In this post on Lincrusta I shared the most beautiful freize and how I couldn’t afford it. When you’re refurbishing a period home you must be careful with your budget, obviously, as there are so many hidden costs. So being resourceful is a necessity. How did I get the look I wanted? I turned to wood carvings. Again.
They’re becoming a bit of a go to of mine; they’re inexpensive and you can use them in so many projects. In this one I thought I could use them as a border. It was a very simple process that just involved measuring out the space and putting the wood carvings within a suitable distance of each other.
Paint the wood carvings
I quickly spray painted my carvings prior to using them. It means that I don’t have to paint them in situ and therefore didn’t have to worry about overlapping the contrasting colour of the wall itself. Just put them in a large box and spray paint; the box will act as a shield for the surrounding area. Spray paint can be super messy.
The coverage of the carving wasn’t thick, but that’s ok. I can touch up just the tops later and not risk ruining the walls.
Measure the distance and calculate the positioning.
I had 23 wood carvings. On the wall with windows there could only be three wood carvings realistically, so that left me with three walls and 18 wood carvings. So six carvings per wall.
As the wood carvings are 30 cms and the wall is 380 cms I divided the wall into eight, then the difference between the length of the wood carving and the length of divided wall was the distance between each wood carving.
So in this case 380 divided by 8 was 8 x 45, with 20 remainder. I then divided that 20 by two and added ten cms additional gap on both ends. The adjoining walls and the optics of the two corner wood carvings meant that this didn’t look out of place.
Mark where the wood carvings go
I drew lines with a pencil where the wood carvings would go. I did this for two reasons. One, it allowed me to make sure I was happy with the arrangement and two, because I could ensure that the line was straight, and therefore it would give me a good guideline for positioning the wood carving itself.
Just glue in place
It’s this simple. Just get some no more nails type glue, add sufficient glue on the back and glue in place. Be careful if it’s white as it could destroy the paint job underneath; put it in larger areas and not too much so it doesn’t splurge out of the sides.
Stand back and admire it
Yes, that simple.
So how much did it cost?
Remember I told you that a Lincrusta border was £300? Well this cost me less than £40.
The paint work needs to be touched up and I have more details to add to this ceiling area, hence my briefly sharing here. I hope to update the next part shortly.
Also, if you have Lincrusta or Anaglypta wallpaper have you kept it? Do you want some? What are your thoughts on this period homes staple? Or do you think you would be happy with the wood carved, cheaper option? Let me know in the comments below.
When we first moved to France I bought this buffet in a brocante.
We had to furnish a rather large rental home and so I bought inexpensive furniture. As we moved it into the new house it didn’t take the strain and there was some breakage. The carved top was still in good order and that will go in another project. In the meantime I’ve used one of the shelves in the hallway…
and one in the toilet/utility….
So in terms of the top of the buffet I was left with this,…
I unscrewed the parts that held the lower shelf and I plan to use that in a project too. Then I seperated the top into two parts with a circular saw.
I’d never used one before and I was so nervous doing it. All seemed to be going well and the two areas were divided – great! Then I moved the parts from the workmate I’d been using and found that I’d sawn a load of the bench off too.
Anyway, the method differs to this doorway in that I just screwed the wood straight onto the walls using the same raw plugs and long screws as before. I then added some quarter rounds as before, but this time to the top and bottom of the boards to cover up the cut edges and give it some extra definition.
I also added some additional wood carvings to run beside the door frame.
This is a part one as I’m going to add a central wood carved moulding, but I went ahead with the project because when I finished the other door moulding and came through to the sitting room I found this waiting for me….
So I figured I’d get on and do this and then I have one of my jobs off my New Years list.
Bare in mind that they need caulking and the additional wood carving to be added (hence the waiting for the caulking), but in the meantime there’s this…..
And this….
My hubby was uncertain of my efforts when they weren’t painted, but after their coats of paint he was pleased. Especially when you consider that this cost about 10€, including the wood carvings and paint.
Do you recycle old furniture parts? I’ll be posting a lot more of this kind of stuff this year as I have many things I want to move from my ‘junk’ pile to make our home a little bit of heaven.
If you do have any recycled projects add a link in the comments below – I’d love to pop over and take a look!
