Almost nothing adds class to a sterile room or stairway like a decorative chair-molding. It instantly changes the look from cookie-cutter modern to "George Washington Slept Here" historic.

And the amazing thing is that it is so easy. Go to any lumberyard or home center and choose from the beautiful trim pieces. Cutting the trim to size and staining or painting before mounting on the wall eliminates masking and spills. Touch up the nail holes after the job is done.

Here's all you have to do.

How to put trim up

1. Chair-molding is traditionally mounted 3 feet from the floor. Measure up 3 feet, and then, using the level, draw a 3-foot-high line around the room. This will be the guide for the lower edge of the trim.

2. Measure the length of the different pieces of trim you will need to encompass the room.

3. Cut the trim edges in the miter box. The cutting slits in the miter box are complementary, so that the trim of adjoining walls meet to form a perfect 90-degree angle.

4. Check that mitered cuts fit neatly together.

5. Position trim so that the bottom rests on your pencil line and nail into wall. Sink the nails below the surface of the trim with the nail driver. Work your way around the room.

6. Plug nail holes with wood putty.

7. If you are really adventurous and want to continue the chair molding up a flight of stairs, hold a level up to the edge of the stairs and mark the 3-foot line. Measure up from the stair molding to the 3-foot line. This is the height of the chair-molding going up the stairs.

8. Go up three or four stairs and mark a line at the pre-determined chair molding height. Work your way up the stairs, marking the chair-molding height every three or four stairs.

9. Draw a straight line going down the stairs until you intersect the 3-foot line at the bottom of the stairs.

10. Hold a scrap piece of trim and draw intercepting lines representing the wall and stair trim pieces. Draw a line from the top to the bottom corners. This marks your cutting angle.

11. Position the actual stair trim and mark the lines for the cutting angle on the miter box.

12. Cut the angles for both the wall trim and the stair trim. Butt up the edges and nail in the trim.

Doesn't that look great? You're done.

Supplies

Materials needed: Trim pieces, nails and wood putty.

Tools needed: Level, tape measure, hammer, nail driver, putty knife, miter box and miter saw.