Frame out and case a room transition
Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 7:18 pm
If I was on top of everything I'd be posting more often for each little home improvement thing I do. The short of it is, I've removed my living room wall paper, crown molding (only 1 wall over the fireplace was covered), baseboard trim, window trim and door trim. I've also replaced my front door and storm door. Lots of patch work and crack repair was required to bring the wall up to a level it could be painted and there's still some areas of wall paper glue that need to be addressed. For now, I'll let this thread be about one facet of my living room update project: case out the opening/transition between my living room and dining room. I think it will add an element of architectural interest in what is a fairly plain house, noticeable upon first steps into the living room. I also plan to do all new trim in this room, including crown molding all the way around the room.
With bare walls and no baseboard trim, it looks like this: Basically I'd like to case this opening which just means trim it on the sides and top. But I can't do that as it sits because the wall is flush on each side, so there's nowhere to install trim. I decided if I am going to use a roughly 3" trim, I should frame out about 5" on each side so the trim isn't sitting flush against the wall on the right side (looking either way, it's the right side that's the issue, the left sides could take trim but that doesn't help much).
After some measuring, I realized the main beam above the opening is about 5-1/8" wide (5" wide in the center, nice and old housey). So I will need to build something about 5" wide on each side to get out from the wall. Here's the plan:
- Layer 3 2x6s against each wall (so twice). This will give me 4-1/2" of rough wall extension on each side. They will need to be ripped down to about 3-7/8" wide and about 80" tall. Probably just use regular deck screws into some studding that I located using a combination of stud finder and driving a finish nail into the wall in a few places. I'll put one 2x6 on, into the wall, then probably the remainder into the first 2x6 or however far the screws go. I don't need any 2x6s on the top because there's already a beam there under the wall.
- Now that I have rough framing, I can start to actually add my finish board product. I'll use 5/8" white primed board, ripped to about 5-1/8" wide for the sides and top. The boards on the inside of the opening need to go to the floor, unless I decide to shoe mold it. The other boards don't have to go to the floor as the trim will cover that gap fully. I'll add the board on the 3 sides of my new "mini wall" on both sides of the opening. I'll blend it into the wall probably just using some joint compound. Not sure if I need any metal reinforcement.
- The next technical step would be to paint the room (and the boards a nice bright white, like any doorway would be) but after that's done, I can trim out this new opening on the sides and top, with a 1/4" reveal planned to match the rest of the house.
I already splurged on a nice finish nailer for all the trim work I'll be doing in this room. I'll also use it to attach the finish boards to my framing lumber. I bought 15ga 2" nails to use. I got a discount on the nails because it was an open box, but I think they're all there. I also had some gift cards to help take the edge off this purchase.
Link to the nailer (highest rated nailer of any kind on Lowes website for things they carry in the store):
http://www.lowes.com/pd_29862-67702-NT6 ... facetInfo=
Even has a 5 year warranty. The price isn't outrageous for something that seems like it's high quality.
Side note, Lowes leaves something to be desired in their lumber department. Home Depot seemed to have a much better selection of finish board product. And they also have saws because I don't have a table saw for ripping boards, so that will be very handy.
More to come.
With bare walls and no baseboard trim, it looks like this: Basically I'd like to case this opening which just means trim it on the sides and top. But I can't do that as it sits because the wall is flush on each side, so there's nowhere to install trim. I decided if I am going to use a roughly 3" trim, I should frame out about 5" on each side so the trim isn't sitting flush against the wall on the right side (looking either way, it's the right side that's the issue, the left sides could take trim but that doesn't help much).
After some measuring, I realized the main beam above the opening is about 5-1/8" wide (5" wide in the center, nice and old housey). So I will need to build something about 5" wide on each side to get out from the wall. Here's the plan:
- Layer 3 2x6s against each wall (so twice). This will give me 4-1/2" of rough wall extension on each side. They will need to be ripped down to about 3-7/8" wide and about 80" tall. Probably just use regular deck screws into some studding that I located using a combination of stud finder and driving a finish nail into the wall in a few places. I'll put one 2x6 on, into the wall, then probably the remainder into the first 2x6 or however far the screws go. I don't need any 2x6s on the top because there's already a beam there under the wall.
- Now that I have rough framing, I can start to actually add my finish board product. I'll use 5/8" white primed board, ripped to about 5-1/8" wide for the sides and top. The boards on the inside of the opening need to go to the floor, unless I decide to shoe mold it. The other boards don't have to go to the floor as the trim will cover that gap fully. I'll add the board on the 3 sides of my new "mini wall" on both sides of the opening. I'll blend it into the wall probably just using some joint compound. Not sure if I need any metal reinforcement.
- The next technical step would be to paint the room (and the boards a nice bright white, like any doorway would be) but after that's done, I can trim out this new opening on the sides and top, with a 1/4" reveal planned to match the rest of the house.
I already splurged on a nice finish nailer for all the trim work I'll be doing in this room. I'll also use it to attach the finish boards to my framing lumber. I bought 15ga 2" nails to use. I got a discount on the nails because it was an open box, but I think they're all there. I also had some gift cards to help take the edge off this purchase.
Link to the nailer (highest rated nailer of any kind on Lowes website for things they carry in the store):
http://www.lowes.com/pd_29862-67702-NT6 ... facetInfo=
Even has a 5 year warranty. The price isn't outrageous for something that seems like it's high quality.
Side note, Lowes leaves something to be desired in their lumber department. Home Depot seemed to have a much better selection of finish board product. And they also have saws because I don't have a table saw for ripping boards, so that will be very handy.
More to come.