Nursery Trim & Electrical Work | ORC Spring 2024 (Week Two)
Electrical Updates with our Contractor
Before diving into nursery trim and DIY projects, the first item on the agenda for the guest room to nursery conversion for the Spring 2024 One Room Challenge, was electrical! We got our contractor friend (Bobby from RJM Creative Contracting) involved for some fun lighting updates! There was a ceiling fan in the room that I wasn’t a big fan of. It was a very dim/dingy light, and aesthetically did not do anything for the space. I wanted to swap it out for a semi flush mount light that added some sparkle. And of course, I can’t add a ceiling light without a medallion. I found the most perfect ceiling medallion with little bows! Perfect for baby girl’s nursery.
Additionally, I wanted to add a recessed light to the closet. It’s a pretty large, deep closet that becomes kind of a black hole at night. Bobby added the can light to ceiling, and a light switch inside the closet. Anytime we’re working on a the electrical in a room, I wanna update the switches. I’m on a mission to slowly change all the switches in our house to antique-style push button switches. Not only do they look really cool and special, but they are SO satisfying to push. 🙂 So you know the new switch in the closet is push button, and the main switch for the overhead light got swapped out for a push button too.
DIY Nursery Trim Updates
Next up, on the agenda was to roll up my sleeves to start the DIY portion. First things first, there was some trim I wanted to add. I added crown molding first! I had done crown molding myself in our bedroom a few months ago and to be honest, it was really hard. It all ended up looking great in the end, but it was a struggle to get the cuts right. Near the end of the bedroom crown molding I realized the problem was coming from the crown molding jig I was using. It was supposed to make things easier, but honestly, it made the spring angle super inconsistent for me. I was much better off hand-holding it while I cut.
I decided to give crown molding another go for the nursery. It’s a straight forward room with just four regular 90 degree (ish) corners. Our bedroom, on the other hand was much more complex with a couple wide angles and an outside corner, too. I was very pleased this go around, that my cuts were much more accurate, and the install went pretty quick! I was really proud of these corners.
My crown molding is from Kuiken Brothers; the profile is KB345U. I ordered two 16’ lengths and three 8’. The two longer walls are 13’ so I opted for the 16’s to be able to keep them in one cut. I had to join an 8’ piece with a smaller piece for the shorter walls (11’). Some of the trim pieces were pretty dirty upon arrival. So before hanging I gave them a quick wipe down, but they’ll definitely need to be cleaned a little better before painting.
One thing note, a choice that I made in this project was opting for mitered cuts over coping joints out of personal preference. I just really don’t like using the coping saw especially for something as big as crown. I’ve used it for quarter round shoe moulding and that was manageable. There was one or two times I cut my piece just a tiny bit too short…like a 1/4” off. Rather than recutting, I just cut an additional little ‘shim’ slice at the exact same angle. Then I glued it in the gap. After caulking and wood-filling, you can’t even tell!
Picture Rail Molding
The next piece of nursery trim was picture rail molding! I have been itching to install picture rail molding in one of our rooms. It’s such a classic Victorian element that makes the room feel special and unique. I felt the nursery was perfect for it! Not only does it work well for the wall shape, but I plan to make it a distinguishing element for design purposes too, giving an anchor point for where wallpaper will begin and paint will end.
It was surprisingly difficult to find any kind of variety in picture rail molding. My local lumber place didn’t carry any profiles, and Kuiken Brothers offered essentially only one profile in three sizes. I imagined having lots to pick from, but ultimately I don’t think it was a big deal to opt for what Kuiken Brothers had available! For reference the profile is KB840. I got 32’ of this profile (less than I needed for crown because I was installing it to run a little below the tops of the doors and windows).
I divided the install work into two separate days. On day one, I just measured and drew out exactly where I wanted to hang it, making sure my lines were level. I kept all the measurements in a note on my phone, and also wrote them on the wall below where they’d hang. I also marked out where all the studs were. For picture rail molding, I knew it would be important to anchor to some studs because I will be using it to bear the weight of framed art.
On day two I cut all my pieces, and hung them up. Having pre-determined my measurements, and marked out the studs, saved me a lot of time on the install. After nailing them all in, I caulked and wood-filled everything. It looks so fun!
Although it’ll be a few weeks til I’m ready to actually hang artwork, I did get some hooks already! I found them on House of Antique Hardware. I love that they carry Victorian designs, so these little brass hooks feel really authentic and add to the character of the space!
Next Steps: Furniture, Paint, & Wallpaper Decisions
Before I can physically dive into the next phases I’ve got a lot of decision-making to do. I’ve got samples of wallpaper and paint in-hand, and I need to finalize my choices to be able to get those ordered! To keep the ball rolling, I’m also going to work on ordering furniture pieces in the meantime! Stay tuned for next week’s ORC update!
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