One Room Challenge Week #3: Masculine Molding

Hello!

I am EXCITED to share my ORC progress this week!  I have been a busy bee, and it’s a nice change of pace to feel like I’m actually on track (dare I say a wee bit ahead?).  Ok, let me scratch that, so I don’t completely jinx myself.  I still haven’t completely finalized my bedding decisions, but I’ve discovered more options at least, and have this comforter on order to help me finalize my decision.

Originally I found this quilt, but since I have a gray quilt already, I need a comforter or a duvet.  But I love the colors in the quilt, which is what prompted me to order the comforter.  Make sense?

My son’s criteria for decision making?  “Is it comfortable?  Is it soft?  That doesn’t look soft.  Ooooh, it is soft.”  When I shared some cool (masculine) accessories that I found, he simply said, “Mom, I’m not a girl.”

Look at all of these options I found at our Restoration Hardware Outlet (after I ordered the comforter of course) – some are sheets, some are duvets (if memory serves).

Let’s get on with the progress for the week.  A long time ago, I added molding to my daughter’s bedroom, and I still love the way it looks.

So, I decided to add some molding in this room too, but I’m taking a different approach.  Instead of just a “headboard” type of wall, I’m doing a molding treatment on the entire wall.  Some masculine molding.  Seems easy enough, right?  One thing I have learned about the One Room Challenge – things are never as easy as they seem.

First, I had to decide on the type of molding I wanted to add – squares, rectangles, etc…  I had to contend with the two windows along this wall, which made things a bit more complicated, since I had to work with them to make sure the symmetry was right.  Plus, if you look closely, you’ll notice that the distance between the windows and the walls is off – there is more space between the window and the wall on the left, than the one on the right.  It’s not something you would notice by just glancing at the wall, but it’s there.  See?  Nothing is ever easy or straight forward.

I started by priming the wall

And then I painted the wall to match the trim, because initially, I was going to paint out the entire paneled wall to match the trim, and if you paint the wall before the trim is installed, you get a smoother end result.  Sorry for the nighttime photos – this is what I do with my evenings on the weekends.  Party on.  And yes, it looks yellowy against the primed trim pieces on the wall, but I promise in the light, when it’s all painted the same color, it looks fine. 🙂

In order for things to be symmetrical, and visually pleasing, I decided to mimic trim out the areas above the windows, and then do one big rectangle in the middle, since ultimately, we’re going to put the bed in between the windows.

 

Speaking of the bed, did I mention that I scored this amazing headboard at Bargains and Buyouts for … $125.  Awwww, yeah!

It’s so pretty masculine.  I love it.

And, since I get my best ideas when I’m working on a deadline, I got a wild hair to add “X” molding to the small trimmed rectangles above the windows.  I opted for smaller trim pieces, since the larger ones screamed “barn” to me for some reason.  Regardless of my effort to minimize the barn effect, when I showed my son, he said, “Looks like a barn.”  (Sigh)

If you look closely, you’ll see that I didn’t add a piece of trim to the window on the right because it would have thrown off the size of the rectangle.  And I also thought that I would be hanging drapes, so it would cover it.  But now that I have the “X” detail up there, where am I going to hang my drapes??  

Did you notice that the right side didn’t have a side trim piece?  Honestly, I think it would be much more obvious if I had added the trim, especially since I incorporated the “X” detail.

Suffice to say, it’s a work in progress (and probably not completely symmetrical).  I swear, now I’m second guessing myself, even though I measured both rectangles, and they’re both almost exactly the same size.

I also changed my mind on the color of the paneled wall.  Instead of white, I decided to go dark (it is a boy’s room after all).  I had some Urbane Bronze on hand, so I gave it a try.  This is after one coat…

Perhaps the darker color will camouflage any imperfections, right?  Still not sure if this is going to be “the color” for the paneled wall, but I think I’m definitely going to stick with something dark here, with another color for the surrounding walls (what that color is, I’m not sure at the moment).  Once the bedding is finalized, I’ll make that decision.

But, suffice to say, I’m happy with my progress at the moment!  What do you think?  Are you a fan of tricking out your walls with trim?

Jenny