Dennis Judd's Blog

Pilasters: Making and installing

This is gonna be a long one.

Jen and I both decided that pilasters were the perfect way to create a transition between the Family room and the kitchen. This would allow us to paint the rooms two different colors primarily, and secondly hopefully look real cool.

Here's a picture of the basic idea. There are typically two types of flat pilaster; neoclassical and victorian. The picture I linked to just now is neoclassical, while we decided to go with a victorian style.

So, the concept is simple. Take a board (of high quality..clear or special D grade), use a router to cut the flutes and your done. While the concept is simple, doing it is anything but. We decided on using a 3/4" corebox 1/4" shank bit for the flutes and used 1"x6" quality board. I don't remember the exact math, but every application is different. Basically you just want to make sure the flutes are spaced evenly.

So we lucky enough to be able to borrow a router and table from a local friend (thanks Tim). Leaving the only thing we had to invest in being the router bit (ie. the corebox...20 bucks at homedepot) and wood ($9.99 for an 8' section of quality board..not bad) plus like $7 for a 6' section (for the pony wall).

Basically, once we decided on the width of the corebox bit (3/4") everything else was just math...which I let Jen do :) below you can see the results from our attempts. Keep in mind we do the outside flutes first because all it requires is flipping the board for each side, and then we do the center one last because it requires moving the guide:

A couple of points to make:
- Practice on scrap first. Plunging the bit takes some practice especially when using a table.
- The outside flutes stop 3.5" from the line created on each end from the base cap and floor trim. The single inside flute stops 2.5".
- Always...ALWAYS make sure you go over every flute at least twice to get a nice even cut and removed any gouges or digs.....it's a nightmare to sand and latex paint will not float it out as much as you think. Plus sanding in a flute runs the risk of shaving the edge and rounding it over.

So, now that the basic pilasters are done (leaving out the priming and 4 coats of paint) we move on to the crown molding caps. If you've never cut crown molding before you in for a surprise. It freaking sucks. No 45 degree angles here...we used 3 5/8" crown molding that had 52/38 degree angle. There would have been no way to do this practically without our compound miter saw. The real trick is the angles, you have to set the tilt left at 33.9 degrees and the miter angle (left or right) at 31.6 degrees. (thank god for the book Creative Homeowner: Trimwork...seriously..it's been so helpful). Once you have the angles figured out everything else is pretty much cake. The only real trick is to tack on a flat board on top so you can use that to simulate the ceiling and square up the crown molding when trying to measure and cut the return pieces (ends of the caps). Also, I found that using a simple staple gun to join the cap worked amazingly well. You just do the back side of the cap, use the flex of the staples to spread apart the joints (for putting wood glue in them) and then tack one staple in the front until dry. Remove and fill. Much easier than trying to use a piece of scrap and a nail gun, plus then you don't drive a nail into your thumb.

And I precut one small wrap around of colonial floor trim for the pony wall pilaster.

Which now we can see what a complete mock-up looks like:

Now that all the parts are cut it's all a matter of painting and installing. We primed and put about 3 coats of latex paint on every piece. Of course that was after we filled any hole, dents, etc with wood filler and sanded them. It's realy hard to not glob paint in the flutes, but a little 60 grit sandpaper helps fix any mistakes.

Once everything has dried and is ready it's time for installation. Really it can't be easier, you just put them in place, find were the studs are (if you have any around), put some liquid nails on the back and nail it to the wall. I recommend not nailing in the flutes if you can help it personally.

We'll be finishing off the floor trim that leads up the 8' pilaster soon, so that's why there's no bottom on it. Also we had to make some comprimises on the "straightness" of it against the pantry closet door since the drywall job done when the house was built is absolute crap and the wall is wonky as hell. But pretty much that's it. Now we don't have to paint the kitchen the same color as the Family room, and hopefully they add to the decor of the house (there is crown molding in other rooms, so it does blend a bit).

Posted by Dennis Judd at December 12, 2004 10:59 AM | TrackBack