I was over at Beach Vintage where Simone had this photo posted among a few other awesome tropical spaces.

I would have done a double-take on this one even if we weren’t about to get seriously involved in talking about paneling.

I know it doesn’t work everywhere, but if you have the place for it, this look is unreal! If that isn’t actually old, it’s one of the best jobs of faking it I’ve ever seen!

Have you ever heard of Azek?

If you plan to do any outdoor projects this spring, you might want to look into it.

Azek is an essentially weatherproof PVC product that comes in sheets and planks.

I thought of it while looking at some materials for decks. I’ve used Azek on some docks and decks in the past.

Some of the potential uses are really pretty incredible. I’ve used Azek for exterior trim, exterior beadboard ceilings, and for framing trellises and pergolas. If you stick with the colors it comes in, you don’t even have to paint it. The color goes all the way through so even your cuts are finished.

Something like these curved pieces can be made easily out of a sheet of Azek.

When you’re working with something that is impervious to weather and bugs, plus has color all the way though, you can get crazy with your ideas:

How cool is that?

Beadboard

We talk about beadboard a lot. Usually we’re discussing the wooden kind that you’re going to have to paint, but if you’re working outside, the Azek Beadboard might be worth the extra cost, which is pretty substantial.

Even for indoor areas that might get wet, such as a kitchen wall splash, Azek works great!

Remember… no need to paint. That’s a huge plus.

You can get Azek at most building supply centers. They have a dealer locator on the website.

If you do a project with it, be sure to let me know how it worked for you!

~ RG

Do you want to make an absolutely stunning difference in any room of your home in less than two days, start to finish? I love big differences made quickly! And this project will do it for sure!

Look at this:

Isn’t this room amazing!

Wonderful Moulding Ideas

I could probably write a whole book about this picture! I love this room. But when I saw it today, it reminded me of something I mentioned in a post early this month at the main Remodeling Guy Blog on Chair Rail and Wainscoting. That being the idea of covering more of the wall, going up to eye level or a little higher with the wainscoting.

One of the most commonly asked questions from people looking for chair rail ideas is “what is the proper chair rail height?”. I answered in the previous post that the best height is around 30″ – 34″ above the floor for most rooms, but that there isn’t a widely accepted “correct” height. But what if you put it higher? What if you move way up the wall, say to 60″ – 64″ off the floor?

Here is another picture:

Beautiful isn’t it?

Let’s Do It!

I want to demonstrate just how dramatically the act of changing out some baseboards and door casings and installing simple bead-board wainscoting will change any room of your house. Let’s get started!

Above, we have a standard room. It has a couple of nice features already with some hardwood floors and a pair of French doors, but other than that it’s bare bones. (Don’t you wish you’re room were just as empty! Moving all the stuff is half the job!)

If you want to do a very quick job, you could do only what I’ve done here in this image. Ive replaced the baseboard with a 5.25″ Primed Base, and added a 2.25″ Chair Rail installed at a height of 33″ above the floor (to the top).

This room has 8′ ceilings. If you have higher ceilings you might raise the chair a little bit, but not much. I also replaced the door and window casing with something with a little bit more detail in the profile. These things made a huge difference! Wouldn’t you agree? Let’s kick it up another notch:

Now I’ve gone from a 2.25″ Chair Rail to a custom moulding which combines a standard profile “Howe” casing with a rounded off peice of 1X2 on top of it to create a little shelf (only about 1.5″ deep) at the top of the chair.

But the real difference is the addition of some color! Nothing sets off a design like white painted chair rail moulding against a nice deep wall color. I’ve shown a taupe-ish color, but it looks great with blues, reds, yellows, you name it! (at this point I started thinking the floor needed to be darker, but never got a round tuit) This is getting fun! Let’s add some wainscoting:

Now we’re cooking with fire! The type of bead-board wainscot paneling I’m showing here is so easy to install it’s not even funny! I’ve shown this with 4″ wide planks, but something with the lines a little closer or a little more spread out would still look fantastic!

If you paint everything with at least one coat of good primer and give it a light sanding before you install it, this can be done in a couple of days easily (depending on room size of course!).

To keep things simple, I would install the paneling first and then install the baseboards and chair rail over it. The extra peice of 1X2 at the top of the chair rail will cover the top edge of the paneling. The only thing to really watch out for is the overall thickness. If it gets too thick it can cause issues around your doors and windows.

To avoid this, I would use thin 1/4″ paneling, a relatively thin baseboard (standard stuff is fine), and a casing with a good wide “back band” type detail, such as the aforementioned “Howe” casing. If you don’t want to change your casing completely, you can just add a “back-band”. I’ll have to get into that in another post.

