You may not live in a vintage home with an architectural pedigree, but you can give your house a history lesson — inside and out — with some new-fangled but old-fashioned ornamental embellishments.
Decorative moldings and millwork found on stately Victorians, Georgians and Colonials still are being made — though by machine now instead of by hand — and are as close as your local lumberyard, architect or remodeling contractor. All the cosmetic components you need to transform and add value to a timid tract house or run-of-the-mill ranch are easily accessible and relatively easy to install.
Crown a front door with a prefabricated cap, an elliptical or half-round fanlike “sunburst” or a classic ram’s head pediment. Frame the sides of a door or window with fluted pilasters or half-round columns. Top windows with decorative arches or mantels. Decorate dormers and gables with spoked gingerbread trim. Add corbels and brackets under the eaves or at the tops of porch posts, or finish fascias with crown molding or dentil molding.
All of these architectural components and hundreds more come in a variety of traditional and contemporary styles and standardized sizes and dimensions. Some can be installed over existing siding or window and door trim. In other cases, siding may have to be trimmed back or existing trim removed before being replaced with more decorative variations.
Polyurethane moldings
Most exterior and interior trim and millwork is made of wood, just as it has been for hundreds of years. One recent innovation, however, is the development of high-density polyurethane moldings that mimic the profiles of wood molding but are also waterproof, weather-resistant and impervious to rotting, warping, splintering, splitting and insect damage.
In addition to urethane moldings, manufacturers such as Style Solutions — 800-446-3040 or www.stylesolutionsinc.com — are now making fiberglass-reinforced polymer columns for use inside or out and in dozens of sizes and styles.
You can get manufacturers’ brochures and millwork catalogs through the mail, via the Internet or from your local lumberyard or home-improvement store. Use them to familiarize yourself with the styles, names and dimensions of architectural trim so you know what to ask for later. Also, study the houses and rooms in decorating, remodeling and home-building magazines. Compile a clipping file of facades, entryways, doors, windows and porches you find appealing.
If you’re going to do the job yourself, you can take your portfolio to a lumber dealer to get the components you’ll need. If you’re going to hire someone to do the work, your file will give an architect or remodeling contractor a good idea of what you have in mind.
Cost depends on who does the work, how much work there is to be done and how elaborate the trim is. Chances are that if you’re hiring a contractor, labor will cost more than materials. But it can cost as little as a few hundred dollars to trim out a front door on the outside or a dining room window on the inside. In terms of curb appeal alone, it’s often a justifiable expense.
Just avoid the temptation to overdo it. Too many wedding-cake frills can look obvious and contrived. Architectural embellishments work best when used with restraint. Their style, scale and proportions should be in sync with the style, scale and proportions of the house itself. Generally, it’s not a good idea to mix distinct styles from two different periods –Victorian with Arts and Crafts, say. Better to aim for harmony and continuity by using just one style from one historic period.
Subtle ornamentation
The objective is to add just enough delicate and subtle ornament to give your home some architectural character inside or out.
If you can afford to add architectural millwork all the way around the house, fine, but it’s often unnecessary. It may well be that creating an architecturally significant entryway with a paneled door, sidelights trimmed with vertical pilasters and maybe an elaborate carved-looking pediment overhead is all that the front of your home really needs to make it look substantial and inviting. The windows can keep the trim they have.
On the inside, however, you’ll want all the window and door trim in a given room to match. You can reserve the highly decorative moldings for the living or dining room and use plainer trims in the bedrooms and baths.
Another strategy is to do things in stages — this year, the front door, and next year, the windows. Finding a matching molding pattern later won’t be a problem. Classic molding profiles have been around for hundreds of years, and dimensions have been standardized for decades. So you can start and stop an interior or exterior trim project as the spirit moves you and your budget allows.
Putting on what the builder left off is a way to bestow grace, charm and architectural worthiness on visually malnourished doors and windows without having to go to the expense of replacing the doors and windows themselves.
