Sunday, July 18, 2010

Wallpaper and panelling for the WAHM dining room


This is what the dining room in the William and Mary House looks like this morning :) I worked SO hard yesterday on panelling and wallpapering and so forth (and I have the gluey, stain smeared fingers to prove it :) and I've taken some photos to show the steps I went through.


I started by cutting a chimney breast for the fireplace and wrapping it in wallpaper.  I had stained the plywood to wainscot height (about 3"), thinking that I could build the panels right onto the plywood for the two side walls and onto basswood for the back, foam wall.  It looked like crap -- big, ugly plywood grain, so I decided to use basswood for all three walls.  I was lazy, and didn't want to cut the 4" wide basswood strips I had, so I decided to have slightly higher wainscotting than is usual :)


For the back wall I cut a length of basswood sheet to fit, roughly centred the window and cut a little slot in the sheet for the window and glued the window to the sheet. Then I put in the chair rail, rather roughly coping it around the sill.  I used some 1/4" moulding I found at my local building supply store (so it's cheap) for the chair rail, and I'm pleased with the way it looks.   Here's its profile:

The above photo shows the basswood sheet covering the plywood and the chair rail going on by the door and along the side of the fireplace mantle (to tie the fireplace in with the panelling).  The green tape, by the way, is covering the gawd-awful gouge where I made a bish of cutting out the door hole with my new Trio, hem hem).

Now the wallpaper can be stuck on!  Look, ugly green tape disappears!

The back panelling isn't stuck on yet, of course, because it will be more tidy to wallpaper that wall first and then stick on the panelling.  But I've added a very simple baseboard (about 1" wide and very thin -- just pine offcuts) and very simple uprights (stir sticks, actually :).  My Easy Cutter is getting a work out!


They tell you to stain your woodwork first for a reason :)  I had to be really, really tidy around the wallpaper on the left side because I did the panelling first and then stained it. 


I cut out the hole for the window and then test fitted the rear panelling -- all seems well.


I then applied the wallpaper to below the line of the panelling and glued it on, cutting out the window.  Do not use Quick Grip glue on polystyrene, by the way -- it eats it :)  PVA is fine.  There was some bubbling of the wallpaper that worried me at first, but it dried nice and flat.


Still needs some touch ups, but it's pretty close.  I was on some bizarre high from getting all this done, so I decided to so some wiring, which of course has to be done before everything is glued in place if it's on an interior wall.

I drilled holes through the chimney breast for the two sconces and the fire. The wires will run up the back of the chimney breast (which will be stuck on with Museum Putty and along a channel at the top of the wall to the back and the plug board.


Here's the fireplace with sconces, fire, a large Raphael over the mantle and some blue and white pieces. This fireplace came with a barewood hearth -- I cut some faux stone sticky tile to fit rather than marbling it myself with paint.


And here's the window area.  While my hands were covered with Mission Oak stain, I decided to stain this little sideboard as it was going to live here anyway (I decided on the window placement so that it would clear the sideboard, actually).



I also did some work on the stairway, but I'll share that later because I'm going to be posting fairly infrequently over the next three weeks.

15 comments:

  1. Pretty work Nina!:)It looks so good! Good luck with the opera workshop!

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  2. WOW Nina,
    It is really moving along. Everything looks fantastic too. I love the wall paper you are using! I am amazed at how fast it's going.

    Wishing you well with the opera work shop! :-)

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  3. You are a fast worker!! Everything looks great. I anxioiusly await each of your postings. I have passed the link to your blog on to some of my Nova Scotia friends while I was visiting there this week. They have a fantastic group that meet regularly there.

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  4. But the same room yesterday?!
    By now you've accustomed to such miracles: is a wonder, everything is smooth and clean! I love the wallpaper and the matching with china is perfect. The two statues on the mantelpiece are fabulous. The color of the furniture and fixtures is impeccable. The paintings are charming and the panels seem real. In short: you are great!
    Good job, flora

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  5. Gosh you have worked hard. And so clever with all the wood working, it looks very professional. The panelling has come out beautifully. Great job Nina.

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  6. Wow, are you doing anything else???
    You are working soooo fast! But it looks fabulous!!!

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  7. Wow, Nina! Your WAMH is looking amazing!I had my doubts about the foam walls....I will be interested to hear what you think after working with the foam! I love the little paintings!
    Good luck with the Opera....or are we supposed to say "break a leg"?

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  8. So beautiful your dinning room Nina, is a great work, congratulations!

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  9. Great work Nina - are you stopping to eat? lol The panelling looks great and the wallpaper is really nice.

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  10. The room looks delightful, love the wallpaper and the panelling, you've become a deft hand with woodwork.

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  11. Esta quedando precioso.
    El papel tapiz me encanta. Me gusta mucho la tonalidad de la madera.
    Estas logrando un salón perfecto.
    Besitos, May

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  12. Wowo you got all that done, you really were on a roll wernt you, and yes you can see you have been REALLY working hard!! And all that hard works paid off, as it looks pretty amazing! Kate xx

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  13. Wow, just like everyone else it's amazing how much you have done in such a short time. It's looking wonderful and so true to the period. I love you china!! Jenn

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  14. I love it! It's so beautiful :) Now I have to get my building mode back, might still today suffer from my headache and start doing something tomorrow :D

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  15. the step by step pics are great! i love the wallpaper too~

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