Charm Up Your Rental With This Easy Peel-and-Stick Molding
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I use panel molding inalmost every projectand have it throughout my own home in different variations. It’s one of those details that completely transforms a space, and I never get tired of finding new ways to apply it. Applied in a grid or frame pattern, molding gives a flat wall something to say. Not ornamentation, exactly — more like structure. I use wood in my projects, but it’s not the most renter friendly, which is why I love peel-and-stick lightweight foam molding for DIYers. You don’t need a carpenter; you can apply it and then remove it upon leaving. It takes a flat, forgettable wall and makes it look very architectural.
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Start small with cabinetry, an interior door, or framing a piece of art.
There are different ways to use these kinds of applied moldings. You can add them to cabinetry, for example. All you would have to do is buy a flat MDF cabinet that is paintable.IKEAhas a lot of flat-front cabinetry. Or you could buy just MDF from the lumber store and apply the moldings to the cabinets and then paint them. You can add molding to interior doors and give them a high-end, elevated look without breaking the bank. I also love using a single large panel as a frame around a piece of art.
Add a chair rail.
Another way to use applied moldings is to make chair rails by putting it on as a strip on the lower half of your wall or as one single rectangular panel. Instead of having a chair rail and then an upper panel, you can do a single full panel, like a long rectangular box in a place like a dining room, and then paint everything one color. I don’t recommend having two-tone moldings. Chair-rail placement is a decision people often get wrong. In the U.S., the default tends to be around 36 inches from the floor, which feels quite high and can make a room look squat. Historically and in European interiors, the chair rail sits much lower, closer to 24 to 28 inches, protecting walls from chair backs at the true seat height. That lower placement keeps the wall proportions feeling right and gives you a much more elegant result, especially if you’re doing two different treatments above and below.
Create wall panels.
As for where to apply the moldings: For standard eight-to-nine-foot ceilings, a border of around six to eight inches from the ceiling and floor tends to feel most proportional. With higher ceilings, you have more room to play and can push that border to ten to 14 inches, which creates that effect you see in older European interiors, where the paneling becomes a real architectural feature of the room.
Try a picture rail and “hang” art from it.
You can also use molding to create a picture rail. It sounds complicated, but it is not. Apply a molding strip about 12 to 16 inches below the ceiling. If the room has crown molding, a picture rail sits just below it so the two read as one composed ceiling detail. Then fake the hanging by adding a brass chain, one end hooked over the molding and the other down to your frame. You still hang the art on the wall the traditional way, with hooks and nails, but visually, it looks exactly right. Brass chain is the detail that sells it. The one practical consideration is that molding height and cord length work together. You still want art hanging at eye level (around 57 to 60 inches to center), so the cord compensates for wherever the rail lands.
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Paint your molding.
For paint, you have two options. You can match the molding to the ceiling for the seamless built-in look, like it was always there. Or you can go contrast with a deep trim color for something more editorial and intentional. Both work, they’re just different moods.
More easy home upgrades we like
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Get a fireplace screen.
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