Now for the Grand Finale:

Whooooo Hoooooo! Isn’t she georgeous! I really like the way this looks! Now, you need to invoke your imagination a little and see it with pictures on the top shelf (which I would make deeper, about 4″ or 5″) and with a little furniture in the room…but this is a showstopper now!

I ran the wainscot up to 63″ in this picture and I think it’s just about perfect for the 8′ room. I also added a very simple and relatively small (3″) crown molding which really caps it off. I tried it at first with a larger, more standard shaped crown and it looked funny. The bead board look just didn’t go with the frilly curves of standard crown. The crown shown here is a simple “cove” molding.

There you go! A quick, project that can make you feel like you’re living in a new house in no time flat and for not more than a few hundred dollars. That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

So,what do you think? Ready to add this to the to-do list? Or maybe the same idea with the panels like in the second photo at the top?

This one is a perfect 10 if you ask me. I found the picture at one of my favorite haunts Houzz.com, and the kitchen is by Valerie Pedersen who works in the SF Bay Area.

Wow! I love, love, love it! I was searching for window seats and I came across this shot. I really love the built-in seating (storage inside would be cool). And while we’re talking seating… I love that bench seat too! The whole thing just works for me.

A Closer Look

I see much more than just the seating here though. One great thing about this kitchen is that it’s timeless. not much here is going to be outdated in five years. The white cabinets and black granite look awesome with that white subway tile wall splash.

(trivial info: traditionally, the “backsplash” was only a few inches above the counter. When the whole wall between the upper and lower cabinet was done it was referred to as a “wall splash”… not so much nowadays)

I also love the farm sink in this kitchen. To me, the whole kitchen almost has to be designed around a farm sink for it to look right. This one looks great! Great faucet too.

Great Trimwork Too

One of the other things that make this room look great is the use of “normal” but beautiful trimwork.

• Standard 5.25″ Crown
• Simple window casing
• Upgraded, but simple, baseboards
• Small Crown on upper cabinets

Some Great DIY Ideas Here

When I look at this picture, I see a list of individual projects that most beginners can handle.

• Painting – the biggest thing in this picture almost gets missed. That is a great contrast between wall color and cabinet and trim color. You can do that right now in your house!
• Light Fixture – the next step-up the DIY difficulty ladder is installing a cool light fixture. Installing a fixture is something you can learn to do with a Google Video search. It makes a huge difference (just don’t skip the “turn off the breaker” step)
• Cabinet Hardware – Maybe easier than the light fixture is to change out your pulls, knobs, and hinges. Heck, once all that is off, maybe you want to spray paint your cabinets!
• Run that trim! You can so do this! Start with the easiest thing, probably the window casing; maybe the baseboard. When you want to try crown molding, do that little crown on the cabinets first so you can figure out how to hold it upright in your saw for easy angle cuts.
• Build A Window Seat! – Once you get your skills to the point where you can run that crown, you can tackle the window seat. Then you’ll be in high-style!

Have fun!

I wrote a quick post this weekend about towel warmers, which I would say are a “luxury” component of a bathroom. And… I’ve had pretty bathrooms on my brain ever since. So I dug-up some pictures (or am I supposed to call them “images” now?).

3 Beautiful Bathrooms

Clean, Cool, Traditional

I found this bathroom inspiration at BHG.com, and it’s full of details I love.

• Tile on the ceiling is nice and the angled pattern is a nice touch.
• That brick-style tile pattern is called “running-bond“… lingo.
• I love the way the wainscot goes so high up the wall.

Plenty of room in this retreat, or so it would seem!

• I’m totally loving the built-in window seat with drawers in the base.
• And I’m loving the glass doors too!
• The trimwork around the windows is even more impressive. Very nicely done.

• And the panels on the front of the tub…if anyone talks to Rhoda, tell her about this.

Simple, Colorful, Classy

• Great Color – I really like this shade against white trim!
• Cool fixtures and hardware – can make a simple bathroom pop!
• And of course… I like the trimwork. Big base. Wrapped window!

• Nice Floor – going against the grain using wood in the bath.

Bright and Comfortable

• The shutters are the first thing I notice. I really love the way they did the window in four sections. You can open the top for light and keep the bottom closed for privacy.

• Overall, this bathroom is just really put together well. Everything works! I like the linen rack and the rug.

Hang-On to Inspiring Photos!

As a remodeling contractor and designer, one of the most useful things a client could do to help me understand what made them tick, was to give me a folder full of pictures they loved. It really helped me to come up with a design that was “just perfect!”

