My love, chunky trim over the doors
March 18, 2014
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I’m on a mission to remove all wimpy, skinny trim in our house and replace it with nice, chunky trim with more character. I’m talking baseboards and door trim and I haven’t even started with the window trim. We’ve lived hear almost ten years and I’ve barely just begun.
It’s going to be a long, hard fight. So far the wimpy trim is still winning. :)
I’ve completed two rooms – TWO. The mud room and the powder room are done. Small victories. Wait! Three rooms are done, the whole point of this post – the master!
I shared a bit of the new door trim with you a couple weeks ago when I shared the new beefy baseboards I installed over the old ones. But I finally got to finishing it up by filling holes, painting two more coats of white paint and caulking (almost) everything.
Here’s the completed door to our bathroom:
I’ve blogged about this process before but I thought I’d share a little more detail this time. The doors are all trimmed out in pine wood and I use five pieces to make up the final look.
The two sides are regular 1x4’s, which aren’t 1x4 at all but whatever. One of life’s mysteries. The top is the three more trim pieces. Here’s a side view of the three pieces that make this one up:
There’s a 1x2 on top, then another 1x4 and a small trim piece called “stop” on the bottom. The stop part is what I’ve changed up since the first time I did this. In our powder room I used lattice wood and it felt too thin for me.
You can see here that the stop has a curved edge:
In this room I actually used taller wood for the header – in the pic above it's a 1x4 but because our room is large and the ceiling is high, I went with a 1x6:
LOVE it.
I avoided doing this for years because I thought it would be so complicated. It’s not at all. I assemble the header on the floor (with a nail gun) and then put it up after the two side trim pieces are installed:
SO dreamy.
Here’s a look at the double doors:
Ignore the sides of the trim – I decided not to caulk until I paint the rest of the room.
I like that the “stop” trim has a little bit of a curve to one side – I think it gives it a little more of a custom look:
Just imagine how great they’ll look with sexy black doors – my other mission. :)
Obviously this is a splurge – it’s not a necessity but I love the look and I think it makes our home feel more “classic” and less “2004 build.” I’ve been doing this slowly over years now and I won’t do every doorway – I doubt I’ll touch the basement for instance. But overall it’s changing the feel of our home and I love it!
Have you tried a similar look in your home? Do you love the classic white craftsman trim as much as I do? It’s not nearly as hard as I thought it would be!
I can't blame you Sarah, they look so much better than the non-chunky ones!
ReplyDeleteIt looks awesome!! Totally worth all the work pulling off the old trim :)
ReplyDeleteI love big trim in homes, it makes more of a statement.
ReplyDeletehttp://66.147.244.96/~yourinu7/2014/03/17/sugar-and-spic…h-little-girls
Ugh, our rental is full of skinny oak trim. I hate it! With a passion! I have a mental note that when we build our own home when we return to Australia in a year or two, there will be chunky trim everywhere! Painted glossy white!
ReplyDeleteI just did a post on my dining room trim. We're changing over all of our trim to craftsman style similar to this and so far have only done a handful of windows that we had replaced last year and the dining room door since we replaced that as well, but we added crown molding to it as well for an even more upgraded look. I love this style!
ReplyDeleteWe built our home a year ago and we have the "chunky" trim thru-out, a lot of it was standard, but I added more :) You will enjoy it so much!
ReplyDeleteLuv it! Such a statement.
ReplyDeleteLove the look! Adds so much character to your home.
ReplyDeleteWow amazing!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the chunkier look! I would like to do it in our home...yours looks amazing!:)
ReplyDeleteSo apparently, says google, boards aren't the same dimensions as stated because they are milled to those dimensions while the wood is still wet. So when they were cut they were in fact 1x4. During the drying process, the wood shrinks about 1/4-1/2 an inch, and then they aren't those dimensions anymore. But it's a lot easier to call it a 1x4 than a 3/4x3 1/2, so they don't change the name. Mystery Solved!
ReplyDeleteI love chunky trim too! My family owns an old house and chunky old maple trim abounds throughout the whole house. They are at least 8 inches in most places, when they aren't even bigger. It's in a luscious dark red-brown with tons of antique patina (does wood patina? who knows, but you know what I mean.) The grain is just beautiful too. They just don't make them like they used to. :D Great job recreating some of that classic vibe in your new house!
