Molding, Trim and Shutters, Oh My!

Sometimes smaller projects can really enhance a room. To complete the look in our living room, David installed crown molding. This was his first time doing crown molding and it took him a while. This project was difficult because the corners aren’t 90 degree angles, but slightly off. When you have an old house, the walls aren’t going to be perfect, making things a little more complex. Also, because of the layout of our living room, he needed to make a lot of cuts.

Lots of angles

David had to make special cuts on the wall with the windows to accommodate for the curved bow front wall. This project was a learning experience. In the end it turned out good, but it took a few tries to get all of the angles correct.

Another challenge was figuring out a way to install the crown molding on the brick wall. It couldn't just be nailed into the brick like it is on drywall. David developed a clever solution and decided to install a "shoe" on the brick that the crown molding could attach to. He used 1 x 3 plywood and screwed it into the mortar right where the bottom of the crown molding would hit. Then he used a nail gun to nail the top of the crown molding to the ceiling and the bottom of the molding to the shoe.

I like the molding because it helps tie the brick wall into the other walls in the living room for a cohesive look.

To fill in the areas where there were gaps because of the cuts in the molding he added some caulk and then primed and painted all of the molding so that it would blend in.

David also replaced the trim around the door since we now had the transom that needed to be outlined. He used corner rosette and fluted molding. This look is a throw back to the Victorian era. I think the border adds some nice detail to the door.

Corner Rosettes with fluted casing.

Finished door casing.

David matched the window trim to the trim around the door. He wants to make all of the windows and doors in our house uniform eventually.

Finished window trim. Sad paper blinds.

David found used shutters from Community Forklift and installed them on the lower half of our living room windows. This allows for us to open them when we want some light (or to let Stevie peak outside) or close them for privacy. They look much nicer than the paper blinds we were using. We eventually upgraded to cordless top down, bottom up shades on the top half of the windows because, well we are real adults and needed to get real blinds.

Repurposed Shutters.

Here are some pictures of the finished window trim, crown molding and door trim. These elements add some dimension to our living room.

New Adult Blinds.

Finished transom and door trim.

Finished crown molding.

Brick wall with crown molding added.