Keeping a “dream file” for each room in your house will help you really develop a sense of exactly what you like and don’t like so that when the time comes, you’re not forced into making a split-second choice. And if you keep your eyes on the goal, the time when you just sit back and enjoy a warm bath in a new retreat will come. No doubt about it!

Want To Talk About It?

I’m always forgetting to answer questions in the comments.  I’m sorry!  It’s not because I don’t want to, just something about the way it works, the process of getting an email, logging into the blog, navigating to the comments…etc. Plus I don’t know if you ever remember to come back and look!

Facebook is working much better to facilitate a real discussion about remodeling. I would love to talk to you there about bathrooms or whatever else you want to talk about. So far this weekend, a couple of readers have gotten involved there and I’m excited about it. Come check it out, it’s fun!

Remodeling Guy on Facebook or Follow me on Twitter

And of course, comments rock too! Have a great week!

Bath #1: BHG.com Bath #2: DIYIdeas.com Bath #3: Sunset.com

Great Blogs, like great TV programs, are seasonal. That’s my theory. Take summers off. Why not? In that spirit, welcome to the new season of Remodeling Guy!

Let’s jump right in!

Create Your Dream Home!

Despite what’s going on in the world, despite what your “bottom line” is financially, regardless of who you are, where you live, or what your style is… you have a dream home! It might change from minute to minute, like mine does, but at any point in time…there is a dream!

I’d say that the room in this picture, which is a product of great minds at Haynes-Roberts, Inc. in New York, fits pretty nicely with my “today” version of a dream home. It has some of my favorite things. Some of which I’ve written about in detail in the past. Things like:

• Beautiful Beams on the ceiling
• Gorgeous trim around the windows and doors.
• Really, really COOL lighting!

But my favorite thing in this picture is the floor. I LOVE the floor. Here is another shot of it:

It makes me all tingly!

Let me ask you something. When you see this room, this floor, these windows, do you feel the real possibility that you can have this in your home? Or your personal version of this? I say you can and that it doesn’t have to cost what you think it might.

All you need to start is vision! Ideas! Inspiration.

Save Money

During my hiatus from blogging, I’ve been doing a whole lot of thinking. The world just isn’t the same as it used to be and it’s taken some getting used to. Ideas are changing, people are changing. When it comes to houses, priorities are changing. In fact, I’m changing too!

When it comes to my house, I want it to be authentic. I want it to be really ME (er… I mean, US). I don’t want to take this picture and COPY it, I want to create my own environment and I’ll use the picture to inspire. I also want it to tell a story! I want the furniture, the walls, the lights, the paint…ALL OF IT to tell a story.

And I want to do it cheap! In fact… I NEED to do it cheap. My money (or at least the money I thought I had) sprouted wings and flew away. So now, I have to be creative. Good thing I already was!

Authentic. Me. Tells a Story. Cheap. … oh, and one more thing. NOW!

How?

Do it yourself. I’ve been struggling and struggling with how to reconcile the fact that I’m a General Contractor with the fact that I think people ought to do the work themselves. Seems like a contradiction. Maybe it is, but the fact remains that the only way that I (or you) can get all the things I want is to do the work. Hands on.

You don’t have to do all of the work, but the more the better. It depends on your time, your aptitude, your willingness to learn and make mistakes, and your willingness to accept imperfection in the finished product. Imperfect can look really great anyway! Take a look:

How cool is that? This clay work of functional art by Maarten Baas is perfect in its imperfection. Like me!

Don’t Forget The Story!

When you work on your own home, you build more than an improvement. You build a stockpile of stories that you can remember and share for years to come. You not only have a new bathroom, you have a crazy story about the exciting removal of the old toilet, or the plumbing joint that wasn’t quite water tight. That’s part of the value, a big part.

The money you can save doing the work yourself is hard to even measure. If you’re patient and relentless in your search for cheap materials, you can do major jobs for hundreds, not thousands, of dollars. It’s all about how much time and energy you have to put in. And about what you’re willing to do to get what you want.

And, in many ways, you just might reinvent yourself in the process.

The New Season of Remodeling Guy

I’ve had my time off, and I’ve had time to think. I’ve decided that I really want to help people with this blog and I know that my experience can be helpful to anyone in a remodeling project. So I’m going to get back in the saddle.

Look for more posts and a whole bunch of encouragement on doing the work yourself. That’s the direction I’m going. You may need to hire a plumber, or an electrician, or a roofer…you might not do it all yourself, but the more the better. It will be authentically you!

I’ve re-opened the Remodeling Guy Forums to questions. Please forgive me if there is a bunch of spam on there. I have to figure out how to try and stop that. But I welcome your questions and you can browse the past questions already there.

