(In case you didn’t get it, you’re supposed to say the title above in the voice from Tool Time on Home Improvement.)

I just have to say, again, how much white woodwork makes a difference. As a refresher, here’s the room before we painted the windows and trim (thanks for the help, mom!)

And after we painted the trim:

And then painted the walls:

Wow…just wow…

But, back to the point of this post, talking about the last of the “remodeling” work that went on in the guest room. For starters, we replaced the baseboard trim that was down there because I hate painting trim that’s touching carpet (ick) and bending over to sit on the floor just wasn’t going to happen with this baby belly in the way. Let’s face it–I barely made it through painting the baseboard trim in the tiny nursery closet makeover.

So, that meant we bought new trim at Home Depot. We went with the larger size (what we replaced the baseboard trim with upstairs when we redid the floors) because it’s just nicer and more substantial looking. It’s only a few cents more per foot and I think it’s worth the small upgrade.

Wyatt did all the measuring and cutting ahead of time. Then, we got to work painting it. Wyatt has helped a lot more than usual with painting projects for the nursery and the guest room because I’m trying to minimize the amount of time I spend either wearing a breathing mask to avoid breathing any fumes. We’ve been very careful even though the paint we use is zero VOC, because I figure it’s better Beanie gets to breathe clean air as much as possible.

Once it was ready to go, Wyatt used the nail gun to quickly get it on the wall. Once you get everything set up, this part goes really fast…usually. Sometimes you find problem areas, like a bulge in the wall or something funky like that.

Then, the holes got filled with putty.

And then, sanded down.

Then, the biggest secret of installing any kind of trim: caulk.

Just look at the before and after:

 

Of course, you MUST go back and paint over the caulk with your trim paint, even if it looks like it matches, because the caulk will start to yellow and collect dust over time and the baseboards will stay white. Trust me, it’s not a great look. We’ve learned this from experience. (Please don’t look closely at the trim in our master bedroom…)

Once the trim was up, it was time to work on the doors. We replaced the two doors in this room with new panel doors as part of the general house upgrades we’ve made as we’re working our way through room by room.For one thing, the new doors are white, and now that we have white trim, we need white doors. For another thing, the panel doors are just a nice little touch to make the house feel more modern and upgraded. And a lot of the old doors were damaged with scratches and scuffs anyway.

If you remember back a couple weeks, Wyatt talked about installing the new door frame in this post.

The door upgrade did mean painting the new doors in the garage before we hung them up, although since they come pre-primed, it isn’t too bad at all.

Wyatt helped a lot with this part, too, so I got to teach him the correct steps to painting panel doors. We talk more about the best ways to paint a door in this post, if you’re interested.

We also painted the hinges and screws because we’re cheap and didn’t want to buy new ones. (We did this with all the doors we replaced upstairs, and it’s holding up just fine so we figured why not save us the extra cash?)

 

The installation process is a little more effort. It involves a lot of trial and error to get everything to fit perfectly.

Because these were replacement doors, we had to work to install the handles and hinges. Prior to painting the doors, we dry-fit them to make sure they didn’t need major adjusting. But even with that precaution, after painting and hanging the doors back up, the doors didn’t quite fit perfectly.

So, Wyatt used his chisels to let the hinges sit slightly further back into the frame, allowing the doors to close. You can see the material he chiseled out below. Sometimes a slight adjustment like this makes all the difference in a door that closely perfectly.

On one of the doors, the hole for the door handle also needed adjusting. The hardware was slightly larger than the pre-cut hole in the door so we needed to create some additional room. He used a drill with a paddle bit to get most of the extra space, followed up with a chisel to clean up.

Now that these bigger upgrades are done, we’re ready for decorating, which is where the real fun begins, right? Not that painting three coats of white paint on trim isn’t a fun time…

Stay tuned though, because one of my favorite projects for this room, and maybe even one of my favorite projects in the history of the blog is going to be posted soon! Plus, we’re nearly ready to share some semi-finished guest room photos with you all. Exciting stuff, I tell ya!

In the meantime, what were your weekend plans? Any painting, trim work, door hanging, or other such fun in the works? We went to a birthday party, had some friends over for a backyard BBQ, and still made some decent progress on the nursery before we hit the 5-weeks-to-go-mark this week. Eeek!