If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll probably already know that we’re serial project starters. As nice as it is to start something new and exciting we luckily also go through phases where we get so sick of seeing loads of half finished projects that we force ourselves to jump right in and actually get things done.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve tried a few different ways of motivating ourselves. We set ourselves a challenge to finish 5 projects in 5 hours and then another slightly overambitious one of finishing 10 projects in 10 hours. We even started a challenge where we asked you guys to join us to get 3 projects done that you’ve been putting off.
All of these methods have worked, but at the end of the day, the only real way to get things done is by actually taking the time and doing them. As much as starting a new project is exciting. completely finishing a project and being able to tick it off your to do list definitely a great feeling, too. So in an effort to get projects finished and make our home look more presentable, we’ve been in architrave overdrive and have been busy attaching them everywhere.
A couple of weeks ago we already shared our finished guest bedroom window with architrave and now we’ve finished two more areas! The door to the kitchen/ dining room finally has a frame and our bi-fold doors are finished off, too!
The bi-fold doors took a bit longer to complete as we had to repair and fill the gap between the floor and new door before first. The really uneven edges of the floorboards were still visible from where the old door had been, but after cutting and tidying the existing floorboards it was just a matter of installing a piece of timber in the hole.
Next up was installing some timber in the jamb before finally the architrave.
We now always use our nailer (this is the one we have) to attach any decorative timber like the architraves and picture rails. It’s so much easier than gluing everything. Don’t get me wrong, gluing does work and it’s how we attached a lot of the other picture rails in our house, but nailing them is just so much quicker.
The next architrave on our list was the one around the kitchen door. We had to move the door when we knocked down the wall between the two rooms, but we sadly weren’t able to save the original architrave, which is why we decided to have the architrave made so it matched what would have originally been there.
Yep, you can call me fussy, but the new door is so close to the living room door that having a different architrave would have just been weird and once we’d had the cutter made (which is the expensive bit) it only made sense to pay a bit more to use the same architrave throughout the whole house.
Adding the architrave to the kitchen door and the bi-fold door turned out not to be too much work (we’ve learned that it’s a happy and unexpected bonus if things go to plan) and it really finishes everything off nicely. You’d almost not know that it wasn’t original.
You can see there’s still a bit of painting to be finished off, so I guess we’ve still not quite finished but at least we now have architraves everywhere.
Do you think we were right to have the architrave made, or were we just being too fussy? Do you struggle to finish projects off, too?
Jemma says
Looks great. Where did you get your cornice from? Thanks
Christine says
Thank you, Jemma! I assume you mean the architrave we used around the new door? We had it made at a local joinery so that it would exactly match the other original architraves throughout the house. We shared a post about how to match period moulding, which you might find helpful.
Cx
Mike Gilbert says
It is all of the little details that actually make the difference, great job looks high quality and professionally done. Thanks for sharing it!
Kerrie says
I spent extra to get matching architraves when I removed the wall between the kitchen and lounge. The lounge had a nice one and the kitchen’s was plain. There was no way i was going to all the trouble of a renovation not to have the nicer architrave. its one of those things i only notice, but I”m sure if I hadn’t bothered with it, everyone would notice as it wouldn’t be right
Christine says
It’s always the way, Kerrie. People notice things that aren’t right or aren’t finished and almost no one appreciates the effort it took to get to a finished result!
Good to know I’m not the only one who’s so fussy and I really do think that it’s all of the little details that make a difference to the overall look and quality!
Cx