Cool As Trim.

Cool a** trim, to be more honest, my friends.  Cooooolll a** trim.

Mike gets home from work one evening, heads upstairs to slip into some comfy clothes.  I tippy toe to the base of the stair....

"WHAT the F***?!"  I gasp.

"What happened to the wall?!?!"  Uh.  Uh oh.

"I think I kinda like it."

Now I'm wondering, as I sit here, if he spurted this for effect knowing I was likely sneakily eavesdropping at the bottom of the stair, mentally recording his reaction.  Which I was.  Hmmmm, that guy.

We then went the whooole rest of the evening with zero mention.        .....Right?!

When I asked him later at bedtime if he liked the wall, all cozy snuggled in, all I got was a quick half-glance upwards, a shrug, and a "yeah."  Huh.  I mean a yeah is a yeah, right?  Imma go with that.

But he should like it, it's darn freakin' cool.

The next day he did astutely proffer that it lends texture to the wall so I guess it is true, he does hear me.

Lemme profusely apologize in advance here though as this is probably THE worst batch of in-progress photos ever, each and every one blurry.  I had to turn the overhead can lights on since it was a dim and dreary day.  Alas, suckage photos.  Sooo sorry.

Before.  Yawn.

See, after the headboard went up I'd been trying to figure out what to do with the expanse of wall above it, what do I do, do I paint a mural type thing, do I find some art, do I make some art, should I hang something there, what if I did this or did that or or or and nothing seemed right.

Clearly because my brain was waiting for the rest of my brain to catch up to this idea.  When I saw something similar on Instagram, tada bam bingo kapow, I knew this was the direction I needed to go.

Well crap.  I coulda sworn I saved that image but it appears I did not.  What a dope.  Sorry person, I can't give you credit where credit is due.  Though I did not copy their idea, just received a jolt of inspiration.

And for a mere thirty five bucks or so, we've got a thrifty yet high-end fancy schmancy looking wall.  I just know Pete the Realtor is gonna love this one.   Rrrrrrr, yes.

So ok!

I finally had enough of looking at the fox smoking and holding a teacup on our unfinished bedroom wall where the pocket door went in.  Heh, ya know, only two and a half plus years later after putting in the darn door.  What can I say.  Issues wrapping projects up to completion, ahem.

Oh, yeah, that's the shape the joint compound took on our wall, a fox fancily smoking and holding a teacup at a swanky party.  He was having a load of fun.  It was time for him to go.

Right.

So that all snowballed into an explosion of numerous projects in the bedroom like the hardwire to plug in sconces.

This project is super simple though.  Well, except for math.  There was math.

Originally I drew up several options on the ol' AutoCAD,* (did you know with eBates (Rakuten)* you can get 6% back on AutoCAD?  Yep.) pondered this for a few weeks, what kind of trim, what shape, what size, blah blah, and blah blah blah.

In the end I went with flat stock that is proportional in dimension to the spiffy blocks of the headboard, aka 1 3/4" wide, aka half the size of a headboard block, aka make it visually correct.  Makes sense, yeah?  And pine because I knew I was painting it.

My supplies:

• 7 strips 1 3/4" x 8' x 1/4" flat stock, pine
• 1 1/4" brad nails*
• Durham's Rock Hard Wood Putty*
• sandpaper
• paint

Heh heh heh, turns out our paint color, Granite Falls (looks waaaay way better in person than that sad link), is more or less Behr's color of the year for 2019.  Hahahaha, look at me ahead of the trends and being trendy which I am so not.  (Do check the wall with the pedestal sink in that Behr link though, super cool!)

I opted for a diamond pattern on the wall which, uh, doh, more math.  And tricky beyond the math because not a single freakin' wall in this darn house is true and square.  Anywhere.  Not a one.  So there are a few small gaps.  But!  Easily remedied as you'll see.

First I measured the width of the wall area I was looking to do, found center and marked it at the top.

Next, chop a forty fiver angle on two pieces of pine.

First cuts!  Anyone else get super nervous on those first cuts like me?  No?  Just me?

And fyi on the pine, I had to dig through all the pieces at the store to find ones with one side smooth, save myself sanding time as too many of them were rough both sides.

So upstairs (and yes, for every little cut I was up and down up and down up and down because I didn't want the sawdust mess upstairs; my phone said [when I remembered to carry it] I had completed thirty four flights that day, ouch), center was where the two forty fives met.  Tack tack with the brad nailer* and I'm on my way.

Oh I'm so embarrased by these awful photos.  Ugh.

Of course already the math is different on paper than actual existing conditions but hey, actual existing conditions are actual existing conditions.  Amiright or amiright.

And of course I freaked out a little, wondering if this was going to work out the way it was gloriously completed in my head but after a calm your sh*t down it's only two frickin' pieces so far ya butthead pep talk, onward and forward I went.

Next were the top corners, crossing the first pieces.  So more forty fives, then marking the pieces for the ninety degree perpendicular cuts.  Here I skipped measuring and relied upon where things actually were.

Heh, like an 80's argyle sweater.

Up down up down.  Up down the ladder up down up down.  Tack tack.  Breathe breathe.  Next!

Overall pretty simple really.  And truly, if I had been able to find the miter box and saw* I thought I had, this would have gone much faster.

Mmmm-all right, all the pieces are on!

A few minor fill in tiny pieces, and I probably could've planned better but my brain was lacking oxygen from all the stairs but thankfully Durham's Rock Hard Wood Putty exists and gaps and nail holes were filled in then sanded smooth.

Fill the gaps, fill the holes, like it was all connected and solid from the beginning.  What a ploy!

Lastly was painting.  I opted to paint the pine to match the existing wall so as to not create contrast or pull focus, just blend in and make cool shadows.

(And by the way?  Looking to paint?  Try Samplize* as they're peel and stick large samples, way easy to use, made with actual real paint, delivered overnight, and you're not jacking up your wall with a slew of splotchy blobs.)

And then watch it disappear!

Did this project in a short couple of hours, done in an afternoon.  How cool is that?  You can transform a wall, a room, in such a short amount of time?!

Tada!  Wooo the heck whooo!  And yes, I just made those fuzzy pillows too from a remnant and stuffing my mom gave me.  Thanks, Mom!

Mike did ask, "so is this done?  I mean, are you doing anything else here?"  Heh, he sounded a bit worried but for now I think it's done.

I mean, cooome on, with the sconces and the headboard....It's cool.

See, I threw Mike a surprise party for our ten year wedding anniversary and he's been a liiiiittle touchy about anything and everything surprise ever since.  Take a turn in the car, "hey where we going, is this another surprise?!?!"  Heh, too funny.

But we'll see.  Nothing is ever done.  Heh.  Heh.  Heh.

Damn cool, yeah?

Anyway....I love it, I think it looks awesome.  It's definitely got a high end look -- you'd never know it was so flippin' cheap to do!

But guys.  The concrete.  There's new concrete in our yard.  New.  Concrete.  We finally FINALLY have a path from the house to the garage.  Hall. Le. Lu. Yah.  Holy crap people, concrete.  All the "next year"'s are put to rest.  Next time, I'll share.  Once I pick my jaw up off the ground.

*The brad nails, Durham's Rock Hard Wood Putty, Bostitch brad nailer, miter box and hand saw sets are Amazon affiliate links.  AutoCAD is, well, an AutoCAD affiliate link and eBates give us both cash when you sign up and use it.  Which you should.  The Samplize link is a Samplize affiliate link.  Mwah, thanks!  Plesae see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.