Molding Myths

Molding Myth #1
All of the moldings should be exactly the same in every room in the house.

Busted!
This only holds true for "trimming" tract homes. One bundle of trim is dropped off at the job site and installed everywhere! This has been going on for pert near 100 years now, and by golly it's got to stop!

While you certainly don't want a hodgepodge of patterns either, there's a little thing called, architectural subordination, that can help you guide your choices.

Architectural subordination means that the most important rooms receive the most important architectural details. Traditionally, the order of importance is;

Foyer--where you greet your guests
Dining Room--where you dine with your quests
Parlor--where you entertain your guests
Guest Bathroom--well, you know

Do you see the trend? Think back to all of those lovely old houses you've toured. If the original budget to build the house was of the "spare no expense" kind, then yes, all the rooms will be grand. But even turn of the century industrial barons had budgets to constrain their choices.

So maybe your Foyer gets a large ogee crown molding, wall frames and wainscoting. But the hallway gets a smaller ogee crown molding and a nice, but subordinated baseboard.

Molding Myth #2
Paint the moldings before you install them.

Busted!
This is true only if you don't care if your new moldings look really nice. The installation of quality, paint-grade moldings is an execise in a step-wise process from a rough state, to molding perfection. The very last of all of those steps is painting. In between there is much spackling, sanding, priming and maybe more spackling, sanding and priming. If you have a coat of paint allready on the moldings, especially if it's latex paint, refining your finish work to acceptable standards is all but impossible.

The worst case is if you pre-paint with latex paint. Latex does not sand well at all. If you try to sand out an imperfection in your molding surface, you will mostly just mar the surface more. If insist on painting your moldings first, then at least use a good oil paint (they sand nicely when fully cured), and only use one coat. Save your final finish coat for the very last.

Cheers, Ken