Adding Trim and Crown Moulding

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.

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. 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.

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.