Skyrim Bathroom 005: Riften door casing

We started out with 1 1/4" mdf white painted and cracked-crap-boring-old casing around the door. Blah. That had to change for sure (mind you the bathroom was initially primarily accented white and painted sage green with blonde woods when we started this) 

The goal was to make it look a little bit more... Skyrim, but really just less white mdf blah! We dig the wood and raw metal tones, the rich earthy stuff, even if it's not perfect, and the reclaimed and renovated bits. Loved pieces rather than new and pristine and mass produced. Which is probably why the Skyrim bathroom in the first place I guess.. 

So this is the door when we got the first base coat of 'comes the dawn' on the walls.. Pre removal of that craptastic mdf:

Here is the base mountain mural, but more importantly, the door sans mdf casing:

I printed Riften sigils on card stock, used an exacto and cut templates to use as stencils for my cornices:

Then I drew them onto 2 1/2" square hemlock blocks my hubby cut for me ( because he's awesomesauce- he's my measure and cut man, I'd never get anywhere without him, unless you want lopsided and unopening doors) I did the nightingale sigil too for the mirror, so that's what's pictured.. Along with a solid block pre-stencil. 

Then I wood burned them, and stained them. Sorry no pics- they seem to have been eaten by the voracious data stream sharks :(

Meanwhile we measured and cut side and header pieces and stained them with poly shades:

You also see pieces for the behind the door storage cabinet and mirror there.. 

Hang it all up using wood tone nails and voila! I did nail at an angle through the tops of the cornices into the wall- secure but invisible. 

Now on a side note: we did have to chip out one piece of tile on the mural side to fit the frame but it fits like a bloomin' glove! And hubby made a strategic cut or two to the back hidden side of the frame around the tile that was not removable because they tiled to fit that cruddy 1 1/4"  casing. It's not noticeable unless you get down face level, and really, the ease of this method far out weighs the status quo of cracked nasty mdf, or having to retile/repair a chunk of wall ( which is where THAT would have gone. It's just unavoidable.)

All in all, we are quite pleased. Simple, basic, sort of utilitarian, but easy enough to replace the cornices whenever you want a new look, new sigil or room revamp.