Frame Worthy

Our dining room has been a lovely, usable, mostly boring room for almost the entire time that we've lived here. 

Not long after moving in, Richard began the huge undertaking of building the huge farmhouse table. It's a glorious thing to behold. Really. 

Then we added the church pew bench. And I worked my magic (read: spray paint) on a set of Craigslist chairs. (I've been keeping my eye out for a few more the make the collection complete.)

We'd always talked about adding picture frame molding in that room, especially since the chair rail was already in place. There were a couple of spots on the wall that needed a little attention (sanding and treatment and priming and such), so we decided that we might as well add some architectural detail while fixing those spots. Richard even got so far as to draw out some of the lines and start on the measuring. 

Then we left alone for other projects. We both have a tendency to start something, with excellent intentions of finishing it, then move on to other things. Mostly the work week happens. 

Anyway, we've revisited the dining room. 

Richard has added the picture frame molding. We had a few little measuring and calculating issues -- mostly because we, very officially, only wrote things down on scraps of paper and cardboard. Also, because we had reached that point of wanting to get it done and decided to just move forward and do it and face the problems as they happened. Not the best plan, really.

We picked the wall with the longest uninterrupted space and started there. It ended up being the wall to the right when you walk in from the kitchen. We measured the whole wall and then split it into six even spaces. We chose six because the math worked and we figured that the boxes would be a good size -- not too small and not too big. We're very precise like that. 

We then marked the six spaces and knew that each space would need to accommodate the box itself, the dimensions of the actual trim that we used, and the space between the boxes. So each space was basically split like so: area from the corner/previous "space," the box itself, area to the next "space"/corner. 

Since word problems are fun, here are the actual measurements: 

- 13.5 ft wall = 162 inches = six 27 inch spaces
- 22 inch box
- 5 inches between each box
- 2.5 inches from each corner where the walls meet

Very official wall markings -- this shows the multiple measurements that we went through to get it just right. Or seismic activity -- could be either one. 

I don't think we actually used any of these lines...

We had a couple of spots where these measurements didn't work out -- mostly around the outlets -- so we would shift things just a little bit or make adjustments that worked for an entire wall. We knew from the beginning that we wouldn't be able to find one magic measurement that worked for all four of the walls. 

So, on one wall, the space between the boxes is 6", and on another wall, the boxes are all a tiny bit lower to account for the outlets. And then, on the wall with the windows, we didn't even use those measurements at all. We did make sure that those boxes were the same distance from the chair rail and baseboards though. 

That was our only one that turned a corner. We originally planned to make sure that none of them did this, but then it worked out best to do it this way. We're happy with it. 

We have also started putting a few paint color options up on the walls. More on that later, but that's not even all of them...

BONUS! A baby bump picture! Maybe I'll compile some of the pictures I've been tracking over the past 17 weeks. Well, like 5 weeks really. I haven't been taking mirror selfies the whole time. 

17 weeks 2 days!