Can you believe it? After what seems like months without a guest bedroom update, you’re getting two within a matter of days!
Last week, when sharing our newly painted guest bedroom, we mentioned a few other jobs that need to be completed before we can call this room finished.
This week we’ve started to tackle the next job on the list – replacing the missing picture rail. I still don’t understand why on earth anyone would remove original period features, but after stripping the wallpaper we at least found the line where the original picture rail would have been.
Cutting the angles was so much easier, now that we have our fancy new mitre saw. To be fair, cutting angles by hand-worked, too, it’s just so much easier, quicker and much more exact to cut the rails with our electric mitre saw.
As when attaching the picture rail in our master bedroom, we glued the picture rail to the wall with No Nails.
Now, I can’t stress enough how important it is to choose rails that are straight – I mean completely and utterly as straight as possible.
As you can see, some of ours had very slight bends, so we had to hold them in place until the glue completely dried – which took forever.
We took it in turns holding and pressing the rail against the wall. Sometimes pressing at one end, would loosen the other, so we found ourselves standing on ladders at either end for sometimes more than half an hour before the glue would dry.
Let me tell you, it’s not exactly fun, especially when you are expecting your overnight guests to arrive that same afternoon and you’ve not even put the bed back together again!
About two hours before our guests were due to arrive, we annoyingly decided that we’d have to stop fussing about attaching our picture rail and instead start putting the bed back together. Hopefully, it shouldn’t take too much longer to attach the rest of the picture rail!
Any ideas why anyone would remove original period features? Have you ever tackled any last-minute projects before you have guests arriving?
Andy says
Great work in the restoration :-)
However glue as the only method of holding it up; when you hang a picture it will rip the picture rail and plaster down. The original line of the rail would show where the wall studs are (assuming it’s hollow wall); however you could also use a stud finder, or more crudely as I did, a very small drill bit drilling every inch until I hit one! Don’t worry about the chain of holes, the rail covers it. Only need to find 2 studs and they are usually the same distance apart from then on (if not, worry – shoddy workmanship at the most basic of levels!).
Once you have your studs, pilot drill the rail and screw it to the wall. If you are attaching to brick wall, a hole and plug every 18 inch will suffice. Once you have a nice deep screw, you can fill, sand, fill, sand the head and paint.
Of course, this method is only required if you are truly going to use the rail. If it’s just for aesthetics, glue will do – but you will have to hold it till dry and it can never be functional.
On a final note; mitre saws are great for the external angle for all the reasons you point out. However for internal corners, scribing gives a much better finish – unless your corners are perfect 90 degrees and your vertical is like glass; the a 45 degree mitre will give a perfect finish :-)
Looks like you achieved a great finish on the rail; beautiful room and the coving is just like one in my spare room and scullery. I am very interested to see/know three things; the fireplace in the first pic – how is it now, and is it functional or just aesthetic? have you restore the original shelving/cupboards in the alcoves? And (more obviously!) is the original wood paneling still behind the rad beneath the window – if so did you reroute the pipes and expose it? The wall to your right as you walk through the door would be ideal – especially for a beautiful large column rad (though i appreciate they aren’t cheap; I paid £70 a section for a genuine victorian one, but it’s great to have ‘original’ features in there; even if my particular house never had central heating – still it’s a beautiful period piece!)
Great work :-)
Christine says
Thanks for the feedback Andy!
Yes, you’re completely right about gluing the picture rail and we do only use it for decorative purposes. We have actually since attached another one in a different room and used our nailer to attach it. All of our walls are brick, so it was really easy and fast to just nail it to the wall. I’m still not sure I’d hang something really heavy from it though!
The fireplace is purely decorative and never used. It’s only screwed to the wall and not properly installed to be able to use it. I’m not quite sure what shelving and panelling you’re referring to. There weren’t any built in items in this room and (in our house at least) there would never have been panelling under the window.
I totally agree with you about period features and it’s always worth spending a little more time and money to get it right!
Cx
mike says
I’m so pleased to see you doing this.
We are moving to an Edwardian house and one of the first things I want to do is reinstall the picture rails, which have been removed in every room.
How long did it take you per room roughly? Do you think using just glue they will be strong enough for pictures – or are you just using them for aesthetics?
Christine says
We sadly had no picture rails when we moved in either. I’d guess it probably took us about 3 hours per room to install the rails. We only used glue and they hold really well. We do sometimes hang things off them, but if we have a really heavy picture, we will usually attach it to the wall. Our tip would be to make sure that you choose the straightest picture rails you can find (probably at a wood shop rather than a DIY store), as we had some that were bent and ended up being almost impossible to glue to the wall. Standing on each side of the picture rail for an hour is really no fun!
Cx
Jude says
Unfortunately, yes, I can believe people remove original features. In our case they not only removed picture rails but they then replaced them with hideous mouldings to acocmpany the hideous artex. Behold an example: http://1910housetohome.wordpress.com/rooms/dining-room/
It takes people like us to put the love and respect back into these poor houses. However, we’re paying someone (in 2 weeks, yay!) to re-attach a picture rail – you’re much cleverer than we are!!
Christine says
Your moulding is definitely ‘interesting’! ;) Our hallway walls are completely covered in artex and I can’t wait till it’s gone – such an ugly invention!
We paid someone to install the picture rail in our living room and then decided it didn’t look too difficult. Lucky for us, it really isn’t hard to do, but sometimes it’s just better to pay the professionals.
Cx
KarenAnita says
I have NO idea why anyone would remove those gorgeous features! It’s something I’d love to add to my home but we don’t have such gorgeous high ceilings or bay windows. I admire your dedication holding them up for all that time! x
Christine says
Not sure dedications is the right word… thinking stupidity is more appropriate ;)
Cx
caitlin says
I bet someone removed the picture rail to make it easier to wallpaper!! omg, that’s really hard to hold your arms up like that for a long period of time. Why no brads to tack it in place? -Caitlin
Christine says
It was hard… didn’t bother with the gym that day! ;) We don’t own a nail gun, so had to purely rely on gluing the picture rail in place. We really couldn’t justify getting one, as there’s only one more picture rail to replace after this one…it would have been nice though!
Cx
[email protected] says
That electric metre saw of yours is on my Christmas list! None of the original features were kept in my house and the only ones I was able to find were the beams under the drywall ceiling! The day before a friend visited I decided to paint the shelves that I use as “pantry” in the kitchen! It took several coat so I just finished before she arrived and she walked into a house where everything that usually goes on those shelves was on the living-room floor!!!
Christine says
It’s such a shame when people remove original features. Your beams are fantastic, so you probably don’t need any other features in your kitchen.
I’m usually a really organized person, but in the world of DIY things sometimes have a way of taking way longer than expected. I have to admit, that I’m so relieved that I’m not the only one who finished projects at the last second. You’ve definitely made me feel loads better!
Cx