Tips for Window Door & Wall Trim: Because I’ve worked on older properties and had to repair them up, I understand how crucial the various moldings that protect windows, doors, and flooring are. Remember that the primary functions of trim are to conceal imperfections and to protect the wall from harm. I’ve seen a lot of terrible moldings in homes constructed in the past 50 years. As a result, there aren’t many of them. All contemporary houses have either “colonial” or “clamshell” moldings. This does not have to be the case.
Here are some pointers I’ve learnt for making your home stand out without breaking the budget, as well as considerations for selecting molding profiles. The photo of the window at the top of the post is from Classic Colonial Homes’ Plan 530-2.
Pay attention to the structure. The existing trim is an excellent source of design ideas when building on to a property or conducting substantial modifications. It is critical to maintain consistency. If you must deviate from the existing trend, do it in a manner that is consistent with it. When creating anything from scratch, the moldings should complement the overall design of the structure. Where does it fall on the spectrum of contemporary, classic, and country? A piece of baseboard or door trim may tell you a lot about the house as a whole since it is such an essential aspect of the design.
The importance of size cannot be overstated. If the ceiling is 10 feet high, the baseboards should not be 3 inches high. The baseboards should not be 7″ if the ceiling is 8′. When selecting the trim to put around your home’s doors and windows, consider how broad they are. Is it necessary to thread a 4-inch-wide item through a 3-inch-wide hole? In such a scenario, you should avoid doing so since it would reduce the profile of the molding. In this situation, the size of the whole home is determined by these sections. To remedy this difficulty, I’ll show you how to utilise a back band to keep the overall design consistent while varying the widths of the trim.
Change the details while maintaining the same mood. The more public rooms on the lower levels of a home were generally the ones with the most intricate trim a century ago. The intricacy and size of the trim became less as you progressed up the floors. There are now several simple methods to do this and give your home a distinct appearance. Two of these methods were employed in the dining room, as seen below (designed by MRB Interiors).
The first step is to mold a back band onto your case. Rear band is a trim piece that is placed on the back of a cased door or window to make it seem deeper and larger. When you add depth to trim, you get additional shadow lines, which helps trim stand out. The same casing may be utilized in other sections of the home without the rear band to produce a thinner appearance while keeping the patterns constant.
Because of the deep back band, we employed speaker walls in addition to wainscoting to make the area seem even larger. When installing wainscoting, make sure the casing extends beyond the front of the panels. These mdf panels were build to suit the area after an order was place on the internet. The house’s modest and lengthy walls were not erected on-site one brick at a time. Instead, they were deliver to the location in their whole.
This saves a lot of money over more conventional ways, minimizes the likelihood of fractures in the wood caused by seasonal fluctuations, and simplifies the installation procedure.
The details are what distinguishes a home.
Replace the window sill. Some call it a stool, while others call it a sill, but both terms are quickly becoming obsolete, so we may as well stop using them. It’s a shame, since a well-trimmed apron on a window sill is a sight to see. Also, since walls are becoming thicker in order to be more energy efficient, this might be an excellent area to put plants or display small items. The apron and casing are the first items to inspect when installing a sill. The strip of trim that runs across the bottom of a stool is know as an apron.
The window casing is usually use, and both ends are reattach to the wall. It is recommend that the sill extend 1/2 inch beyond the apron and 1/2 inch past the casing edge. They are know as ears. These elements provide a historic appearance to a window, but they may also be employ with contemporary trim profiles. They appear much superior than just “picture framing” the window on all four sides with moldings.
Everyone despises shoe shaping, commonly known as quarter-rounding. Place it at the very bottom of the floor. As a trimmer, this is the item that clients most often request that I remove from their houses. But it isn’t just for show. It, like all trim, has a purpose. Because baseboard cannot bend to match the curve of the floor as shoe and quarter-round can, they are preferable alternatives for houses with uneven floors. Because cutting the baseboard to meet the curves takes time, a shoe is use to hide the area between the baseboard and the wall.
It also prevents chairs and vacuum cleaners from scratching the baseboard, limiting damage to a limited area. The shoe is often discoloure to seem like the floor before the sole is paint. This conceals the signs of wear and tear. Nonetheless, neither the shoe nor the quarter-round are very popular with the general population. If this is you, here’s a quick and simple hack that will make your home stand out without requiring big renovations or purchasing pricey new furniture. Replace the shoe with the lattice.
Lattice, a thin square piece of moulding that comes in various widths, may be install along the bottom border of the baseboard, as seen in this image (design by MRB Interiors). The profile provides just enough information to pique your interest.
Instead, use beads. Bead board, which used to be the most common trim profile but is no longer as popular, is an extremely flexible material. Casing and baseboard may both be construct from the same basic flat board with a circular bead cut into one side. It may be dress up for a more formal event by adding a back band (part one), or it can be wear casually.
It was traditionally use in farmhouses and magnificent Victorian residences, but it also looks great in a contemporary context. Some of the items discussed in these postings may not be available at your local big-box hardware shop. But they should be at your lumber yard. Trim will be see throughout your house, so it’s worth the work to make it seem beautiful.
Kenny Grono is a general contractor in the Philadelphia region.