Firstly, let me apologise for the quality of the pictures I’ve taken. The dining room is at the front of the house and it’s not a brilliant light source to photograph in.
This armoire cornice is from the one that I tried to put back together in the spare room, but I found it had warped so the doors couldn’t go on. For those who follow the blog (if you don’t please hit the subscribe button) you may remember that I used the ornately carved door panels to add interest to the plain, 1970s style door here.
I’d decided that I’d be using the curved top for this project as soon as I made the decision to use the panels.
One of the reasons I wanted to use the armoire in this way, resulting in just buying another one rather than attempting to fix it, is that it can be far more economical to do this than buy wood carved mouldings for various projects. For example, a large moulding for a door like this one will set you back at least 100€. I can buy an entire armoire for that from a brocante and salvage various pieces to use in numerous projects. So, like I said, hit subscribe because this one armoire will be used in a few more projects coming up.
I know I’m talking armoire here, but the English wardrobe from the spare room could have been used in a similar way.
Just a quick reminder, here is how the doorway in the dining room looked prior to today’s work.
The small moulding just above the door came from another armoire. Our rental property when we moved here was ancient and a wonky floor meant the doors opened in a dangerous way and it collapsed as my husband was putting it together!
The moulding is lovely, but very small and didn’t stand out a lot. So the very first thing was to remove it from the wall as it was still too high to allow the wood moulding to fit above it.
The wood carved moulding is heavy, so I had to be sure that it was firmly secured in place. Here’s how I did it.
Pay attention to your drill choice
I used stone drill bits and two drills. One to drill in the wood of the moulding, and the other for the stone wall. Or what I thought was the stone wall, but more of that in a bit.
Our house is ancient; we know it was built pre 1850, but as the French didn’t keep records until then we can’t be sure exactly when. As a result of its age the majority of the walls are stone and when I first started to try and put up pictures in the house I had to drill into the walls. However it was always hard work as the drill isn’t powerful enough.
The drill I was using for this job actually belongs to my father and had enough power to get the job done. I’m just telling you this as if you’re struggling to drill into walls in a period property it may not be you, but your tool.
Brackets
To ensure this heavy item stayed on the wall and didn’t come away – with the danger of causing someone serious harm – I used these brackets. They acted as a mini shelf for the moulding to rest on. They only cost about 3€ per bracket and I got four.
Raw plugs
I chose these multi use raw plugs that separate as a screw is driven into them, and therefore anchor themselves well into the wall. Make sure the head of the screw is flat, so that the moulding can rest flat against it, and is bigger than the screw hole in the bracket.
Cut off the sides of the armoire top
Obviously the armoire top couldn’t go up as it is, so the top needed to be removed and the sides sawn off. I started it off with a screw driver and hammer to prise as much as I could away, then I used a mini saw that’s used to cut off tree branches to do this rest.
Measuring
I did this using the measure app on my Apple phone. If you haven’t seen them they are amazing and, as I always have it with me, it means that I’m ready to measure any piece of furniture for possible fits when I see something in the brocante.
Here’s a photo I took of the measurements.As you can see I took them of the arch and the two sides that would touch the brackets.
Then I marked out where the arch and side lengths where on the wall to ensure a central position, and where the holes for the brackets would need to be.
Drill into the wall
When drilling into the wall start by selecting a drill bit which approximately fits the size of the raw plug. If you’re unsure always use the smaller drill bit first; it’s kind of like cooking. You can always add more, but you can never take it away.
Insert the raw plugs and tap them in with a hammer if necessary. Screw the brackets into the wall.
Add the screw holes to the moulding itself
I rested the wood carved moulding in the brackets and was relieved when they bore the weight. Then I marked where the screw holes needed to go, removed the wood and drilled into the markings.
Prior to placing the moulding on the wall I covered it in no more nails type super glue. Many of you will have noticed the little holes in the wood, it’s obviously had termites. Elsewhere in the armoire it was evident these had been dealt with with a dark, wax substance which was plugging the holes. However the back of the wood obviously wasn’t dealt with.
When I rubbed the wood with my finger there was no residue. I’ve found that active holes will have this. Even so I used so much glue not just to ensure the wood stuck well to the wall, but to plug those holes and stop any termite spread. That’s why there’s so much glue.
