More Pony Wall Progress – The Building & Trimming Is Almost Complete

Last Updated on December 24, 2015 by Kristi Linauer

So, building pony walls and columns isn’t quite as quick easy as I had pictured in my mind.  🙂

As with most projects, it’s all of the finishing touches that takes so incredibly long.  I thought this would be a four-day project.  Not so.  It’s looking like a five- or six-day project.  But I do have lots of progress to show you!

When I posted last, I had only gotten the very roughed-in framing done.

Next, I covered the front side (that’s what I’ll call this side — the view from the front door) in 1/2-inch drywall.

I didn’t cover the back side in drywall at this point.  That came later because some adjustments had to be made.

Next, I added the two vertical pieces of trim on the left side — one on the end of the pony wall, and one on the upper side jamb — and installed them flush with the drywall on the front.  I kept my spacer in place on top of the pony wall for this.

I also left a gap at the top of the upper side jamb so that I could slip the head jamb in there to hold it while I nailed it into place on the other end.

I wanted these walls to be the same width as the cased openings in the kitchen, as well as the one in the music room where the rolling doors are.  So I used 1 x 6 pieces of MDF boards (which are actually only 5.5-inches wide).  Obviously that was way wider than the 1 x 4’s that I used to frame the wall.  To remedy this, I cut strips of 1/2-inch MDF that I had on hand, and used two layers of those MDF strips to add width to the 2 x 4’s on the back side before adding the drywall.  That extra one inch, along with a layer of 3/8-inch drywall, lined up perfectly so that the drywall on the back side sat flush with the 1 x 6 trim pieces.

With the two vertical pieces of trim in place on the left, I added the head jamb.  I did this by putting my ladder on the right side, lifting the 10-foot 1 x 6 and slipping it into the space above the side jamb on the left, and nailing it into place in several places on the right.  Then I worked my way all the way down to the left nailing into place.

I continued trimming out the left side by using 1 x 4 MDF boards to trim out the pony walls.  It looked very rough at this point, but I knew that wood filler would work magic.  I also added a 1 x 2 along the floor to act as a spacer so that I would have something to attach a baseboard to later.

Next I added the left side casing (a 1 x 3 MDF board) and then the top casing.  The top casing consists of a 1 x 6 sandwiched between two 1 x 2 boards.  You can see more details on that here.  The top casing needed to be about 10.5 feet wide, and the boards were only 10 feet wide, so I had to piece some together on the right side.

And yes, I added that trim before taping and mudding the drywall above. Y’all know by now how I work.  It makes no sense, but I’m confident that it’ll work out in the end.  😀

With the left front trim in place, as well as the top jamb and casing, I repeated all of that process on the right side, starting with the end piece on the pony wall and the upper side jamb, then the trim on the front of the pony wall, and finally the side casing.

After I trimmed out all of the front side, I started working on the back side.  I added the spacer strips of MDF to the 2 x 4 framing (as I mentioned above) so that the drywall would be flush with the 1 x 6’s on the ends of the pony walls, the upper side jambs, and the head jamb.

Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of that.  But I simply took a sheet of 1/2-inch MDF that I had on hand, and I cut it into 1.5-inch strips, using my circular saw, to match the thickness of a 2 x 4 piece of lumber, and then I attached them by stacking two strips of the MDF and nailing them to the 2 x 4’s that framed the wall.  Then I attached the drywall to the MDF strips. This made my 3/8-inch drywall fit perfectly flush with the end trim pieces.  I had originally thought that I could use 1/2-inch drywall, but evidently my math was wrong.  That ended up being off by 1/8-inch, so I had to go down to the next thickness of drywall.

I also cut and attached the pieces of 3/4-inch MDF to the tops of the pony walls.  I cut them the exact size of the tops of the pony walls.  No larger.

I didn’t finish trimming out the back at this point because I was too anxious to move on with the columns.  🙂

I made the columns out of four pieces of 1 x 4 MDF boards, glued and nailed together so that they made a rectangular shape rather than a square shape.  I started by attaching three of the boards together using wood glue and nails.  I put the unfinished column into place, and cut a small piece of 2 x 4 to fit inside.  I glued and nailed the 2 x 4 to the top of the pony wall, and then nailed the column to the 2 x 4.

I repeated that same process at the top.

With the unfinished column securely in place, I then attached the fourth 1 x 4 to close up the back side of the column, and trimmed out the top and bottom of the column using 1 x 4’s.

After building and attaching the other column, I filled in all of the nail holes and spaces with a very liberal amount of wood filler.  I get a little crazy with the wood filler on areas where I know I can use my electric sander.  🙂

And then I used my electric sander to sand everything so that it was perfectly smooth.

As I sanded the different areas, I began adding the finishing details.  First I added the trim around the tops of the pony walls.

And then I added the trim to the inside frame on the pony walls.

And finally I added two different trims around the columns, both on the bottom…

…as well as the top…

And that’s as far as I got!  There’s still so much wood filling, sanding, and a ton of caulking to do on this side to get it ready for primer and paint.

But on this side, as well as on the back side, I not only have to do the initial sanding, but I still have to add the finishing trim.  Then wood fill, sand, and caulk.

There are soooo many details that go into a project like this!  I’m thinking it’ll definitely take two more days to get everything finished, but I’m loving how it’s turning out so far.