I had the palette selected for the dining room mural.  I’ve painted murals before including a landscape mural in my previous dining room.  I had inspiration pictures, sketches, and a vision.  Now that the ceiling has a fresh coat, and the wainscoting is installed, primed, and painted, nothing is preventing me from starting the mural except me and I have honestly been a bit of an impediment.  This might be counter to what you’d expect from someone who has painted a lot of things, but I’m not going into this project with a massive amount of confidence.  I’m going into it knowing that if it doesn’t work out, it’s okay.  I can put a coat of primer over it and go in a new direction. But, I want to do this mural, so I need to start.  Aside from dragging my own feet, two things were holding me up.  One

I feel like I keep returning to the same decorating bag of tricks with picture frame molding, but it is such an inexpensive and easy way to add architectural detail to a space that it’s hard to resist.  A room can look stately, classic, and more interesting with just a couple hundred dollars invested in trim and a few hours of installation and caulking.  I love it and am sure I will keep going back to it since I can’t imagine trim details like chair rail and picture frame molding will ever go out of style.  If you’re interested in installing picture frame molding in your home, HERE is a tutorial showing how. Instead of trying to get all of the trim done in the dining room in one long day, I decided to work on it in bite-sized pieces.  I took measurements and drew out a plan and cut