French Country Embellishments

Sometimes a break from this hobby, or in particular, this house, spurs new ideas and breaks me out of the 'can't make a decision' mode. For a year or more I have procrastinated/agonized over certain things that really shouldn't have been that big a deal.

Things like staining/painting the 2nd floor stairs, and ordering more ribbon for the same stair runner, and stair rods...at least the supplier for the ribbon still had some. As for stair rods from Mini Mundus, no go. I ended up with Clare Bell ones, which I found out were easy peasy to install and I prefer the more antiqued finish. (Now I have to decide whether to buy more for the 1st floor stairs and redo those).

Then procrastinating about how to apply crown molding to 3rd floor angled ceilings. This has perplexed me and I've gone several ways to purchase various products. The angle of the ceiling to the wall in the two end rooms is the challenge. Stiff crown molding will show a gap. I debated about several flat moldings, and this week ended up putting on a faux embossed flat molding.  

This turned out to be so easy that I kicked myself for agonizing over this for so long. I'm pleased with the results! It adds just enough elegance and finishes the ceiling edges nicely.

Finished stairs and mullions

The mullions are all painted and installed, both sides of windows and doors. It too some trial and error to get to the best process to downsize each (paint caused them to swell a bit). Sanding each edge 8 back and forth strokes was the sweet spot. I was nipping off a tiny bit with exact knife but that wasn't consistent. 

The 2nd floor stairs are also completed, stain and paint, fretwork and carpet runner. I'm awaiting the stair rods this week for the final step. Lots of painstaking taping so I could paint the risers but it was worth it in the end. My hand isn't steady enough to do by hand. 

Happy to finally wrap this up. I do need to glue together the stairway bannisters to their cornerposts and place them into position. 

 

Stairs

The 2nd floor stairs and railings have needed staining for years. They now have the base stain on them. These stairs will need the risers painted white so it matches the other staircase. You can see I started with the top stair riser.

The stair embellishments I bought, which were brass photo corners, have been painted and applied. I am pretty happy with them. I plan to add them to the 2nd floor stairs when they are finished. I may have to buy another strip of ribbon for a runner to finish this set of stairs.

Foyer

The stairs are now stained and painted - starting to get a finished look here. Crown and baseboard are up too, and you can see the lovely french settee in the corner.