Reclaiming old trim

I’m really excited to share a project I am still in process with, but am seriously excited about — even though it’s just a hallway.

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If you’ve been here long, you’ll know I’ve been using all the trim, etc., from the old house, that my grandfather stored in the little house. It’s a messy project, and it’s taken years, but we’ve done a lot of great projects and used much of this wood. 

I’ve been wanting to do baseboards forever, since there was plenty of that left over, but also needed to trim out the doors. After trimming the kitchen and new room addition doors, I realized I had some wormy chestnut wood that was perfect to trim the doors. 

These long boards below were actually the baseboards in the old house and had another piece of trim on top. There was not enough to use as baseboards, so I decided to use them for the door trim. My dad ripped them on the table saw along the line in the middle, and that gave me enough width for the doors.

First, though, I scrubbed every, single board front and back with a solution of bleach and water, because — dirt and grime and who knows what else.

Because some of the boards had the old varnish, we ran them through a planer, then I used my grandfather’s old block planer to finish them off before sanding and staining with dark walnut stain.

I ripped off the ugly trim that was here, then cut all this wood on the miter saw to fit with the rosettes on each corner. Now — *nothing* in this house is square so I had some challenges, but patience paid off because I’m beside myself with excitement at how this turned out and what a difference it made. 

The only photo I have of before, is from 11 years ago, so…

And the AFTER!!

These next three photos are actually before I moved the furniture out and finished the rest of the hall, but I realized I had only shared these on instagram and facebook.

So, how hard is it to shoot a photo in a hallway with all the doors closed and no natural light coming from anywhere? There’s that. But you can see how it looks. 

I’m crazy about it. What an amazing difference a vision with a little elbow grease can make, right? 

Now, I’m not sure what I’m going to do about the ceiling, but I’ll figure out something, because – it’s horrible.

Since the door jams were painted, and I didn’t want to take out the doors and replace that wood or strip the paint, I just painted them all dark brown. And that turned out really well too.

I also went ahead and cut the baseboards as well after the door trim was in. 

I’m literally in love with this wood and mostly because I did it myself and because it’s from the old house.

This little closet door is not as tall as the other doors, nor as wide so there are some quirky old house details that I am totally fine with.

Here is just a little shot of the baseboard. Oh boy, there were some outside miter cuts that thank goodness I had extra wood to make up for the mistakes. Nothing square really makes for a challenge, but I got it and I’m super proud of myself😊

I also had to work with the texture on the walls, but I was patient and it all came together.

Y’all, I’m so excited that I finally did this and reclaimed all this wood that would have been thrown away or just rotted. It’s amazingly beautiful and rare wood so giving it a home is really important to me. And my husband and dad are really proud of me as well so that makes me happy!! 

I still have to finish the rest of the living room, but all the pieces are stained and ready to be installed once I find enough fluted trim for the french doors. So lots of fun work is ahead!!

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21 Comments

  1. Artifice
    June 4, 2019 / 3:52 am

    It looks fantastic! Linda

    • Anita Diaz
      June 4, 2019 / 3:16 pm

      Thanks you so much Linda!!

  2. Beverley Leonie
    June 4, 2019 / 4:01 am

    Nice work. It looks rich.

    • Anita Diaz
      June 4, 2019 / 3:16 pm

      Thank you Beverley! I think that was partly my motivation, because the cheap mdf trim is always painted white, and you just cannot buy this kind od wood trim without spending a lot of money, and for me it was just a whole lot of really hard work:-)

  3. Dana Weaver Moore
    June 4, 2019 / 6:17 am

    Your hard work has certainly paid off – it is amazing! Thank you for sharing this transformation.

    • Anita Diaz
      June 4, 2019 / 3:14 pm

      Thank you so much, and thanks for coming by and leaving a comment!! It is very encouraging!

  4. رامز المثاليه
    June 4, 2019 / 8:10 am

    شركة المثالية للتنظيف بالاحساء
    شركة تنظيف مسابح بالاحساء
    شركة صيانة مسابح بالاحساء
    شركة تنظيف خزانات بالاحساء

  5. Mom
    June 4, 2019 / 2:21 pm

    Just beautiful. Where is the china cabinet you and Dad hauled in a trailer, pulling it with that old Jeep CJ5, to DC when you were stationed there? Don't want to forget it! It was in the heat of summer and with no air conditioning in that Jeep. What memories

    • Anita Diaz
      June 4, 2019 / 3:14 pm

      I just moved it out of the hall for the photos because you couldnt see the trim! It's still there:-)

  6. Lisa
    June 4, 2019 / 4:22 pm

    These look so, so, so good! And that baseboard is absolutely fantastic! Beautiful work, congratulations on a job very well done.

    • Anita Diaz
      June 4, 2019 / 9:35 pm

      Thank you so much Lisa!!

  7. Lisa
    June 4, 2019 / 4:37 pm

    WOW … Gorgeous !!!!!

    • Anita Diaz
      June 4, 2019 / 9:35 pm

      Thanks Lisa!!

  8. Monica Dameron
    June 4, 2019 / 8:15 pm

    Anita, what about replacing the white crown molding and replacing it with some wood to match the rest of the wood? What about some pressed tin ceiling tiles for your hallway? Just some ideas that were popping into my head!! You work so hard and your home is proof of it. Just beautiful.

    • Anita Diaz
      June 4, 2019 / 9:37 pm

      Thanks so much Monica! Yes, I would love to replace the crown but there's a lot of it, and I don't have enough old. I'd also love to use ceiling tiles and some beams maybe, but again, because there is so much open ceiling, it would be very expensive for materials as well as very time consuming. Actual wood crown stained like this is really expensive as well:-)

  9. genie steger
    June 5, 2019 / 12:59 pm

    Anita I love what you did! Before I moved to coastal SC, I lived in an 18th century house in CT, there were chestnut beams in the cellar and floor boards in the attic! How I wished we moved the chestnut floor boards down to the main floor! I love all things old! I miss my old house in CT, but things changed and we live in a cute cottage in a lovely neighborhood…but I have a reclaimed wood folding counter on top of my washer and dryer, and the treasure of all time, a dear husband of my oldest friend, made me a reclaimed barn table from wood from an old share croppers house on their NC property! I love your posts.

  10. Auntie rooloo
    June 5, 2019 / 2:52 pm

    WOW, it looks stunning! Such a difference. And so much character added with the reclaimed wood!

  11. Michele
    June 9, 2019 / 10:03 pm

    Beautiful! I don't think that I would have had the patience…….

  12. giorno26 ¸¸.•*¨*•.
    June 20, 2019 / 10:24 am

    Bellissimi risultati, come sempre !!!!

  13. Rebecca
    June 22, 2019 / 8:35 pm

    It looks fabulous!!!!

    Cottage Blessings,
    Rebecca

  14. kathrynbelle
    September 11, 2019 / 6:28 am

    Amazing Job, Anita. It looks fantastic. And the doors, apparently are made of the same wood. I know they were reclaimed from the "old house" also. Great job!!!