Moulding embellishes room with sense of drama, charm

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/06/2002 (8856 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Flip through any decorating magazine and you’ll find rooms that have been architecturally embellished with moulding. A simple chair rail in a dining room can provide instant charm while classic cove moulding in a new home will add a vintage flavour.

Homes built in the late 1960s and 1970s tend to fall short in this regard. Slim, sleek window casings and baseboard moulding of this era leave these homes lacking in any architectural detailing. Thankfully, there are ways to enhance your decor and bring a sense of richness and interest back to lackluster rooms.

After all, a great painting is enhanced by a great frame, and so is your decor. Rich wall colours really pop when framed by elegant ceiling moulding ornate baseboards. Enhancing your trim will frame each wall, making it an important backdrop for wall art and accessories.

Moulding also provides visual continuity between rooms — such as in a living room/dining room area. By using the same style of moulding in the same colour, these spaces are perceived as a set rather than unrelated spaces. Cove moulding will accentuate a high ceiling and definitely adds a sense of drama to a formal space. (Tip: A ceiling medallion around a centre ceiling light-fixture will complete this luxurious look.)

If this endeavour is a little too lavish for your budget, you can enhance the appearance of the depth of the cove moulding using paint. Simply attach a length of half-round wooden trim four to six inches below existing cove moulding and paint the new trim and the wall space above it the same colour as the cove moulding. This will fool the eye into seeing a wider depth of moulding than is actually on the wall and will add real drama to the space.

Doors and windows can be changed dramatically with the placement of additional trim around existing woodwork. The once plain condo doorway pictured here is now an elegant and sophisticated entrance thanks to the addition of decorative moulding added to the existing door frame.

Today’s wood mouldings usually are made of pine, spruce or redwood, rather than more expensive hardwoods, but they can be painted or stained in most any colour to match other woodwork in the home. Mouldings made of polyurethane are less costly than their wood counterparts and the designs are often cast from wood, marble and plaster originals so they provide a more ornate look.

These pieces often come primed and ready to paint and are easy to cut to length for any job. When they are applied to the tops of walls, doors or around windows, they are difficult to distinguish from wood moulding.

Choosing the design you want to use probably will be the hardest part of this job. Pay special attention to details of trim in favoured photos in decorating magazines and clip out any pertinent pictures. Your lumber supplier may have ideas for you, as well, either on display or in brochures.

Often times, a little moulding goes a long way to making a huge change. (As in the faux, drop-down cove ceiling idea mentioned above.) A chair rail here, some added trim there, and before you know it, your home will be moulded into shape!

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