Trim work – or the mouldings around your doors, windows, ceilings and floors are what define your rooms and give your home a ‘finished’ look.
The details embodied in the material finishing of your home are very important to setting the aesthetic style of your home.
Traditionally modern and contemporary style homes have very sleek, minimalist trim packages, where more traditional and transitional homes will have more elaborate trim work.
By adding trim work or a ‘moulding package’ to your home, you can create interesting detail, define spaces and increase the value of your home, with very little investment.
Many homes, depending on the era they were built, have lots of trim work and others have very little. There is middle ground.
Without question, a door is always trimmed out. This piece of moulding hides the area between the door jam and the wall material, giving it a nice finished look.
If this is the only trim work you have in your home, then you are really missing out.
If you have nothing other than door trim, at least consider adding baseboard moulding. The addition of this moulding creates a clean break between your wall colour and the floor.
Next, trim out the windows.
Believe it or not, by adding this simple trim you will make your windows appear larger.
Before adding the trim, the window jamb (the vertical area around the window) was probably painted the same colour as the wall.
This area now becomes part of the trim and should be painted the same colour as the trim. A clever way to enlarge the look of a window is to add a mock transom.
This will allow you to hang your drapery higher up on the wall, giving the sense of a larger window, thus a brighter room.
If you really want to ‘up the ante’, add crown moulding.
Believe it or not, this will give the illusion of a higher ceiling (and the feeling of a larger room).
You can add crown moulding to all areas of your home, but some people choose to use it to define the more formal spaces in their home, like the entry, living room and dining room.
In the case of crown moulding, don’t be afraid to go big. (Go big or go home as they say).
The addition of wainscot in a specific room, like an entry or dining room, will give that space ‘more importance’.
During one of our recent renovations we added wainscot panels to a curved staircase in the entry to the clients’ home.
Before the addition of the wainscot, the entry was outdated, uninviting and boring.
With the addition of wainscot panels, new carpet on the stairs and a fresh coat of paint the staircase now becomes the focal point of the entry.
Mouldings and trim work should be painted in a satin or semi gloss paint. These sheens are more durable than the standard eggshell used on walls.
Although high gloss paints are the most durable they tend to be a bit too shiny for this application and can end up looking like plastic.
Give your home the attention it deserves. It will reward you in many ways.
Read my blog on making a small space look larger.
A Stroke of Genius Interiors offers Material Specification Services that will pull everything together for you.
With information gathered from the initial consultation, Barbara will put together samples for you that reflect your desired style and overall design vision. Once all materials and finishes are approved, she will provide the contractor with the Materials Specifications list so your project can move ahead.
