What does a woodworker’s house trim look like?
hello FWW,
I’m building a house and contemplating custom trim options. Has anyone done any bespoke trim/casing on their house or does everyone buy pre-milled stock at the store and put their efforts elsewhere? I’ve found it hard to find examples and think maybe there’s a good reason for that. I’m contemplating a baseboard made up of red birch, with a small walnut cap on top with a chamfer and a rabbet at the bottom (also possibly a rabbet at the bottom of the base, but I never see this done). Would a box joint at outside corners be a cool detail or just look silly? I’ve never seen it. I’m also considering building out window jambs/casings with pocket holes and flush casings similar to a picture frame/mirror but it seems that generally all casings are done much the same way. Am I setting myself up for issues if I attempt flush casings built this way? Thanks for any advice.
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If you are like almost every other woodworker, the fun is in the planning and the doing the job. Once. Very few woodworkers have the patience to make multiple identical items and trimming out a house involves doing just that. Over, and over again.
If that rocks your boat then go for it, but don't say I didn't warn you!
That having been said, custom woodwork can definitely improve a house. I am too lazy to do the sort of thing you are planning, and in any case prefer a plain background against which I place an awful lot of very old cheap furniture and a few really nice cheap local artworks, but if you were ever looking for an excuse to buy a REALLY nice thickness planer or jointer (Have a look at the Hammer A3 41) then you can 'earn' at least some of the cost back by using it to mill up the hundreds of feet of boards you will need.
Every wall of every room +20% for waste, repairs and changes.
I would only ask, do you have to work for a living? If time is the one thing you have in abundance go for it. Of course that also assumes their is no better half, stewing to live in her/his new house not a construction zone.
All the trim in my house is made in my shop. The basement is mahogany with fumed oak lining, my wife’s studio is cherry, the house entrance is birds eye maple trimmed with walnut and the living room is walnut mid-century modern style and all that involves door and window trim also.
I can attest to the time involved. (I'm retired, so I have the time.) I used 1x4 red oak for the casings on all 22 windows as well as casings for the doors and closets, as well as a complete replacement of the baseboards around a 1600 sq. ft. house. I spent an average of 4 hours per day for the better part of 6-8 months. I ran through a couple of thousand linear feet of wood. It was so much easier buying the wood already milled. You will save time with premilled lumber. This way you can put more of your efforts in more fine woodworking projects.
I have redone window, door, and floor trim in four rooms in our house. All of the trim in the shop. I used poplar or off the shelf stuff, made sure the joints were as good as possible. Nothing in this place is level or square. I filled where I could not get a good fit, painted everything. It all depends on what you think is important. IMHO I do not think using expensive wood or elaborate trim profiles would increase the resale value of our house one thin dime. What do you want to spend your $ and time on.
I've redone the whole house except for some doorways I saved and restored. I used stock trim moulding profiles in varying combinations, but bought rough stock to make the baseboards in varying heights and thicknesses.
Off the rack baseboards are like 3/4" lumber...you notice it's custom because it is NOT that. I put extra attention and work into details and transitions. A little over the top fancy where it will actually be seen can elevate the whole job.
In the 2 bedrooms destined for carpet I shimmed everything 3/8" off the floor so the installer could tuck the edges.
Do you guys have any pictures you can share? I haven't found much by googling, everything tends to be the same. I suppose trim by its nature is meant to be ignored. Definitely not doing it for a return on investment. I view it more as a hobby that I can admire every day I live in my house. The guy that spent 4 hours a day for 7 months is very concerning though... I've done some trim in my previous house, but perhaps I didn't fully grasp my time commitment if it takes 840 hours of work just for trim for a house. Given labor rates here, that would be roughly $50,000 if you paid someone to do it! I'm hoping to keep it simple though, presurfaced S3S and do simple chamfers and rabbets, so hopefully that will go quickly. Can anyone think of a reason not to do rabbets at the bottom of the base? It seems it would reduce the need to scribe out uneven surfaces, but I've never seen that in a baseboard profile. I think my wife is used to my ongoing projects at this point:)
Why not mock up a small bit and double-stick tape it in an obvious place.
If you love it then go for it. No reason not to - it's your house after all.
I would second the no-added-value thing though with one caveat - if you pick a really dating or eclectic design that will actually put some people off, it will possibly slightly reduce resale value, though that should never be the main driver of home alterations. You don't want to live in someone else's tastes just in case you want to sell. Get over it. Do your thing.
