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Wainscoting and Chair railing in the Dining Room

  • hespath23
  • Sep 18, 2024
  • 2 min read

Our dining room was so plain; it needed a pop of color. I knew I wanted to do some sort of accent wall in that area. I decided to go with chair railing because I thought it would elevate that room into a more formal-looking area.


I first decided how high I wanted the railing to go and taped it off; then I skim coated below the tape line. This took about 2 full coats of mud and a layer of touch ups. I also removed the blinds and skim coated the interior side of the window boxes (this is optional, but I figured it would give a more seamless look and I'd regret it if I didn't do it now). Once everything was covered with mud, I used my new handy dandy sander to sand everything down to make sure it was smooth. This sander is a game changer. I've mentioned before, but I hate skim coating, not only does your arm feel like it's going to fall off but you have to sand it down at the end and it's a mess. I connected this sander to my shopvac and it made virtually no dust. I'll link it below.


Once everything was smooth, I added the window trim and chair railing. I used a few pieces to give the railing more depth. I cut them all to size and nailed them into the wall using my brad nail gun. On the edges, where the dining room meets the hallway I cut down small returns to give the edges a finished look. I used my saw and miter box to do this by hand. The returns were so small that I didn't want to use my miter saw just in case I cut my hand off.



The next step is personal preference, but I decided to paint prior to adding the trim. I used the color Kendall Charcoal by Benjamin Moore and I love how it turned out. I don't have a paint sprayer and I should have gotten one for this project. The chair rail is a PAIN to paint. I ended up using tiny craft paint brushes to make sure I was getting the paint in all the cracks. This took forever, left me light headed and seeing spots SO if you do want to try this project I recommend a paint sprayer if you're using the same chair rail trim as me.




I used PVC trim which is a little more pricier than the wood trim but it's hot and I wanted to use my Miter Shears instead of my saw in the garage. I figured out the size I wanted for my boxes and began to cut. I installed them with my brad nail gun, caulked and filled all the nail holes. Then I painted the trim. It adds so much dimension to the room and I am so happy with the finished product. If you want to give this project a go I would highly recommend getting a paint sprayer or another chair rail for your sanity.




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