Place the moulding in the brackets and screw in place
With the moulding in position, glued and screwed. In place it was onto making it look more polished.
Applying additional wood mouldings
The next thing I did was put the previous, ornate wood moulding back on the door. I just used no more nails type glue to do this, in the exact same method as the wood mouldings on the coving.
Then I glued and added these quarter rounds to the top of the door frame and bottom of the main moulding to cover the brackets and finish the job nicely.
Using filler in stages
Add wood filler or acrylic filler to fill any gaps. Do this in stages as if you keep smoothing over the same area it may result in the filler just being pushed back into any gaps, rather then creating a filled surface. You can see two stages of filler below, note the difference between the first two images and the last one.
Each time you apply filler smooth it out as much as possible with your finger. It’s very hard to go back and correct acrylic filler in particular as it has a plasticky texture that can’t be sanded easily.
Here it was before….
Here It is the mouldings fixed to the wall. Obviously I’ve just painted it white so far, it’s just an undercoat. I need to decide whether I paint the whole door and maybe even panelling teal.
You’ll notice the little square gaps in the detail are; the struts went there. I’ve ordered some additional square, carved appliqués and will add them prior to painting properly. At present though this little job coast around 20€? Not bad.
My pops, a plasterer by trade, was repelled when I said I was going to do this. Ok, maybe repelled is too strong of a word, but he was not happy. How did I, his beloved daughter, risk the alienation of my papa? I put up a polysterene coving.
We need to go back to when we first moved into the house. Despite our French home being ancient, built in the pre 1850s, there are no real period features. But I wanted our village house to have something of a classic, Edwardian look about it. That meant mouldings. In the centre of the room was a medallion and I’d decided I wanted to highlight this by having a coloured ceiling. A closer inspection of the ceiling when I started work showed that it wasn’t an original feature, but a modern, polystyrene addition.
In addition to the medallion I wanted coving, and when I was searching on line I found that what was readily available was the polystyrene kind. A further search revealed that even the more expensive resin type coving was prohibitive, let alone plaster.
Added to that I was in the house on my own and would need to put it up myself. So I ran the risk of buying some.
It’s light weight and you can therefore put it up singlehandedly as a woman. However I did run into some difficulties.
Firstly it said how it would be easy to cut an angle. Well I completely mucked that up and it was a bit of a bodge job looking like this…
Unfortunately I seemed to have lost the original photos, but on some of the corners there where huge gaps between the two side. I managed to salvage them by getting some extra pieces of coving and pushing them into gaps and gluing them in place prior to caulking, caulking, caulking. Caulk was my friend, but I was unhappy with the results for quite some time. Even where there where two straight sides in a run, they looked amateurish. Not happy. More on that in a bit.
Just to note at this moment though – I’ve since bought one of these to cut angles. They’re definitely worth it.
The next difficulty I ran into was that I didn’t make sure I smoothed out the glue as I applied it. I don’t know why I didn’t do something so basic. I could literally kick myself now. However I just stuck it up there and thought I’d smooth it out later with sandpaper – that doesn’t work. Whether it’s caulk or glue smooth it out as much as possible with your finger for a professional finish.
Can I just add that with the ceiling medallion in the hallway I painted that prior to putting it up and I had a much better finish. The one in the dining room was difficult to paint in situ. Obvious I know, but worth mentioning. If I was ever wanting to highlight a relief in different colours I’d definitely paint first and then touch up in situ.
Having grown so fed up of looking at shabby joins I finally ordered these wood decals from here. Those of you who have followed my mouldings series from the hallway will no I’m a appliqué queen – admittedly a small kingdom – and so I simply glued these to the coving to cover any unsightly gaps. They don’t touch all the way, but they still work.
I used clear no more nails type glue on the back of the wood decal and pushed it against the coving where I wanted it to go, holding it there for two or three minutes. This isn’t a complicated fix, you just have to be a little bit patient.
Stay in the room afterwards. If they fall off add more glue, then put them back. This happened to me a couple of times, but eventually I won the battle.
Afterwards I painted with white chalk paint to give it a plaster like texture. This had the additional benefit of securing the appliqué further.
Here’s the room before….
Here’s the after we painted….
