Metrie

My little sitting room went from plain and tired (see before photo below) to this. I love it, and will spend lots of time here. Raising the ceiling, replacing carpet with hardwoods, and adding moulding created a completely different room. The addition of the Metrie moulding elevated the room to a level where both more formal and casual elements can coexist happily. Aside from my enjoyment of these absolutely gorgeous the walls, this treatment adds value to the house.  

Having no experience choosing, ordering, or overseeing the installation of moulding, this was a very ambitious project for me. Thank goodness for the delightful and extremely patient people at Metrie who helped me through the process along with a friend who was a life-saver during this moulding project (more on that below).  Here are the specific Metrie products used:

• Crown Moulding Inside Trayed Ceiling
• Baseboard Used Inside Trayed Ceiling
• Ceiling Crown
• Casing
• Panel Moulding
• Flat Stock
• Baseboards

These are all products the Metrie people knew were available at their Dallas distribution center, and may not be available everywhere.  

This photo was taken from a perspective that shows all of the Metrie products used. Upon the advice of a real estate agent, friends, and the internets, I had the ceilings raised in the dining room, the entry, and the sitting room. As this is a typical ranch house in Dallas, the ceilings were the standard eight feet tall. The roof pitch determines what can and can't be done. I had a lot of contractors and framers come through providing opinions and estimates. It was interesting that I heard different things from different people. I had to consider which information I heard most often, along with whom I believed to be the most credible. I learned that some contractors aren't interested in raising ceilings as it's dirty, labor intensive work, and will tell you that either it can't be done for some fabricated structural reason, or they'll price it at a sum they know will discourage interest. If this is something you want to do, keep looking and talking to people. 

When I finally engaged someone to begin the process of raising the ceilings, I had to choose the style in which it would be finished.  Because of the roof's pitch, gaining a foot in height could only be achieved after coming in from the exterior wall eighteen inches.  Many people choose to go up placing their sheetrock in a slanting position, but I decided to do trayed ceilings.  I asked the people at Metrie if they could create a way to hide the vertical sheetrock within the tray with moulding and crown, and they came up with a gorgeous solution. The same baseboard was used but was placed upside down at the base of the tray. The crown overlaps and meets the new ceiling.  A shorter version of the same crown was used at the top of the original wall.

These rooms aren't large, and only have nine foot ceilings inside the trays. Because of the scale, I wanted the molding to be fairly straightforward and minimal while also being traditional and impactful. What Metrie put together for me couldn't be more perfect.  The quality of their product is so impressive, and I very much appreciate having the opportunity to work with them.