When deciding how to design Babygirl’s Room, one of the things I knew I wouldn’t incorporate is an accent wall. I love them, but with my Son’s Room and his in-your-face striped wall right next door (separated by the striped bathroom no less!), I knew it would be overkill. (Hi, I’m Cassie, and I’m addicted to stripes.)
But since her room is a small little box with only one window, I wanted to add some kind of interest. Then I remembered how Janell faked crown molding with just paint. I took her idea and ran with it! (Isn’t that what blogging is all about?! Stealing Sharing ideas?!)
With 9-foot ceilings, I decided to make the crown moldings 8-inches tall. I figured they needed some visual weight in order to make a real impact; and subtle isn’t my middle name. First step was to paint the top perimeter of the room the desired color of the molding.
Then I made small pencil marks 8-inches down from the ceiling, about 4-feet apart, all around the room. This makes it easy to ‘connect the dots’ with your painters tape and paint a straight line. I typically use Frog Tape for stripes, but slight bleeding wasn’t an issue for me this time (you’ll find out why in Part 2).
The top blue line is the painters tape, the turquoise line is part of the old nursery design.
Make sure you apply the tape over a fully-painted (dry!) area of the ‘crown molding.’
Then paint the bottom portion with your wall color, going all the way up to the taped line. I was able to do both steps simultaneously thanks to my free help! I painted and taped off the crown molding, while my mom painted the wall color.
(She’s going to kill me…but I couldn’t have painted this room in a day without her help. Thanks Mom!! {heart})
As soon as you finish painting, peel the tape off, careful not to let it graze the wall (since the paint on the tape is still wet!) I’m a big believer in pulling it off immediately, before the paint has a chance to dry and peel off with the tape. You’ll get a much smoother line this way.
The paint is still wet in these pics, that’s why the room appears splotchy. But do you spot the problem?
Uh-huh, nice hatchet job on the ceiling!
I’ll admit I was quite smug with myself as I blew through my painting. I thought I was saving all the time and trouble of cutting in along the ceiling line since I didn’t take the blue paint all the way up. Because the molding is white and the ceiling is white, right?!?!
Negative. Even my ‘Part 2’ to my crown molding treatment won’t help this mess. The only solution is to paint the ceiling (aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!). And if I’m going to paint the damn ceiling, I might as well make it interesting too, right? I mean, it is referred to as the Fifth Wall.
I picked up this color to test. Thoughts?
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| Martha Stewart for Home Depot in Sisal |
I found this inspiration pic combining the two colors, and I love it…so it’s helped to back my decision:
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| via Shannon Berrey |
I’m hoping my mishap is really a blessing in disguise. Thoughts on the ‘crown molding’ so far? How about my ceiling color choice? Or better yet, do you have any tips for painting ceilings without a flip-top head?!?
Update: See Part 2 of the Crown Molding and the finished trim here!