And this is it with those little details added…
I’m going to be adding more details to this room so subscribe to see how it goes.
This is a really simple post for New Year’s Day. I’ve been thinking about how to add mouldings to the walls in the part of our staircase that has the turning stair leading up to the higher floors. Unlike the front hallway at first glance this isn’t a simple one third, one third, one third prospect where I have a type of moulding below a dado, something above in the next third, then a picture rail and ceiling section of moulding. The need to follow a diagonal line which turns into a flat can make this simple formula complicated.
The below dado section is fine, but if you want to add a series of panelled mouldings in the next third, as I do, they have the challenge of having to follow the diagonal line too.
I managed to gain inspiration from great houses and how they handled this dilemma.
Here in this green painted stately home you can see how the mouldings have been used in lines to section off areas giving clear horizontals to create tableaux mouldings. So a narrow, moulded frieze runs from the base of a higher floor around the visible stairwell.
Here it is in a more simply painted white decor, although the mouldings are magnificent.
Here is what I will base my blue and white colour scheme on, with the possibility of less expensive stencilled panels surrounded by simple, wood appliqué moulding frames.
Obviously the ceiling moulding is never going to happen, but it’s interesting to see how the final area on a stairwell landing can be treated.
You may have noticed my long absence; I’ve had so much to contend with and in the middle of it all I decided to start the second part of our mouldings. I cannot tell you what a mistake that was! It turned out to be a huge job -not the mouldings themselves, which were simple, but I suddenly found myself doing lots of other work around them too.
I’ve seen on Pinterest lots of helpful ‘how tos’ on wainscoting or panels to your walls. I always think they look classic and they’re on my decorating want list for the other entrance.
However with the main entrance I wanted something more classicly French that would still go with my Art Noufaux doors (how to here). So I came up with this way to add faux panels (take a look at the more intricate panels in my first how to here).
Throughout the hallway was textured wallpaper with an underlay of very thin polystyrene. This had been used because the plaster beneath was rough and in some places falling a part. So the reason I’ve been delayed, amongst other things, is I’ve been stripping most of the wallpaper off and plastering the wall as well as starting to work on covering the seams of the remaining wallpaper to paint.
I’ve also added a picture rail. If you want a how to for either of these let me know in the comment box below.
For the panels I used19mm half rounds and more decorative wood appliques. The ones I used are here…
You need to decide if you want rectangles or squares for the panels. I chose rectangles as they elongate the room. I cut all my half rounds into the same length though as the height and length of the mounding still were very different so they actually created the rectangular shape.
Pre-painting?
Unlike the other panels I painted the wall before I applied them to make it easier to decorate post paneling. However I’m not sure if this was the best thing. I’m going for a two tone look in this section and I think I wasted paint in the middle which will be painted over with a taupe colour. Here’s my inspiration for this section by the way….
One benefit of painting first is that you can see blue through the fretwork of the scrolls, as you can see here…
I’d also pre painted the lengths and scrolls. Painting delicate details in situ can be tricky so this gave me a head start. My gold liquid paint is a slightly lighter colour, so I’m going to use the two shades as a detail itself.
As I had to work around the radiator, which I’ve sprayed the same shade of blue and it’s given it a new lease of life, it naturally led to my considering it in the placing of the panels considering its dimensions. Would I place it near the wall, and therefore have the entire panel on display, or would I have some of the detail behind the radiator itself? I went for the latter as I wanted the panels to be parallel to each other and, as there was no impediment on the other side, the spacing wouldn’t look right.
Work out the spacing?
Prior to continuing I placed what would be the upper half of the panels on the floor running alongside the wall to have an idea of how they’d fit. Satisfied I carried on to the next part.
Obviously when I was working out where to place the mouldings I measured the half rounds in addition to the lengths of the appliqués and then with the depth. As I was going to have two panels I subtracted the total of the two from the length of the wall and I was left with 32 cms. So I decided to allow for the majority of the gap in between and divided the space as 10cms, panel length, 12cms, panel length, 10cms.
I did the same with the depth, deciding on a distance of 5cms between the wall and the length of the wood scroll.
