Instructions for DIY Ornate Pilasters and Door Surrounds

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A Detailed House, appliques, architectural detail, Crown molding, Crown moulding, Dining room, diy, Do it yourself, Door, Door surround, fluted, fluted pilasters, frieze, home improvement, ionic, ionic cap, molding, Moulding, pilaster, pilasters, Renovation

Supplementing my post about our dining room pilasters, here is the break down and the instructions for the door surrounds. The material list below is what we used, but (of course!) adjust to your taste, architecture and level of complexity with which you are comfortable. Also, we have 8′ tall doors, which aren’t the norm, so please make sure to measure your doors prior to buying any materials or “ready-made” door pilaster kits.

DIY Ornate Door Pilasters

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A Detailed House, Crown molding, Crown moulding, Dining room, Door, Door header, Door surround, Doors, Dramatic doors, egg and dart molding, fluted pilasters, Home and Garden, home improvement, Ionic order, mantle, Moulding, pilaster

After we did our kitchen door pilasters, which were actually more difficult and our first time attempting door surrounds, we felt we had the hang of it. So you can imagine what crossed my mind. Yep, let’s rip them all down! Great idea, right? It was…until children came along and threw a wrench in my grandiose plans of custom molding everywhere! I think my husband thought the children would be less work, but they suck up more energy than all my projects combined 😉

We have gradually managed to address a few, one being the dining room pilasters:

Pretty in Pink

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carpet tiles, chandelier shades, child room, Crown molding, Crown moulding, DIY kids room, girls' room, girly girls room, kids room, make chandelier shades, pink girls room, sitting room

Following up on my previous post, A Peek into My Daughter’s Room, I finally took pictures of one of my little girl’s rooms that were semi-decent. Taking pictures is a skill that I lack!

As I mentioned, this room was a complete overhaul. We even had to do drywall work where the bed is placed because our crappy builder put a duct going right up the middle of the wall! This of course was NOT on our architectural plans.

It took me so long to figure out how to address that awful eyesore, but I finally did. I chose to drywall a larger section to make a wall large enough to accommodate a bed and then build bookcases on either side.

The rug/carpeting I made. I had seen carpet tiles, but they were surprisingly very expensive and the colors were limited. For all this carpeting, which covers the sitting room and bedroom, I think I paid about $700.

The girls love the checkerboard pattern and frequently make up hopping games. I think it gives a playful touch for a child’s room. If you all are interested, I will do a post showing how I did it.

A Peek at My Daughter’s Room

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built in bookcase, chandelier shades, Crown molding, Lighting, Lockheed Martin, make valances, panel molding, pink girls room, valance

There’s only so much time in the day and sometimes things have to take a back seat. Unfortunately, it’s been my blog!

I have been working on Lockheed Martin’s Cyber Security Initiative into the corporate sector due to the unprecedented number of cyber security attacks, which has been very time consuming since it is a new venture, but interesting, and completely unrelated to aesthetics.

Spending so much time on the technical, I’m so happy to spend some time on creative matters! So, on to my post…

When I was expecting my 2nd child, I knew there was a long road ahead in terms of fixing up her room. I started when I was first expecting and was still at it when I was 8 1/2 months. If only I had taken a before picture!

It was a major overhaul. We added crown molding, panel molding, door surrounds, two built in bookcases and ceiling medallions, I painted chandeliers and made and trimmed chandelier shades, I designed and made a rug, a play table, and (my favorite) three window valances WHEW!!!!

Even though this is a little girl’s room, all the projects I did can be done in other rooms.

I sketched out the design on plywood and made these fabric-covered valances for all the windows. This treatment can be used in any room and with any shape you want.

Luxurious Living Rooms

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Blue living rooms, Color, Couch, Crown molding, Crown moulding, Designer living rooms, Furniture, furniture layout, Furniture plan, Gold Living rooms, Green living rooms, Living room, Living room inspiration, mantle, Mantle mirror, Mirror, Neutral living rooms, Pink living rooms, Plaster molding, Plaster moulding, upscale living rooms

Not sticking with any color, just posting pictures that caught my eye for varying reasons, like architectural features, colors, etc.

Barrel ceilings are an architectural detail that are not common, but are gorgeous.

Scale is always something to keep in mind and the mirror above the mantle is over-sized and perfectly proportional for the room. With such a large space, breaking it up into groupings makes it manageable instead of treating it as one.

This also allows the room to be used for multiple uses. I can imagine a roaring fire, one child doing homework at the table (LOVE the check pattern on the chairs), the other practicing the piano and the parents reading on the sofa. A girl can dream, can’t she 😉

Black and White Bathrooms Part 2

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A Detailed House, artwork in bathrooms, bathroom inspiration, Baths, black and white bathrooms, black and white check tile, black and white rooms, black and white tile, Black bathroom, black bathrooms, black tile, black walls, chandeliers in bathrooms, color scheme, Crown molding, crown molding in bathroom, Crown molding in bathrooms, Ellen Degeneres, historic bathrooms, marble floor, marble tile, Shower, tile, tile ideas, TIle on the diagonal, vintage bathroom, White bathroom, white bathrooms, white tile

So many, many exquisite bathrooms, so little time! Here is the continuation of the exploration of black and white bathrooms.