Looks amazing and so custom! Would you be willing to break down the costs of the various wood pieces, etc.? I was thinking of painting all our interior trim work white, as it is currently a cherry stain, but they are just the cheap, thin moldings. Love this look so much better and it sounds like it's not all that time-consuming.
ReplyDeleteThis is so gorgeous!!!
ReplyDeleteI like big trim and I cannot lie... :) It does look fantastic. I think it totally changed the look of a house. It makes it look like a very well built classic home. This is a detail with a HUGE impact!
ReplyDeleteWow, looks amazing! Great job tackling this. PS...Something that has nothing to do with your post, I'm a huge Dave Ramsey fan too! We're working on paying off our house right now!
ReplyDeleteGood luck! It changed our lives!
Deletechunky trim is the best. it is so impactful. i can't wait to see it with the black doors!
ReplyDeleteI swoon over white Craftsman trim and yours looks amazing! This is definitely on my to do list for when the rest of the rooms are presentable, so....maybe 2035? :)
ReplyDeleteLisa @ Double Door Ranch
http://www.doubledooranch.com
Around how much does each door cost you? if you don't mind me asking, I am looking to do this to my home. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI will have to find my receipt! The two side pieces are each part of eight foot boards, but two headers can be made from the eight foot pine for that, so that helps.
DeleteJust curious what you have for a nail gun? Am thinking of investing in one, but not sure exactly what to get. Want something useful not too wimpy, but don't need heavy duty either. Enjoy reading your posts. Wish more was getting done in my own home... sigh.
ReplyDeleteWhat color is the paint around the door?
ReplyDeleteIt's called Tornado Watch from Lowe's.
DeleteWho doesn't love all that gorgeous white chunky trim????
ReplyDeleteWe are doing a living room remodel and are replacing all the trim..everywhere...
we are even adding it around a large walk-thru doorway into the kitchen that currently has no trim..its just drywal...I'm so excited!
Does anyone find that white trim gets beat up/dirty or chip quickly? We are hoping to build next year and in recently talking to my uncle who works for a reputable upscale builder, that is the number one complaint they have on their houses lately. They offer a 1 year warranty on everything and that is what they get called back for. Wondering how much of a problem this is?
ReplyDeleteWith a young child ours has to be wiped down occasionally, but nothing too bad.
DeleteI agree that the chunkier trim updates your already beautiful home. Do you have a saw to do all of these projects? I love to work on my home but I haven't yet given in to power tools. I once trimmed out the large bathroom vanity mirror with pieces I had cut in the lumber dept. and then used a miter saw but need to do better. What a project you have. And... I know you've mentioned the black doors before and they will look wonderful!!!
ReplyDeleteLOVE.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering how much longer the 1x2 and the stop pieces are vs the 1x6?
Good question, I meant to mention that! I have those stick out about 1/4 inch on both ends, so a 1/2 inch longer total.
DeleteMakes perfect sense...thank you so much for the reply Sarah. :)
DeleteGorgeous! I guess this is a dumb question, but are you removing all 3 sides of the existing trim that the builder put in and replacing all of it? If so, is it hard to remove w/out tearing up your sheetrock? And knowing how DIY-ers repurpose everything, have you found any clever projects to do with the old trim? :)
ReplyDeleteI've shared this with my husband. He growled, but saw the beauty. My entry is where this treatment would enhance it so much. Fingers crossed!
ReplyDeleteabsolutely gorgeous!!
ReplyDeleteI really like it. It looks so much better. Hopefully, we will be able to do that in the future.
ReplyDeleteI love this! I also grew up with this style of woodwork - the house was dated 1800s. I just finished doing pretty much the same on an 8 ft. wide space between the dining room and living room in my home which had zero trim to start. Oh My Gosh! The visual illusion of making 8 ft. ceilings higher is amazing! I used the 1x6, 1x2, cove molding and lattice (which framed the "inside" where normally you would attach a door). Can't wait to do most of my doors & windows!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this look too!!! thanks for sharing. Amazing and beautiful!
ReplyDeleteSharon
Thank you for sharing- you have inspired me to try using power tools - I think I can...I think I can...this was exactly what I needed to help me get started! Susan M
ReplyDeleteI like this type of trim because I hate mitered corners. I did something similar, but I left off the top piece, and the piece where you used the stop, I bought stock with a rectangular profile and rounded both top and bottom edges with a router.
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