Happy Remodeling!

I love to talk about door casings, crown moldings, wainscoting, and baseboards! And that’s exactly what I’m doing today in my guest post at Hooked On Houses!

Head on over there to check it out! Julia has some really great stuff at her blog and you don’t want to miss any of it! But you already knew that.

If you’re just over here from Hooked On Houses, welcome to Remodeling Guy! I’m glad you’re here and I hope you don’t leave a stone un-turned as you browse around. You can use the menu bar up at the top, or the category buttons along the right side to get where you want to go!

If you’d like to say hello, please go ahead and leave a comment! Thanks!

~ RG

If you received yesterday’s Remodeling Guy Newsletter, then you probably already read that I’ve decided to get a little more in-depth with some teaching and detailed “How-To’s”. I’m going to tackle one skill area at a time and get more in-depth with it.

For the first skill, we’re going to work on carpentry and I thought some pics showing you just a few of the amazing things you can do with carpentry might get the mood right before we start!

Everybody Loves Wainscot

Something like you see in this picture can be done with the carpentry skills we’re going to work over the next thirty days! Isn’t it beautiful?

Re-Purpose A Great Find

If you have the skills and you can count on them, you’ll be much more able to imagine how you can use that banged-up mantel they have on clearance! Check out the door in that picture…the one on the right. Nice!

Install a Wide Sill

A wide window sill can really be a great carpentry project. I’ll show you how easy it is. Or something like that…

Do Some Built-In’s

I actually already did a little directional post on how to build this over at RG:Express. Great Looking Storage in Less Than A Day I’ll show you more over the next few weeks!

So Stay Tuned

I’ll be mixing in more of the detailed how-to’s over the next few weeks. I’m looking forward to showing-off my carpentry work! I hope you’re looking forward to learning some!

Other Stuff…

The Newsletter went out yesterday! It’s a great free resource and I think you’d enjoy it! You can sign-up right here. When you do, you’ll get a download link for my free e-book, The Power Of Remodeling.

The Forums are going strong. The forums are only a couple of days old and we already have more than twenty members! I’ve responded to a number of great questions and there is a place to show-off your own work. Come join the forums.

Round-Up Winners. Have you looked through all the great work included in the Remodeling Guy Round-Up? There are 44 links there to projects of all sorts and they are all worth the visit to go see. It’s downright inspiring!

There were two prizes to be given away in the Round-Up and here are the winners.

First, a Pink Toolbelt from Girlgear Industries…

Entry number one is none other than the wonderful Julia @ Hooked On Houses Congratulations Julia!

Second, a giftcard from either Home Depot or Lowe’s…

Entry number ten was Cheryl @ A Touch Of Reality. Congratulations Cheryl!! Let me know which store you prefer!

The Remodeling Guy General Store

I’ve not taken a second yet and pointed you to the store. It’s kind of like a little tiny Remodeling Guy corner of Amazon.com. The items there are picked by me and you can read my comments on each right in my store. This might be especially useful for you when buying tools or other home related items. Please visit the RG store!

——————-

Have a great week!

Are you looking to spruce up your bathroom? Personally, I think it’s one of the best places to start remodeling. Let’s see how many ideas we can get from one picture! Here is the picture:

Nice Huh?

Well, I say you don’t have to do ALL of this to rock your bathroom into a new realm of spa-at-home bliss! Just start small and do one thing at a time.

Try these in no particular order:

1.

Frame the mirror!

You can either buy a framed mirror and hang it up, or you can frame the mirror you already have! Everybody is all into black right now, right? How about this: just make the mirror frame black. It works in this picture, maybe it can work for you!

2.

Get new light fixtures!

This makes a huge, ginormous difference with very little effort. You can watch a hundred videos online on how to do this and then you can totally DO-IT-YOURSELF!

3.

Get some new hardware!

Not only is this easy, but shopping for bath hardware is, like, totally fun.

4.

Paint!

I don’t think a single remodeling project can compete with paint for the proverbial “bang for your buck”. So paint! I really like a marked contrast between the trim and the walls, even if the colors remain soft, like this.

5.

Install Some Bead-Board!

Paint and fixtures not enough? Want to get into some woodwork? Then we think alike, you and I. I’m totally into the woodwork in this bathroom! How about doing some wainscot paneling like this picture shows! or…

6.

Trim the door!

How hot is this door trim? This job has all the bells and whistles. At the base of the casing you can see the “plinth blocks”. And the top of this doorway is done beautifully! I say copy it exactly! and then…

7.

Install some crown!