This first picture, although I’ve commented below as well, shows a treatment that I will be addressing in a DIY segment down the road, as I am going to do this to one of our bedrooms that has sloped walls. Sloped walls obviously aren’t conducive to crown molding, but I can still add some architectural elements to the room, and this is similar to what I have selected:

Stunning architecturally and just shows what can be done when bathrooms are fitted into attic areas. Faux beams or just flat planks painted black can be nailed to the ceiling as well to give the same illusion. You could even add some substantial brackets (and they do not have to be expensive). Try to let your imagination run wild…

Black, white and gold/brass – love! Note the tile and how there is a black border around the room – I will show a better picture, but it’s not a bathroom.

Black and White Bathrooms By Request

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A Detailed House, bathroom inspiration, Baths, Black and white bathroom, black and white bathrooms, black and white check tile, black and white rooms, black and white tile, Black bathroom, black bathrooms, black tile, black walls, Black-and-white, chandeliers in bathrooms, color scheme, Crown molding, Crown molding in bathrooms, historic bathrooms, marble floor, marble tile, mirrored vanity, Shower, tile, tile designs, tile ideas, TIle on the diagonal, tile work, Venetian mirror, vintage bathroom, White bathroom, white bathrooms, white tile

In the comments section of my post, Sophisticated Rooms in Black and White, I had a request (from a blog I follow) if I had any black and white bathrooms. Well, of COURSE I’m going to oblige!

She is going to renovate a bathroom of a new home she is buying (yeah!), but  not knowing her taste, I wanted to make sure I gave her enough pictures to work with (all had appealing features). I lean towards traditional with a dash of modern thrown in for interest. And that’s great – for me! But this isn’t my bathroom! So you will see a progression because I have so many pictures. I’m going to try to cover many styles to make sure she has what she needs to be inspired. Warning: some of these bathrooms are not ones that are practical and have shortcomings, but have features and elements that still can be utilized

But, what you will not find is a brushed or burnished finish on any of the faucets. As I mentioned in my last post, I have crow-like tendencies and will fly towards anything that is shiny or reflective. I was the child that put her pennies in vinegar … every single time I got a penny, which if you aren’t familiar with this, it shines those pennies up like nobody’s business!

Please, please forgive my formatting!! I have spent the past 2 days trying to get this out and I have done nothing different from prior posts and have done everything to try to clean this up, but I’ve had a hard time getting it to look good! Then my pictures inexplicably turn to the small blue box with the question mark!?!?! Wha-wha-what!!!! When dealing with a lot of pictures, this is the last thing you want to see (because I like to see/ponder/comment/ on them)!

Well, enough about that! (Drum roll) Here’s the first of at least 2 batches 🙂

Sigh, there are so many things about this bathroom I love, I don’t know where to start. It makes me what to take a sledge-hammer to all my bathrooms and start from scratch. The tile work is GORGEOUS and understated. The sink may not be practical for everyone, unless you have a linen closet or some storage or a cupboard (even in the bathroom). But hanging pictures and the silver frames, I just adore in bathrooms. Why not?

Ordinary to Extraordinary with the Crown Jewel – Molding!

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architectural detail, architecture, cabinet, caulk, ceiling, crown, Crown molding, diy, Home Depot, kitchen, molding, nail, paint, pantry, Pine, putty, Wood

Our completed projects: crown molding, cabinet molding, mantle shelf and pullout spice cabinets! This took our kitchen from completely boring and ordinary to extraodinary!

I love molding – just adore it. It takes a plain box and makes it pretty.

So with the success and ease of adding molding to our plain cabinets, surely the ceilings can’t be that hard. I applied the same principle, except the top piece had a 9″ face. That made corners very difficult…for my husband 🙂 Oh, Lord, were the corners difficult!!

But the beauty of 12′ ceilings is that mistakes are impossible to see and caulk can do wonders! I became a master sculptor, sculpting caulk and putty to fix the corners where we didn’t get it just right.

Taking Plain, Stock Kitchen Cabinets and Making Them Look Custom…and Expensive

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Adding molding to kitchen cabinets, architecture, Business, cabinet, Crown molding, Custom cabinets, Customizing kitchen cabinets, diy, Home Depot, kitchen, Kitchen cabinet, Making kitchen cabinets look custom, making stock cabinets look custom, Making stock kitchen cabinets look amazing, Making stock kitchen cabinets look custom, Making stock kitchen cabinets look designer, molding, paint, pilaster, Plain cabinets to fancy

Unless you are willing to shell out oodles of money (and I’m talking $100k +) for a custom kitchen, you need to work with stock cabinets. But, all is not lost – there are many ways to make them look custom and take them beyond what is the norm. Since I adore historic homes, I had decided upon 12′ ceilings.

At one point in my kitchen design, I had thought about stacking smaller, glass-front cabinets on top (which I still think would look great) but my mother talked me out of it.

(Note to any and everyone: it’s hard enough determining your own likes and style…involving another, ESPECIALLY your mother, makes decisions become painful. She will invariably insert her opinion in everything, like it or not, and it seeps into your brain, making you second guess every decision.)

This is what I envisioned:

Between the ceilings and the cabinets left a great disparity – not so great that I was alarmed, because I knew I had huge copper kettles that I could finally display, but it was noticeable and the scale wasn’t quite right. They simply must be adjusted and customized. My absolute favorite solution: let’s put molding on top! No, let’s put a LOT of molding on top!