One Room Challenge Week 3: Adding Trim to Built-Ins is Easier than You think
Welcome to Week Three of the One Room Challenge!
To those who are new here, I’m currently participating in a design challenge that involves designing and renovating one space in my home in just eight weeks!
Our room of choice is our two-year-old’s bedroom. I thought this was a great first project for our new home, the Foxhole Cottage.
Last week, I built DIY cabinets and bookshelves for either side of the Murphy bed. This week, I’m trimming out those built-ins to give them a finished look!
Okay, Week 3, here we go!
Adding Trim Pieces to the Built-Ins
The trimming process gives so much satisfaction because it’s a noticeable difference, and the room starts looking a bit more put together.
Although this is my favorite part of the building process, it always takes longer than expected. For this reason, I had to break the trimming process into two weeks. This week, I am adding trim to the built-ins, and next week, I will add the crown molding, baseboards, and faux cabinet doors on the Murphy bed.
Adding trim is easier than you may think! It just takes a little time to measure carefully and ensure the pieces fit together snuggly.
Trimming the Cabinet Bases
With trimming, there are rails (horizontal pieces) and stiles (vertical pieces). In general, you want to work from the outermost areas inward. Since the cabinet and bookshelves are completely separate, I decided to start from the bottom and worked my way up.
For the baseboard piece, I used a 1×6.
Next, using 1×2 pine, I added the top rail for the base cabinet.
Finally, using more 1×2 pine, I added in the stiles on either side of the base cabinet, and I ensured every piece was level before attaching with a brad nailer.
Trimming the Bookshelves
Next up, I trimmed out the bookshelves.
Again, I started with the outermost pieces and worked my way in. For this top piece, I used a 1×10 so it would be tall enough to attach crown molding.
You may notice I installed the top rail trim on the Murphy bed. Before starting the bookshelves, I first added this piece to make sure the bookshelf rails were level with it.
Last week, I explained how I cut the bookshelf side pieces around 8 inches longer than required (See photo above). This is so I would have support for the trim pieces and plenty of places to secure them.
Originally, I planned to add framing to the ceiling to attach the trim, but the way the studs ran in the ceiling, there was no stud available to secure the frame pieces.
Finally, I measured, leveled, and attached the bookshelf stiles.
I also decided to add a small trim piece to the Murphy bed to create a flush surface from the cabinet to the bed.
And that’s it! The built-ins are completely trimmed. To see behind-the-scenes footage, follow my Instagram page.
Make sure you check back next week to see how I create faux cabinets on the Murphy bed!
If you’d like to check out the design plans of the other participants, you can find them at the One Room Challenge Blog.