One of the most common things I’ve heard over the years of construction, even after doing hundreds of thousands of dollars in work, are:

“I can’t belive what a difference the crown molding made.”

8.

Tile the floor!

This picture shows about as simple of a tile project as you can find. But look at it… it looks great! Tile is as much about color and texture as it is about material, feel, and pattern. Sometimes you can get a great look with sale pile, El Cheapo, tile. Go for it!

9.

Get a Rockin’ Vanity!

Many people would be totally shocked at how inexpensively things like this can be found online! I’ve seen vanities just like this one with the stone top and all for $500.00 or so. I often wonder how they do it! One thing is for sure, this looks great. Especially in this particular bath!

But if you can only do one thing…

10.

Get a new faucet!

It’s simple, it’s cheap, it’s effective, it’s REMODELING!!!

And it is certainly a start!

When you do this, make sure you take pictures, write a post, and bring your post back here on May 1st for the Remodeling Guy Round-Up!

If you’re interested in these projects, you should use that internal search box up at the top of the first sidebar, just to the left of the little green guy with the bullhorn! There is much more here about most of these projects.

I sure hope you go for it! The bathroom is the first place most people go in the morning It should be a nice place to go, don’t you think?

Sometimes I wish I was speaking to you in person so that you could see that I’m smiling as I write this.

I know that smiling isn’t normally associated with a blog post all about wood molding (or moulding?) sizes, placements, and shapes!

But it does happen.

So, why am I smiling? First of all, it’s my birthday, and I refuse to frown on my birthday! Second, it’s because I laugh at myself when I recognize how my heart rate increases after looking at a few pictures of crown molding! What’s wrong with me? It must be a sickness…who get’s excited by trim?

Well, maybe you do, and maybe that’s why you’re here! And that brings up my third reason for smiling. I’m also sarcastically laughing at myself as I contemplate which small part of the world of crown moldings I ought to discuss! I think I’ll start with the most common question I hear. What size?

Pick the Right Size

Crown Molding has to be sized according the the volume of the room to work well. Too small and it will seem insignificant and look out of place, too large and it will make the room itself seem small and just be overpowering. There is a right size for every room.

Ceiling height is the first consideration. If your ceilings are at 8 feet above the floor, then you shouldn’t go with a huge molding. If your ceilings are 20′ in the air, on the other hand, then it wouldn’t do much good to put a small molding because nobody will be able to see it! At least not once they hit my age.

Here is the official 2009 RGCMSC (Remodeling Guy Crown Molding Size Chart):

Of course you know that there are no hard-and-fast rules on this! This is just a guide meant to help get you in the ballpark.

Build-Up’s or Multi-Piece Crown

If you have a large enough room, you can use more than one piece of trim to assemble a larger molding. There are endless combinations, but one of the most common is to use a piece of baseboard on the wall first, installed upside down, then put the crown on top of that, leaving the bottom few inches of the base exposed. Take a look at this picture:

In the close-up to the right, you can see that in this case they have actually used a piece of trim both on the wall and on the ceiling before applying the crown molding.

You’ll also notice in these pictures that they’ve done a multi-part built-up crown in a room that doesn’t have exceptionally high ceilings and it looks good.

You’re free to experiment!

How To Experiment

You’re probably wondering how in the world you’re supposed to experiment with something like this! I’ll tell you. If it’s at all possible, find a local building supplier that stocks many shapes and sizes of trim. If you can find a store that is locally owned and operated you often get better service with what I’m going to suggest next.

You want them to cut you off pieces, very short, of the different profiles that you think you might like. This will allow you to hold the various parts together and even take them home and hold it up in your room to see if it seems like the right size.

This process is the best way to be certain that you’ll be happy with the result. With larger chain stores you may have a problem getting them to cut a small piece for you, but sometimes you can find a broken piece in the bottom of the bin. If all else fails, hold the various parts together right in the store to form your perfect assembly.

Keep It Simple

If all this sounds like too much, don’t worry about it! For most rooms, a standard crown molding with nothing added to it will work wonders. Ninety percent of the crown molding I’ve installed has been 5.25″ standard crown. Unless you have very high ceilings, you can’t go wrong with that size.

There is So Much More!

I’m not even sure I’ve scratched the surface with regard to crown moldings, or with any of the moldings we’ve looked at in this series.  If you want to keep on learning about remodeling, including more trim, subscribe in a feed reader for free here.

Our April Newsletter is coming up soon so if you haven’t signed-up for that free resource, please do so. Remodeling Guy IdeaLetter here

Or for more right now:

A Remodeling Guy Site Search for term “Crown Molding”

The Post Category for Trim and Moldings

So, is there a crown in your future?