Adding the first detail
Just like my previous tutorial I used no more nails and immediately applied some to the back of the first, wooden scroll. I measured 5cms down and 10cms in and applied it to the wall. Using my infra red beamed spirit level I continued along.
Adding the first length
NMN was added to the half round and applied to the wall with the spirit level’s aid. However I checked the distance from the dado rail with my measure as we’ll.
It’s really important to do this as in an old house like this (ours is definitely pre 1850s, they only kept records after that date, so it could be sìgnificantly older) there is often movement in the walls etc. So although the houses are solid they may not be 100% level. As a result a level line might not coincide with the dado rail.
Continue with the rest of the rectangle.
Measure the width between the rectangles and start again
Is this sounding simple? It is. It would probably be tricker if I didn’t have the dado rail already. After the internal double doors, where I plan to continue the moulding, there’s no dado rail. I’ll have to apply a dado rail there and I’ll post about that then.
Odd areas
In the corners it was too small for individual panels without them looking odd, so I continued the panel around the bend. This meant still using four of the scrolls, the same half round length for the depth and a significantly reduced horizontal half round.
I glued the two top scrolls first, then worked out the different length for the top horizontal. Having glued the verticals and the second scrolls I worked out the next horizontal before gluing. Like with the previous panels I checked the measurements throughout.
More odd areas
The next odd areas where too narrow for double scrolls, so I used this carved, corner detail and a scroll without any horizontal half rounds. I’m actually really pleased how this one turned out.
I painted the interiors this taupe colour, but I feel it’s a little strong. I intend to add a raised stencil to that area in the blue to tone it down. I’ll update you on that as well.
I’ve also used a complimentary gold to highlight the scroll detail and, as you can see in my last ‘odd area’ I’ve started to highlight parts in gold.
Of course, I’ve done it all out of order as I should have started with the ceiling first. However I was waiting for coving to arrive and was too eager. Next will be door details and following that the coving, ceiling details and a feature between the picture rail and the coving. Subscribe so you don’t miss any of it and let me know in the comments what you think – I’d love your feedback!
It may seem strange that I’ve started the hallway when we’re still working on the kitchen, I’ve not completed the curtains in the hallway, or the final couch upholstery (I always wait for my hubby to be travelling for work and the children’s to be in school to sew), and even the dining room isn’t at the point I’d like it to be. However, having finished the Art Noufaux window (how to here) on our front door I thought to myself that on days when I can’t get a lot else done I can do a small section at a time.
So here’s how I’ve started to give our hallway a more classic, French Provincial look along with that painted ceiling medallion we put up last year.
Choose possible decorative mouldings
As you can see in order to create the panelling I’m using decorative wood mouldings. If you go to eBay and put this phrase in you will find lots of options that come up and I started by watching ones that cause my eye.
I found this exampler wood moulding on Pinterest which demonstrates how each one is made from adding additional shapes to one another…
Make a plan
The first thing to do is get an idea of how you want your layout to look and what pieces you could use to achieve it. I saved images from eBay and used the edit function to frame them as close as possible in order to use them in a design. Then in a document I inserted the images and played around with them. Mine ended up looking like this….
You’ll notice how I’ve made a note of the height and width of each piece as I needed to ensure that the entire width didn’t exceed the panel and that the design would work overall.
I changed the design slightly on application, but this enabled me to have an idea of what to order.
Here is what I used to make the panels and the links where you can buy them…
I tried to use carvings that were classically French but also reflected the stylised flowers of Art Nouveau because of the doors. I think it was successful 🤷♀️.
Place the central piece
I put the central piece in place first as it’s wide and I wanted to make sure I have enough space for it.
I measure and marked a halfway, central point then used my spirit level to draw a line as a guide for positioning the moulding.
I use no more nails glue, wiping any excess with a wet baby wipe. Immediately after I placed it I used my spirit level again to make sure it was positioned right so that, if necessary, I could move it slightly whilst the glue was still wet.
Start to measure out the outer design
The height of my area was 230cms and my lengths of curved wood are 200cms. I marked my lengths at the half way point, I applied glue to one and placed it with the half way mark in line with the central point.
Then, using a spirit level make sure they are in the correct position all the way down. I used one with a beam; it really helped throughout the process as it gives an indicator of where the length should run from start to finish.
