Video Tutorial – DIY Wall Molding in the Bathroom


Disclaimer: This post is brought to you by Lowe’s Home Improvement. Thanks for supporting the brands that support this blog.

I’m a huge fan of woodworking projects around people’s homes. In fact, many of the most popular DIY projects from the blog include just that (like my hallway board and batten and my previous guest room’s accent wall). I can’t even begin to tell you how many compliments we would get on those projects from friends and family when they visited! Wood and trim make any space look custom and high-end, so I think it’s always a good idea to incorporate those looks into spaces around the house.

Paint Color: Sherwin Williams HGTV Home โ€œClary Sageโ€ //ย Mohawk ForeverStyle Floor Tileย //ย Black Faucetย //ย Brass Vanity Lightย //ย Flushmount Fixtureย //ย Towel Hooksย //ย Toilet Paper Roll Holder // Shower Curtain

As I’ve been working on our bathroom refresh, I realized that I wanted to add some DIY wall molding to the blank wall in this space. This is a room that guests will be using every time they come over and even though we didn’t gut the entire bathroom, I still wanted to wow them with our DIY skills. Blank wall ready for wall molding

The wall I wanted to tackle is opposite the sink. It’s not huge, but it’s definitely a large enough space that I needed to do something there! I chatted with Finn and together we came up with a plan…

Coming up with Our Wall Molding Design

This is usually my least favorite part of any project. While I love figuring out how I want it to look (yes, please!), the logistics on how to get it looking like that are usually over my head (no thank you!). Thank goodness for Finn and his nerdy math ways. He always uses Excel to plan out our woodworking designs (so many of you guys have asked for a tutorial on this, so I’ll have to coerce him into sharing!).Figuring out our wall molding design

We measured the entire wall as well as the door. The orange figure above is the door and the green area to the right is the wall molding plan. We wanted to see what they would look like in relation to one another, hence the drawing including both!

After doing a bit of research on Lowes.com, I narrowed my molding and trim choices down. For the larger areas of wood, I wanted to use 1×3.5×8 primed MDF. Then to make things a bit more traditional looking (and different from past woodworking projects), I opted for this PVC base cap. I’ve heard good things about this trim from other bloggers (it’s flexible and easy to use) and I have always wanted to give it a try.ย Knowing the measurements of the wall and our materials, we came up with the above plan to do four vertical strips of MDF with a horizontal line about 70 inches from the ground.

I always recommend coming up with your design a few days (or the day) before you actually head to Lowe’s. We always like to create our list of supplies, check the house to see what we already have, and then wake up bright and early the next day to beat the crowds and go shopping!

DIY Wall Molding – Supplies

Here’s what we used to tackle this project…

Luckily, we had most of these supplies on-hand so we focused our shopping efforts on buying the wood and trim. We borrowed my mom’s car to get the eight foot pieces home (I promise, we are getting an SUV soon!) and we were ready to start our project by 8am.

Wood Wall Molding – Video TutorialFinn cutting with the circular saw

Because this is such a visual project, we decided to make a video to walk you through the entire process. Of course, your design and wall may be completely different, but the steps and techniques should translate to any home. You can view the entire video below or head over to our Youtube channel to view it there.

Noteworthy Parts

  • :45 He really is a math nerd. Thank goodness for Finn!
  • 1:30 This miter saw is the workhorse of the project. 99% of the cuts we made were with this bad boy.
  • 2:00 This was our first time using a jigsaw and it was FUN.
  • 2:15 So satisfying to see it come together quickly like that.
  • 3:10 My caulking technique is to have lots of rags handy and use a wet finger after the caulk line to smooth it out.
  • 3:40 Outfit change (we shot this quickly before Finn went to work one morning. ha!)

Our Upgraded Bathroom

Ummm…doesn’t this look amazing?! It’s crazy what a little wood and paint can do for a space. I would say this project probably took us 5-7 hours total (we split it up over a Saturday afternoon and some weeknights), but you could easily get it all done in a weekend!Wood wall treatment

This space now feels luxe and high-end and we didn’t even have to gut the entire bathroom. I’m telling ya, these little details make such a difference!

I also added two of these Delta Towel Hooks and they’re stunning. The color is champagne bronze and wowza…I was blown away by the quality. Even though we won’t be showering down here very regularly, I love having the big Turkish towels here for people to use after washing their hands. Towel hooks

Adding these towel hooks on the wall keeps the small pedestal sink less cluttered. Guests can easily use these instead of a small hand towel that I would have kept folded on the sink.

Floor vent

A few of you guys asked me if we were going to paint the wall vent. We opted not to because I don’t always love the look of painted vents and outlets. Sometimes it looks a little tacky to me (but I don’t love seeing the bright white vent either. Oh well!). Trim inside the molding

The PVC base cap was a dream to work with. We just did cuts on a 45-degree angle for the inside pieces and secured them with liquid nails and a nail gun. They were pretty flexible, so we were able to really get them snug into each little rectangle. I’m confident I’ll use that material again and again in this house.Blank wall ready for wall moldingAdding DIY wall molding to a bathroom

I am so happy we took the time to get this project done. Finn had a blast (he has been bitten by the DIY bug and I’m soooo happy about it!) and it gave us the momentum and motivation to plan out our next project (stay tuned for that announcement!). How to add wood wall molding to a bathroom

Next week, I’ll reveal the entire before and after of this bathroom. Even though we didn’t gut the room, it looks sooooo incredibly different (quite the upgrade on a budget!). I can’t wait to share the whole space with you then…

Casey


The Year of Casey

Hey there!

Iโ€™m Casey Finn, the voice behind The DIY Playbook. I’m a Chicago gal teaching you how to design, DIY, and maintain your home…by yourself! Learn more about me right here.