[This is part of our WAINSCOTING-109 Installation Series.]
How to Make the Pedestal Boxes
Making these boxes is so easy, and yet they add so much to the wainscoting after you’ve wrapped all the moldings around them. You’ll see.
I’ll start by making the center pedestal box first.
Below Don’t rely too heavily on the dimensions I give, because you may be using slightly different moldings or you could be using thicker mdf board. Just use these dimensions as a sort of starting point for your own designs.
Below I made the necessary bevels on my mdf board and laid it all out on a sort of flat surface.
Below The exposed mdf “end grain” is nothing more than exposing the interior of this engineered material.
When you glue a beveled face like the one below, make sure you put enough glue on so that some of it soaks into that end grain and some stays on the surface. Not too much though as you don’t want a total mess on your hands. You’ll get the feel of it after a few tries.
Below Don’t just put glue on one of the surfaces, it must go on both for a solid bond.
Below I nailed my beveled edges on with my 23 gauge pin nailer.
Below Now all I need do is add some Liquid Nails to the backs of the sides and then nail it in place under the pilaster.
Below The gap at the top will be covered with the bed molding. The gap is there because I wanted to make my pedestals out of the material I had on hand, and this was the most height I could get out of it. I know, I’m cheap that way.
Below The outside pedestals and plasters are dissolved into the corners. See my post Molding Dissolves to learn a little more about them.
Below Install the left pedestal box.
This is the end of WAINSCOTING-109 Part III: Pedestal Boxes
Posts in This Series
1. How to Install WAINSCOTING-109 Part 1
2. WAINSCOTING-109 Part 2: Installing the Rail Cap & Edge Molding
3. WAINSCOTING-109 Part 3: How to Make the Pedestal Boxes
4. WAINSCOTING-109 Part 4: Wrapping the Bed Molding
5. WAINSCOTING-109 Part 5: Wrapping the Baseboard
6. WAINSCOTING-109 Part 6: Prepping for Paint
Related Posts
- Our Kitchen Molding Makeover series.
- PILASTER-104: Step by step installation post.
- PICTURE RAIL-108: Step by step how to install.
- BASEBOARD-110: Step by step how to install.
Ken, do you ever leave MDF raw edges in any of your projects? If so, how do you handle paint prep on these edges?
Hi Henry,
I had this very question not long ago, and you can read my reply in the comments section of this post: How to Make an Eared Architrave Part 1.
I suppose I should write a full post on this topic pretty soon since there is so much interest in it.
Henry, if you still have questions after reading that, then just ask away.
Good luck with your molding project.