Need suggestions.redoing room and need 6 inch molding to cover gap between old paneling and ceiling....?
Question:they put in drop ceiling ( i hate it) and they didnt panel all the way up to ceiling leaving a 6 inch gap. I am gonna paint over paneling.Need a cheap way. I priced molding and for 80 feet it's gonna be 80-100 dollars. way out of my budget.
Answers:
I'm a kitchen designer and often do "built-up" mouldings on top of cabinets. It's a good way to get a taller moulding without spending the money for a big moulding and it won't stick out as much.
Start with a baseboard moulding turned upside down for the lower part. Those come in 3-4-1/2" widths so you want to find the widest one possible. 4-1/2" would be good and it is very common to find that in older houses as base board.
Then find a small crown moulding about 2" high and place that over the baseboard moulding at the ceiling.
There is a distinct advantage to built-up mouldings, especially for an amateur woodworker, and that is that you can make the bottom piece level and the top piece conform to the ceiling (which is never level).
It is also very difficult to fit large mouldings, especially if you are working with old recycled wood as they are stiff and hard.
The other thing you could do would be to place a small bead moulding at the top of the paneling to give it a little detail there and cover the raw edge. Then place a small crown at the ceiling with a space between.
Once that is all painted it would look like a picture rail. Doing that you could even paint the space between the same color as the ceiling. That would visually lower and expand a high ceiling (only do this if the ceiling is over 8').
Be on the lookout for someone remodeling an older house. Like one built before the 60's. If you can find one, and it has 6" molding you might be able to pick it up cheap or possibly free.
I had paneling in a home of mine once and I loved it except that it had darkened over the years. I would never paint over it. Painting wood is like painting bathroom tiling, it looks "fair" and is a mess to remove later. If you plan to paint then remove the paneling altogether first, fix the holes and cracks with tape and then paint the wall. I suspect under there you might find some antique wallpaper (depending on how old your house is) and maybe that's why you don't want to remove the paneling. How about just antiquing the wood? Make the room radiate "gold and comfort", country style.
would it be less expensive if you went to a scrap yard and cut the strip pieces to fit with your own electric saw?
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