Chair Rail and Kitchenette

Installing Chair Rail and Creating a Kitchenette:

We purchased our little farm a couple years ago and have been remodeling the house ever since.  We have an area in our lower level (basement) that makes no sense what so ever. This room is off the Man Cave and Mud Room, and has a winding staircase that leads upstairs.
I decided to make it a usable space by adding bookshelves and a kitchenette.
The “new” kitchenette area had to wait until we remodeled our main floor kitchen so I could reuse the old cabinets.

While waiting, I began refinishing the walls of this LL room.  One wall is drywall and 3 walls are finished with wood  paneling, in excellent condition but
dated and hideous, (in my opinion) as you can see in the photo.

Before:  paneled walls, peach winding stairs, greenish blue carpet

After removing wallpaper and having tile floor covering installed, I began work on the walls.

I added and or replaced any missing or damage baseboards and ceiling trim.  When installing the baseboards I left parts of the wall without baseboards so I could build bookshelves that would fit flush with the wall.

Carpet has been removed but not the wall paper

New flooring, chair rail, baseboards and primer on the walls

I wanted to add a slightly formal and more updated feel to the room so went with a chair rail.  Chair rails are easy to install; no really.  If you are installing a chair rail that will remain a natural wood finish, now that becomes a little trickier.  The wood must line up PERFECT in the corners or where mitered together along a long wall.

I am not a professional carpenter, let me tell you. But I found an easy way around the perfect wood cuts.

Using wood that is going to be painted forgives a lot of sins (cutting mistakes and nail holes).
Take a look at the two photos below, the first is the corner with the not so perfect cuts.

The second photo is with caulk and spackle applied and covering less than perfect cuts. 

New chair rail, uneven cut and finishing nails showing

Chair rail with corner smoothed over
and nail holes filled, but before painting

Then once painted, the less than perfect cut is hardly noticeable. Except maybe by our professional woodworker friend Jim, who was kind enough to give me praise, but I knew he knew his cuts would have been perfect.  And would have also cost me an arm and a leg!  His skills we used for all our main kitchen woodworking jobs.

A saying we jokingly use around here is:  "You can’t see it from an airplane".

This LL room appears as if it was finished years ago and there are a few places the wall is bowed slightly.  After the chair railing was up I used caulk to fill in any slight gaps that occurred because of uneven walls.

Once all the finishing nail holes were filled and corners smoothed over it was time to paint. 

I applied a primer to the wood paneling, not only to seal it to lock in any stains that may try to seep through the paint, but also to have a base that would actually stick to the paneling and not peel off later. The primer is white in color.

I tried to choose two neutral colors for the final paint colors, and am happy with the results. 
The winding stair case in our house is amazing but the wrought iron had been painted peach at some point, I kid you not, Yikes! This I hand painted (my gosh, it took me hours) with a black metal paint, (windows open and a fan running for ventilation) .

Winding stair case leading to the main floor, after remodel

Winding stair case before, Yikes!
The indoor outdoor carpet,  what nightmares are made of.....

Now that my main floor kitchen remodel was under way, I was able to set aside the cabinets that would fit together in the area I had picked out for our LL Kitchenette. 

New kitchenette (off the mudroom and door to the garage)

I did not install a baseboard on the wall of the proposed kitchenette, so the cabinets would fit flush. 

In the same way the cabinets were installed upstairs, they were installed here, screwed to the studs in the wall. I reused 3 old cabinets and 2 spacers on top and three old cabinets on the bottom.
The old kitchen refrigerator became the kitchenette’s refrigerator.

And the counter top is easier than you might think.  Because this kitchenette will be primarily for the kids and their friends to use, we chose an inexpensive in stock slab counter top purchased from The Home Depot. They even cut it to the desired length.  We also installed a small microwave and pizza cooker (not shown). 

The room didn't turn out too bad for amateurs and I think even pretty good considering this was my first attempt at installing a chair rail.

There is also a full bath off this room, which was included in this remodel.  The original bath had a wall hung sink, commode and space for a shower (never finished).  Look at that lovely 80's? flooring and toilet rug!

The same paint colors were chosen as in the adjoining room, except the paint on the top half is a slightly darker shade.

Using neutral color paint allows you to change the color scheme of the rooms without changing the paint. The full bath now has a new vanity with quartz counter top, new commode. The shower was built and finished with tiles in neutral colors.  Everything in this bath was replaced, even the window.  Installing a glass block window allows for privacy while still letting in lots of light and adds a little more security.

I built bookshelves to turn this room into a small library. Lets just say I have too many books, Yowza!
The bookshelves were constructed from oak we salvaged from an old barn. We also added new 6 panel doors to the Man Cave and Bath.

After remodel:  new flooring, chair rail, doors, book shelves, and updated wrought iron stairs.

Before remodel with peach stairs, indoor outdoor carpet, ugly paneling and missing door and baseboards.

What projects are you working on?  Once spring arrives it will be back outside for me, with lots of patio and garden projects planned!

I hope all your home remodeling and DIY projects are turning out well,

Elizabeth