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Adding trim and crown moulding to your home is an inexpensive way to add a
lot of pop. Adding trim or moulding yourself is easy to do, inexpensive and is a
fairly quick project. When it comes to trim the options are almost endless.
Think outside the box and use trim to finish off other areas besides the floors
and ceilings. The style of moulding that is selected, and the colors and finish
chosen can define a room, for good or bad. Quite often other architectural
details such as fireplaces, doorways or bookcases may be trimmed with matching
mouldings. Crown moulding makes a statement wherever it is used. As with any
decorating plan one must be careful to use the various elements with good taste.
The moulding should add to the style of the room without calling attention to
itself as separate from the overall effect of the room.
Crown Molding
Crown molding is found at the intersection of walls and ceilings. It is
installed typically at a 45° angle, with a hollow space behind it. Crown moulding
primarily refers to a decorative row of trim applied where the walls meet the
ceiling of a room. It may be narrow or over a foot wide.
Baseboards
Baseboards are the second most common type of trim found in houses. Baseboards
range from the very narrow type all the way up to 6 inch-wide baseboards found
in many older houses. Again, baseboards dress up a room and serve as a defining
line at the bottom of the walls. However, baseboards also hide gaps between the
bottoms of the walls and the flooring. Casing
Casing is the trim that defines the area around window and door frames.
Chair Rail
Chair rail is a horizontal piece of trim typically 3 feet from the floor that
originally served the purpose of protecting walls from chairs! Today, it’s used
more as a type of decorative element.
Picture Rail
Picture rail is basically chair rail that is much higher on the wall. Less
common than other types of trim, picture rail traditionally served the function
of holding the hooks for hanging pictures with wire.
Trim is a great way to take a home project to the next level or add dimension to
other projects and can be used in every room of the house check out some of
these great ways to use trim to spruce up areas of your home.
- Trim out your bathroom mirror. Take your plain standard mirror in the
bathroom and add trim around it, transforming that generic look into an
expensive looking custom mirror for less than $20. Follow this link for easy
to follow step by step directions on
trimming a mirror with wood trim.
- Add trim around shelves or cabinets. If you are looking for a custom
built in unit but can only afford a standard store bought unit, try adding
trim along the edges and watch that boxed unit transform into a custom built
in piece of furniture. To make your store-bought units look like built-ins,
add crown-molding-style trim along the top of all the units, and use scrap
lumber or moldings to fill in any gaps between the units. Consider topping a
sturdy, low, two-shelf unit with a cushion and centering it between larger
units to create a window seat! Rather than try to refinish the shelves, add
trim to the front to make them look better. If you have several shelving
units that are the same size, put them next to each other, and then add
molding to cover the seams. By the time you're done, it should look like one
classy unit instead of several inexpensive ones.
- Use Trim moulding to define a space. Transform a bare corner into an
inviting breakfast nook, reading room, or salon with the skilled use of trim
mouldings. The transformation is as simple and inexpensive as it is
effective. Simply nail thin strips of trim moulding to the walls to create
two or three "boxes" of moulding. (Use a leveler to ensure plumb, uniform
lines.) Use pale shades of white trim and attach it to a charcoal gray wall.
Suddenly, a bare, white corner becomes an inviting and very stylish oasis.
- Wainscote a wall or area.- Wainscoting is the practice of covering
either the top or bottom half of a wall with wallpaper and then painting the
other half. The two halves are separated with a piece of flat molding.
Wainscoting offers some incredibly creative options. By varying the wall
paper and selecting a matching paint, possibly textures, the overall feel of
a room can be dramatically altered.
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