I look at the things I have done in my homes with an I-did-that sense of job-well-done pride. That might be worth the effort.
Some photos...
wow, nice!
Buying pre-surfaced stock will certainly cut the time involved significantly. The initial milling of rough stock is a real time killer. Although I will point out baseboard is not typically 3/4". With a lifetime of home construction and remodeling behind me I have installed a fair amount of trim. Door casing is usually 3/4" thick and baseboards 5/8" this leaves a small 1/8" reveal that serves to both visually separate the two and prevent any alignment issues where the two meet. Now you can achieve the same results by incorporating a plith block into your molding design made from thicker stock, usually 7/8" but you could use 1". The plith block would enable you to use the 3/4" stock for both the base and the casing saving a lot of milling time.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by rabbetting the bottom? And why you feel you will need to scribe for uneven surfaces? It's a new house so all the surfaces should be relatively flat and smooth. If your thought is to put a rabbet on the front face at the bottom for some reason don't do it, all you will accomplish is to create a giant dust canyon that no vacuum or broom will ever be able to reach.
It all depends on the time, money, and skill available, as well as the significant other's tolerance for living in an unfinished house. Sam Maloof's house took forty years to build and is a now national landmark. I would have lost the wife at about the two year point, even if I had the skill.
One thing I would like to add is whether you see yourself building custom furniture to sit against some or many walls and how potentially detailed hardwood trim might add or take away from that furniture.
Also, do you tend to like white/cream walls or are you a family that usually paints colourful rooms?
All these factors will affect your choice of trim. I built our trim from various poplar boards stacked and then painted to create the header, side casing and sill.
Some amazing homes (like Sam and Wharton Esherick) have simple white or cream walls and beautiful hardwood trim and it looks amazing. So your homes overall style will come into play in this decision as well as your desire to build furniture, vanities and possibly a hardwood kitchen within the house as well?
I find it’s difficult to combine more than 3 wood tones without things looking overly busy.
white-ish paint for most rooms. hardwood wall cabinets, painted cabinets on kitchen island. yes multiple wood types may look busy... hard to tell as it's not very common. I am planning on 3 types of wood - white oak, red birch, and walnut throughout the house. I custom made solid walnut doors, so I'm hoping it goes well with birch casings. walnut casings for the windows is tempting...
I did see someone do walnut trim on youtube, looked pretty nice imho. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nipqoYtr0_s&t=566s
@gulfstar Sounds awesome. I'd love a snapshot or two. I think bringing our own designs into the home is a big advantage of the craft. Extending that design to trim, light fixtures and such is a bonus.
I wish I could and searched in my iPad for pictures but that will have to wait at least another month, I have been sailing in US waters for the last month and preparing the boat before that, crossing Back to Canada will cost me another flight and test so I am living on the boat until the US opens the frontier . In the mean time, I can show some trim of the boat, teak and Rosewood ?
nice work, sounds like you are living the dream.
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Once saw a high end home being trimmed. The casing was all assembled on a bench with pocket screws and the assembly fitted to the windows. I guess it goes without saying that the windows have to be built to the same standards of accuracy.
did it look like it was worth the hassle?
Cobblers children here.... My house and my projects always come last.
I've done all kinds of trim in other folks' houses though. Everything from awful clamshell ranch casings and baseboards to stacked multi-piece crown.
If expediency is important, buy the trim ready-made. If pride of home is important, you can go either way. Also, styles will have a big impact on my choices for trim sources.
If you live back East, and your home is a Colonial, the classics are all available about anywhere. I would tend to buy from a lumber yard, and not a big box store. Usually you can get them in several different species as well as paint grade.
My current home drives me nuts... The outside is a 'faux Craftsman'. It's a modern built house, with a lot of Craftsman details on the outside. But, inside? Inside it's a mishmash of Colonial and some kinda modern stuff. It gives me the heebie jeebies.... It's so bad that in the living room, we have cathedral ceilings, 23' tall.... and 2 3/4" baseboard, that's more profile, than field. It's terrible.
My hope is that in the next couple of years, I can actually turn the inside into an homage to the Greene and Greene Style. Since this is the home my wife and I plan to be carried out feet first from, these projects will hit the top of the priority list before too long...
I will recommend a book that I found to be outstanding, for ideas and techniques.
Trimwork, by Jay Silber.
This helped me lay out, calculate and fabricate wainscoting and boxes on a stairway at our previous house. Without it I would have still been sitting on the stairs digging through a 50 year old trig book.
I used that book many years ago, for the same purpose. I recommend it as well.
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