Whenever you’ve finished gluing a moulding in place use a wet wipe to gently wipe away the excess so you aren’t left with unslightly bumps when it’s dried.
Repeat with the second length, then add your corner mouldings prior to your horizontal lengths so that you can ensure you have sufficient space. Once the corners are glued in place, again ensuring they are level, measure, cut and place the horizontal lengths.
You may notice a slight gap between my length and the corner moulding on the left. When it’s comes time to paint and finish it all I’ll just fill this with wood filler – I’ll update you on that later.
To to add mouldings at the top and the base
As you can see I have a design, consisting of two seperate mouldings, towards the top and the bottom of the panel. I placed my first moulding by measuring halfway along the base to find the midway point, then I just placed the first one so that the centre of the moulding was in line with this. When I later placed these it was necessary to measure the distance from the edge of the panel too to ensure there was a mirrored image.
Unfortunately I didn’t have a free hand to take pictures of this part, but here’s an image of how I knew that the tip of the upper Mouldings was central wit her the laser spirit level.
I’d chosen a longer, thinner moulding to compliment this first shape as it elongated the section. The moulding had broken in the post, but i managed to fit it together when gluing and will smooth it over with wood filler when I do the gap.
Can you see how I’ve chosen the mouldings to fit together? This is a ‘toe to toe’ meeting as it were, I’ll give you a close up of the alternative next.
Add the final mouldings
I also added two more mouldings to the central one. Again it elongated the central moulding and the fact that this central part was bigger than the two ends gav et the entire panel balance.
When you chose your mouldings really consider how they’d fit together if you want a similar look -it makes the planning part essential. Here the mouldings is in the indentation of the central one so it ends up looking like all one piece.
Give it a coat of primer
No matter the final effect your going for you will need to give the naked wood a coat of primer, otherwise you’ll waste expensive paint.
A bonus of using mouldings is that, depending on how many mouldings you’re going to create, you might want to take things slow. It’s not a hard process, but this panel took a couple of hours to do, so an intricate group of panneling will take a while and you may not finish straight away.
With this method I can do a panel or section a week and my down stairs hallway could be done by Christmas without too much stress. I couldn’t do this without anaglypta or something like that, so that and the fact that this is significantly less expensive than the former is a real plus.
Painting it with primer gives it a cohesive look in the meantime.
At the risk of sounding pantomimey – what do you think of I think so far? (Altogether now children – rubbish! 😉)
You may remember how I shared pictures of our hallway this time last year. The orange brown carpet covering the walls were…..well see for yourself…..
Well, I’ve been planning our Easter decorations for this year (see here, here and here for last year’s Easter wreaths, for an Easter garland and this year’s coasters) and wanted to do a group of stair garlands. These turning stairs wind up two more floors and are really pretty so they’re crying our for some statement decor.
But that carpet! anything I did would be set against that 😩. So on Monday when the kids went back to school I’d had enough and, on just the bottom level, the carpet came off.
My husband thought I was crazy at first as I’d been in the middle of ironing and I’m still doing the kitchen. So to start something new was a bit….unnecessary to say the least. But I just started when I was boiling the kettle for tea, then each time I went for a cup I did a little more stripping it off.
As it went my husband’s mood lifted – the hall was so much lighter. He definitely came round to my way of thinking. I left the lining on the walls and, as my local discount store Action does some very inexpensive chalk paint, I used some cans of that to start painting where I’d taken the carpet off. It’s giving it a nice linen type feel because of the texture of the paper underneath.
Here it is with the lining and painted (the paint I sent still wet in the second pick, hence the differences in colour)….
It’s not a long term solution, I haven’t even tried to smooth over the lines where the paper meets, nevertheless I’ve started to think about what I’ll be doing in the hallway in the (probably distant) future.
Mouldings or Stencils
When I first started thinking about how I’d decorate my hallway I looked to Lincrusta. Anyone who follows my Pinterest account will know that I have a whole board dedicated to this form of decorating. However it’s very expensive (£200+ a roll) and challenging to put up. So no on both counts.
I’m also a big fan of wainscotting, so had considered this too. Following my application of mouldings to the kitchen island though I started to think about just applying mouldings beneath a dado rail; much easier to do than wainscotting as you don’t have to mitre anything, super simple going upstairs and I can also achieve a look of pared down Lincrusta.
