A good workout with p90x leaves me feeling very worn out and sore the next day. But this week’s big project had me feeling a lot worse. I finally… finally… put trim in the kitchen. There was a lot of work while squatting, crawling, on knees and elbows, etc, that left my body quite unhappy.
First, a few shots to show what we’ve been looking at every day for the last year.
I’ll leave out the windows.. you get the idea. The first thing I needed to do was to replace some 1/4in entryway framing that was done poorly the first time. The wood used had a lot of voids in it, and this caused surface cracking over time. Here’s what I pulled out.
After measuring for the replacements, I ripped a higher quality sheet of plywood and sanded, primed, and painted them. 
I used my finish nailer to put them in, and then moved on to the trim. I decided to go with stained rough-hewn cedar boards to really bring out the rustic theme we’re aiming for. I picked out a few stains to choose from.
We went with the middle one; Red Mahogany. The Ebony one on top was too dark, and the bottom one was too close to the cabinet color. Our choice matches closely to the accent color of the cabinets, so I think it works well. I set up shop in the garage, because all the snow in the yard makes it difficult to traipse back and forth from the house to the barn. Staining was easy and fun. After applying the stain, I wiped it off again with a rag to let some of the grain come out. 
Once I had all the trim for the windows, doors, and chair rail cut, stained, and installed, I had to make the baseboard. I wanted to match the original baseboard in the rest of the house, so I had to make it using 1x4 pine boards, some top molding, and quarter round. This required a lot of cutting, priming, and painting. I mitered the corners using a compound miter saw, and I’ll admit to having to do a few of them over again as I learned when to cut on the line and when to cut next to it. That 1/8th of an inch the blade takes out really makes a difference some times. I went with white on the baseboard so that it would go with the windows/doors, and provide some consistency from one room to the next.
After all the trim and baseboard was stained/painted and installed, I went back with some Elmer’s Wood Putty and filled in all the nail holes in the baseboard before putting a final coat of Ultra Bright White on it. I also touched up the green on the walls as well as the windows and entry ways. Once everything was put away I was amazed at the difference it all made!
Check out a before and after:
There is still much to do in the kitchen, but it really feels like a finished room, now. This week’s task is to replace all the outlets and switches and get them covered. And I guess I should clean the floor, too.
