subject: Sprucing Up Your New Home With Moldings [print this page] While many homes on the market right now are newly finished homes, there are always many more that are older, in need of renovations, or are just a little run down and in need of some TLC. While many home owners paint their houses before they put them on the market to attract more buyers, moldings and trim arent often installed as an accent just for sales, or if they are existing in the home they often need replacing.
Whether the interior of your new home needs a painting or just a finished look, trim and molding can provide a great finish to your home. There are many types of molding that you can choose from, depending on how formal of an atmosphere you want and how much you want to spend on the project. Molding can be made from a variety of materials; wood is the most common but they are also available in vinyl and composite materials as well. If you are going to paint your trim then either wood or composite types are fine; vinyl baseboards come coloured and are generally used in informal and high traffic types of areas like kitchens and laundry rooms.
Baseboards are the most commonly used trim used in homes; baseboards come in a sculpted style or in plain varieties as well. If you want to have an unpainted baseboard then you will need to buy wood ones but if you are just going to paint them then you can buy whichever kind suits your needs best.
Crown moldings are a type of trim that you install around the top of the wall against the ceiling.They can be fairly simple or very ornate and as with baseboards are often painted in a contrasting colour to show them off. Crown molding is often used in living and dining rooms because they are a more formal type of embellishment. They can make a striking addition to a kitchen or a master bedroom suite as well.
Some other types of trim that you will see less commonly are chair and picture rails. Chair rails can be a nice addition to a dining area because they will protect the wall from the backs of the chairs denting them if theyre pushed back too far. A picture rail is an even rarer occurrence and can be used in any room that you hang pictures in; it can be as simple as a chair rail or more ornate and is placed closer to the ceiling than a chair rail. A picture rail incorporates hooks to hang pictures from using wire or ribbons; this type of set up was made popular during the Victorian era and lends a rich element to living rooms or offices.
No matter what type of molding you use in your new home, you can be sure that it will lend a polished, finished look to the interior of your home.