You can buy mouldings relatively cheaply, ranging from 1 – 20€ depending on what you chose. However you obviously need several for each section you make, but ultimately it shouldn’t be more expensive than wallpapering.
Added to that if you wish to use mouldings above the dado rail you can consider making moulds yourself from an original in plaster. I wouldn’t suggest using these below the dado rail as it’s more likely to receive blows from everyday life so it needs to be tougher; a bit like Lincrusta.
The other good thing about doing it this way is that it can be added in layers; mouldings can be bought and applied for below the dado rail, then perhaps to cupboard doors, then walls etc. Not only can this make a huge project more accessible, it means the cost can be spread out over the year and, as there is a danger that it could all get a bit overblown, you have time to reflect at each stage to make sure you get the balance right.
I’ve been on Pinterest to start planning and here are the different ways these can be used.
Gold and Highlighted Mouldings
A more simple look, mouldings can be painted a simple gold like this where the gold compliments the duck egg blue beautifully. Notice how the walls are kept white beneath it, so the over all impression isn’t too gaudy.
Here is a similar style but used on walls.
The wall panelling is beautiful, but I personally think this level of guilded intricacy is best suited for a grand space, for a grander house. Although our French home isn’t modest by my standards (my first home was a tiny, Victorian terrace after all) it isn’t a grand chateau either.
If you look at these next images of the blue and gold the simpler use of mouldings keep the beauty of the colour paring, and the wow factor without entering the realms of Liberace. The final image is very sedate in comparison.
Complimentary Tone Mouldings
I could forgo the gold completely of course, here are images of contrasting and same tone mouldings.
The last one is beautiful, but I can’t help feeling that’s home with a lot of servants and no children! I have similar colouring to the first one in my dining room, so I’m thinking of adding that there. However as this will eventually be our ‘guest’ entrance, I want a more relaxed family entrance into the kitchen, I like the idea of a subtle gold to add something of a wow factor; particularly at the times of the major feasts, Christmas and Easter.
Various Tones Painted Mouldings
There is also the possibility of painting the details of the mouldings in different colours and having alternative, complimentary shades. Here are the some examples….
They’re subtle and I like that. Here are the mouldings painted, which can be done in neutral, subdued or more vibrant tones…
I really like the second image, but the third seems to go with the ceiling medallion I’ve already painted which you can see again here…
Mouldings and Stencils
A less expensive combination is mouldings and stencilling, so you have the effect of the former with, depending on how you do it, the reduced cost of the latter. Obviously I’m thinking of making my own stencils, which can be very expensive. Nevertheless a prepared stencil is still significantly cheaper than rolls of wallpaper and repeated uses of mouldings depending on the area that needs to be decorated.
These ones below are using the subtle blue pallet; I especially like the tall slim panels which I can see either side of the front door. The mouldings themsełves are basic, it’s the stencil that adds the intricate detail.
These have more intricate mouldings, painted using a variety of colours…
The following is one that doesn’t use a stencil, but is a handpainted rose. Those of you who’ve seen my secrétaire desk know how I enjoy hand painting my furniture, so this could be used in conjunction with the image below which has detail below the dado rail…
The reason why I like the panel below the dado rail in the one above is that it looks just as effective below and it could be something that I use to counteract my following point.
Space For Pictures
Where we used to live in England I had a gallery of family pictures going up the wall of the stairway and, as you can see in the images above, here I have some old engraving prints of the local sights in local Normandy. I want to continue using what I have as well as adding my family photos. The difficulty with stencils and mouldings above the dado rail is that it could be hard to find an appropriate space to hang them.
An alternative is wallpaper in the mouldings, or a stencil made to look like wallpaper…
Or still using the more intricate stencils, but as a for me of frame like these…
In fact to me, if you compare these last images with those first few of the blue and gold, they seem to strike the best note of French Provincial – pretty, with period charm – to grandiose.
You may have noticed my long absence; I’ve had so much to contend with and in the middle of it all I decided to start the second part of our mouldings. I cannot tell you what a mistake that was! It turned out to be a huge job -not the mouldings themselves, which were simple, but I suddenly found myself doing lots of other work around them too.
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