Feature Walls: Designing with Moulding

WestStyle recently completed a moulding feature wall that we absolutely love!  The best part is that it was relatively inexpensive and completely changed the look of the room.  Another bonus is that if you have some motivation, your own power tools and a free weekend, this is a simple DIY project that will yield huge “Wow Factor” results. 

We decided to frame this moulding around a fireplace in a family room but this would be equally impressive in the master bedroom, dining room or even basement media area.  We opted for primed moulding pieces, but to cut costs further, an inexpensive wood like poplar would also work.  We will outline the materials and tools required below.

The first step is to pick your wall.  This new feature wall will be the one your eye is always drawn to when you walk into the room, so it needs to make sense.  You don’t want to confuse the eye by having more then one feature area in a space.  All areas and walls of the room should be beautiful and interesting, but one should be the obvious dominant wall. 

The next step is to pick your pattern or layout.  We went with a simple grid pattern, but you could easily opt for thinner mouldings in large box shapes, or even abstract layouts.  As long as you maintain a level of symmetry in your design, you will be left with a strikingly beautiful result.

Your paint colour will largely effect the finished look.  We really wanted to accentuate this wall so we opted for a medium/dark colour that added a ton of interest.  Colours will change in appearance at different times of the day, on different walls and in different lighting, so keep that in mind when picking your colour.  Sometimes going dark can be too dark when it’s all said and done, so it’s best to have an open mind while grabbing your paint swatches at the store.  For the best results, always take your swatches to the actual room location.  It’s an extra trip, but can save you a lot of headache, labour and money.

If you want to create interest but don’t want the wall to be over powering, you can paint the trimmed area the same off-white as your baseboards, or even the same colour as the rest of the walls, and it will still offer a classy but more subdued style.  This is a great option if you already have other colourful items in the room that you’d like to showcase like furniture, art, throw cushions, and area rugs. The goal should always be to add interest to a room, without taking away from any other important pieces.

​So if you’re convinced, and ready to get started, we’ve outlined a list of materials and steps below. 

The materials you will need:

• Moulding of choice (or poplar wood boards)
• Paint and Primer
• Finishing nails
• PL Premium adhesive (or some other form of construction adhesive)
• Wood filler
• Paintable caulking

Tools required:

• Compound mitre saw
• Air compressor (optional - could use all construction adhesive with hot glue gun)
• Nail gun with nails long enough to go through your moulding, drywall and into a stud (we used 1 1/8” nails)
• Tape measure
• Level
• Snap line (optional but very valuable to save time and steps)
• Stud finder
• Pencil
• Caulking gun
• Sanding block
• Small Square
• Items for painting (brushes, paint rollers, roller trays ect.)

 **Tip:  There are local tool rental shops that you can rent saws, compressors and nail guns for the day.  Most Home Depot and Lowes also offer this service. 

Steps:

1. Figure out what your design will be and measure it out on the wall.  This is a great time to use snap lines or to draw lines on the wall where each board will fit.  We put lines at the bottom or side of where each board will go so that when we put the board up we knew exactly where it went.  This will remove the step of having to check each board for being level and at the correct height before installing.
2. If you’re comfortable with all of your sizes you can pre-cut all of the boards before starting the install.  If you’re a beginner or less confident, you can cut the boards as you go which will allow you to check measures prior to cutting and probably result in less board wastage. 
3. Mount the boards using your nail gun if a stud is present.  If there is no stud where you are trying to mount you can use constructive adhesive to mount the boards to the wall.  You will still need to throw some nails into this board so that it’s held in place while the construction adhesive is drying.  If you don’t have a nail gun, dabs of hot glue on either end of the board will cure quickly and keep the board in place long enough for the construction adhesive to dry. 
4. Once all of your boards are in place, use your wood fill to hide any nail holes or gaps in the wood.  
5. You can caulk around your trim boards to give them a seamless look with the wall.  This is optional and really depends on the finished look that you’re going for.
6. Let all filler and caulking dry and then sand away any extra filler. 
7. Time to paint!  This is when you’re wall will really start to look amazing!  A tip is if you are running moulding around the edges of the wall and are not super confident with your painting abilities, you could always pre-paint those boards prior to mounting them.  This will ensure a perfect finished edge and you won’t have to worry about getting paint on the ceiling.
8. That’s it!  Now sit back and enjoy your spectacular new room.  You’ll probably also want to take some nice images because it will be so impressive, you’ll definitely want to show all of your friends. ​

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