Trim Molding Design Ideas

Decorative trim molding can transform a room like nothing else. In a large room with high ceilings, for instance, wide trim moldings can be the difference between a cold, cavernous effect and a warm and inviting feeling. Decorative trim was once the norm to make these and other rooms inviting and interesting but that has gone by the wayside with the cost oriented approach to home building today.

Fortunately it's easy to add the moldings that were omitted by the builder, or create original wood trim designs of your own using finish lumber and common profiles. This page contains a few ideas for building these combination designs for walls and ceilings, for more see building crown and cornice, door and window casing, chair rails and baseboards.

Crown Molding Designs

In this example a standard crown profile is embellished with stop bead on top and bottom. This same basic design can be used to build the lighting project at this link.

To build the profile pictured here install the wall bead first using miter joints on outside corners and mitered or coped inside corners. Install the stop bead on the ceiling using miter joints and then install the crown molding using the surface of the wall bead as the reference point for measuring and cutting.

Other, more elaborate designs are just as easy to create using one–piece baseboards or casings, different crown profiles and various small accent moldings.

Door Casing Designs

Many door casing styles from Victorian to Craftsman can be recreated using commonly available molding profiles. In the design pictured here a piece of back band is wrapped to the edge of one–piece baseboard. This technique works with one–piece casing profiles as well.

To install this casing use 45° miters at the top and either cut the bottom square at the floor, or use a plinth block to transition to the baseboard.

Chair Rail Design

Combination chair rail designs can be built to accommodate any wall trim need from basic protection from furniture damage to a display shelf or cap for wainscot and tile.

The chair rail pictured here is built using a backer board, stop bead and half–round molding. To install it, first nail the backer board to the wall framing along the center. Next install two pieces of stop bead so it covers the nail holes in the backer board. Then install half–round using wood glue and nails.

The trim can be mitered or coped at inside corners and outside corners can be mitered.

Baseboard Molding Designs

It doesn't make much sense to decorate baseboards with a lot of ornate profiles. They are usually simply a flat board with a decorative edge on top and a bead of quarter round at the floor. But if you need to match existing trim molding or you want to create a more interesting baseboard profile it's easy to do using 1by finish lumber of various widths and some of these elaborate base caps and beads.

This baseboard is built using two different size 1by boards, one stacked on top of the other. The wider board here has a bevel along the top but it could also be squared. A piece of base cap or rake mould can then be stacked on top of each 1by and a shoe mould run along the floor.

The trim can be mitered or coped at inside corners and outside corners can be mitered.