Dining Room - Adding a Chair Rail!

The dining room presented an easy enough challenge and allowed me to try my hand at adding a chair rail. I like the appearance of a chair rail, but I also wanted something functional. Using my dining room chair, I tested how high the chair rail would need to be to stop the chairs from marking the walls. Then I used a laser level to mark that height around the room. The laser level was much easier to use than I had anticipated. (It was fun too, I was sorry it didn't take longer to use!). The chair rail I bought came already primed, but not with a high gloss finish. So, my son and I painted the chair rail with two coats of high gloss bright white after cutting the rail but before we put it on the wall. I don't have a nail gun so I just used finishing nails to secure the rail to the wall studs. A nail finishing kit allowed me to sink the nails into the rail to hide the heads. Then I smoothed over the small divots left by the nail heads with wall spackle. A few paint touch ups and I had a very successful weekend project!

Paint: Raffia (NA53; Ralph Lauren)
Next Steps: New light fixture; baseboards; replace outlets