DIY Cornice Box

Well..... earlier I posted about some DIY projects that I was excited about for this summer. One that I thought would be really simple and quick. I think it would have been super quick if it had not been for a few minor hang ups. Here is my inspiration below, and an in depth tutorial here:

Hang-up One and Two: Husband has not cut crown moulding in a few years and had to do a few practice rounds with the mitering. Well, those 'practice' cuts took up our first batch of crown. Then I went to the store and wanted to buy as little crown as possible. BIG mistake. You see, we had the base of the box built, it was 6 inches on the sides, and 42 inches across. Well, I had the unhelpful man at Home Depot cut me two 9 inch pieces, and one 45 inch piece. I wanted to have a little bit extra because I knew we would lose some cutting it on an angle. Well..... mine were too short, that lost us another day, and another batch of crown. Third times a charm.


Hang-up Three: I cannot paint with oil based enamel. I hate the stuff. I sanded, primed, and lightly sanded the box (with the crown on), then painted. It looked GREAT! Except for 2 tiny spots that were only noticeable in certain lights. Well, I waited until the next day, and slapped on another coat. This coat had this odd almost crocodile skin type marks in it as it was drying. We are still not sure what happened, but the most likely is that when I cleaned the brush with paint thinner and water some of the water was still mixed in there and mixed with oily paint, it made odd marks when drying.


Hang-up Four: This super thick coat of paint was supernaturally sticky and incapable of drying. So when we tried to sand it off, it just bogged up the sandpaper. So, we waited a few days to let it dry. No dice. It did not dry. This led to us having to rub paint thinner and nail polish remover all over the front, scraping it for 45 minutes, and finally sanding it.


Ahhhhh...... after all of this fuss, I made husband paint since I have banned myself from enamel paint, and it turned out beautifully. Here are the results:

Here is the box after I filled in all of the holes with wood glue, but before we added the bottom trim:

Here it is after the first coat of paint.... the good coat:

And, again, here is the finished product... with the drapes that I made all by myself!!

Overall, if we were to make another one for another room in the house, we would say that it was a very easy project. All you need is...


1 by 6 boards measured to the width you want, and measure to how far you want it off the actual wall
crown moulding of your choice for the top trip
we used simple wood in the shape of and 'L' for the bottom
wood filler
paint for crown moulding (all of ours is the enamel, so we wanted it to match)


First make a box from the 1 by 6 boards, you just need the sides, a front, and a top piece for stabilization.
Then put your crown on the top.
Next, put your bottom moulding on.
Fill in the nail holes and joints with wood filler.
Paint.
LET DRY.
Hang with L-brackets.


Hang drapes with a tension rod inside. You're done!!!