How to Add Picture Frame Moulding: A Complete Guide

Learn how to add picture frame moulding/wainscoting to your home’s walls in this complete guide!

Most homes come with just the necessities that fulfill a home’s basic needs: floors, walls, ceilings, light fixtures, and other important items that leave a bit to be desired. You can add paint and decor but sometimes you need something more.

There are many options for how to make a home feel more custom. You can change out light fixtures, add beams to ceilings, change cabinet hardware, and the topic of this post: add moulding.

Moulding work is found in nearly every home if you have baseboards or crown moulding. Baseboards serve the need to close the gap between the floor and the wall. Crown moulding makes a more interesting transition from wall to ceiling.

Something a little less common in homes that can add a ton of character, dimension, and style is wainscoting. Wainscoting is a way to dress up a naked wall with some paneling/moulding. It comes in several types to suit different styles.

Types of wainscoting include recessed paneling, board and batten, beadboard, and others.

What is Picture Frame Moulding?

Today we’re specifically talking about picture frame moulding! Picture frame moulding is what it sounds like: moulding that is similar to a picture frame, typically in a rectangular shape.

You can use many different types of moulding for picture frame moulding, some that are flatter for a more subtle look or ones that are more intricate for additional interest.

Picture frame moulding can fit in many interior design styles including victorian, traditional, transitional, french country, shabby chic, cottage, modern, and more. It’s quite versatile!

You can arrange the frames in many different designs on walls, including:

Large rectangles running down an entire wall
Large rectangles up top with shorter ones on the bottom
Picture frame moulding only on the bottom half or quarter of the wall
Combining a chair rail with frames

The style that we’re talking about in this post is long, narrow boxes that rise about 4 feet off the baseboards with a layer of chair rail running above. However, the methods used here can be applied to other types of picture frame moulding and other general moulding designs.

While this job may require a helper and some patience, it is a project that a beginner can easily tackle. Keep reading to learn how to add this style to your home!

Special note: when working with power tools and sharp objects, please educate yourself on the necessary safety precautions!

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Tutorial: How to Add Picture Frame Moulding

What you’ll need:

Moulding: You can buy some moulding from a home improvement store, but if you’re looking to save yourself a ton of time from measuring and cutting, buy some pre-assembled moulding frames! These ones were used in the design featured in this post.
Chair Rail: Easily found at your local home improvement store. This one is similar to the one used in this design.
Construction Adhesive: Used to get the moulding attached to the wall. Liquid Nails is a high quality option.
Level: You’ll need this to make sure that you don’t have lopsided frames! This one is a good size for this job.
Measuring Tape: Essential to ensure even spacing, know how much material you need, and where you need to make your cuts.
Pencil: Helpful to mark the wall where you measure.
Miter Saw: Used to make the moulding cuts to fit the space that you have, make two pieces fit together well, and get pieces cut for any corner. If you don’t have a miter saw, you have three primary options:
- Buy an electric miter saw
- Buy a miter box with back saw
- Rent a miter saw: An affordable option if you want to make your life easier and save some money. You can typically rent these from a home improvement store.
Coping Saw: This will be used to get perfectly connected pieces of chair rail at corners. If you don’t have any spots where two pieces of chair rail will come together at a corner, then you can do without this tool.
Brad Nailer: A type of nail gun to keep your moulding in place. This one has the added benefit of not requiring an air compressor which many need, causing them to have to have a cord. However, if investing in one of these doesn’t make sense for you, you can rent them from home improvement stores for a decently low price! You could likely get away with only using construction adhesive, but putting some nails in will make sure that it doesn’t go anywhere.
Moulding/Trim Caulk: To fill any cracks that show between your walls and the moulding. Here’s an option.
Wood Filler: This is to fill in the holes from the nails. You can paint right over this.

Step 1: Determine Your Design

If you’re modeling your design off the style featured in this post, keep moving through the steps. If not, figure out what style you’d like and plan what it will look like in your space before proceeding.

Step 2: Measure and Mark Walls

Once you know the style that you would like, measure your walls and mark them for where you’ll add moulding. This allows you to prep to put moulding up, know how much material that you’ll need, and get to see a glimpse of what your walls will look like with moulding up.

First start with how high up to put the chair rail (this design has it 4 feet off the ground). After this, take measurements to center the frames between the baseboards and the bottom of the chair rail. Then determine the spacing of your frames which will determine how many premade frames you’ll need to purchase. You can put painters tape or pencil marks up to help with visualization and to keep track of your measurements so that you don’t have to remeasure when you go to hang the moulding.

Step 3: Buy Your Materials

Now that you know how much material you need, it’s time to purchase it!

If buying premade frames: simply purchase the number of frames that you need. Likely no need to buy extra if you got the right measurements.
If buying moulding to create frames: purchase the amount of material that you need plus 10% to account for any scraps from mitering.
For the chair rail: same rule applies as with purchasing moulding to create the frames – buy what you need plus 10% extra.

Step 4: Put Your Picture Frame Moulding Up!

Chair Rail

We’ll start with the chair rail. Starting with the chair rail ensures that the frames get lined up perfectly centered to the space between the baseboard and chair rail.

Figure out where the chair rail pieces will need to be cut. Some situations that you’ll likely encounter:

If you have a wall that is too long for one piece, you’ll need to make mitered cuts to make the two pieces fit seamlessly together. You’ll make opposite cuts so that they overlap. Learn more about this technique in this YouTube video!
If you have two pieces that meet in a 90 degree corner, one piece will be cut square and the other will need to be mitered and coped using a coping saw so that they fit seamlessly together. Learn more about coping for chair rail corners in this YouTube video!

Once you have your cuts made, it’s time to get the chair rail on the wall. Put some construction adhesive on the back of the chair rail, line it up with the marks on the wall, and use the level to make sure that it’s level. You may want to call in some assistance from a friend here to hold the moulding up while you use the brad nailer to nail the chair rail into the studs (you may want to mark off where studs are before nailing in!). Continue this with any other pieces and your chair rail is now up!

Frames

If you’ve reached this point, you’re nearly done with the hard part! To hang the frames you’ll follow a similar process to the chair rail: apply construction adhesive to the frame, line it up with the wall marks, hold the level to it, and nail it into the studs with the brad nailer. Try to get at least two nails in each frame. This would also be easiest if you had someone helping.

Step 5: Adding the Finishing Touches

Congrats on reaching the last step! Now that all of your moulding is up, it’s time to make it look the best it can. For this you’ll want to use caulk to spread all along the edges where the chair rail and frames meet the wall so that there are no large gaps.

You’ll also want to fill the nail holes with wood filler so that the nail holes disappear.

Last, if you want to paint your frames and the walls to be the same color like in the photos shown, now is your time! A simple white is a favorite with picture frame moulding, but any color can look great with this.

Wrapping it Up

With just 5 not-too-challenging steps you now have beautiful picture frame moulding that adds a ton of character to a home.

Have any questions on the process? Leave a comment below!

Looking for some decor to pair with your new picture frame moulding? Check out these posts:

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How to Add Picture Frame Moulding: A Complete Guide

What is Picture Frame Moulding?