapped it over the outlet. I trimmed the frame and mounted it.


I think it came out ok.


Now I need to finish caulking the frames, do another past to patch blemishes with spackle, and finally paint it! This is taking much longer than anticipated but I'm loving it!