This week for Building 101 I’m sharing everything you need to know about trim profiles. If you’re building, your trim line item on your budget usually includes features like picture moulding, shiplap, wainscoting and bead-board just to name a few. Don’t think it means just door and window trim or you could easily go over budget!

For our home I wanted a minimal trim profile. I didn’t want the craftsman style door & window casings that are super popular right now for two reasons. 1- that would just mean more dusting and 2- I wanted it to feel a little fresher and more modern with a simplified profile. We also added plinth blocks to all of our doorways. I love how it elevates our trim and creates a more appealing transition from baseboard to door casing. If you have multiple windows together to create a feature window, I recommend trimming them out as one large window instead of individually. You can see how we trimmed out our dining room windows below.

We chose Metrie baseboards, door and window casings. For our base we used both sizes depending on location and ceiling height. Downstairs I wanted chunky base to help ground our tall ceilings so we went with the 7 1/4″. In the rest of the house we used the 5 1/2″ to help save money. For our door and window casings we used the 3 1/2″ size so they wouldn’t be too chunky. We did not use the 4 1/2″ size.
TIP: Consider your trim size and profile well before install, especially when deciding light switch and outlet placement. I had not made a trim selection when we did our electrical walk through and a few our of switches had to be moved because there was not enough room for trim.

During our build we added some features to a few of our spaces. We shiplapped our fireplace, mudroom area, and a few small features in our kitchen, added a peg wall to the locker room, board and batten to the powder bath, and shiplap to the boy’s bathroom. I guess we added more than I thought… haha!

Finish carpentry is expensive so we kept it minimal and have since added a lot more millwork to our home. We added board and batten to Kate’s room, bead-board to Ben’s (though still mid-project), made custom sized vertical shiplap planks in our primary bedroom, and added vertical shiplap to our laundry room. I still have a lot more millwork planned too, so stay tuned for that! I will be sharing as much as I can on the projects we’ve already tackled.

One way we saved money on trim is by doing what’s called a 3/4 drywall wrap to the windows in the kids’ bedrooms. That means 3 of the 4 sides do not have trim, and only has a window sill. We decided this would be an easy place to save money on material and labor, especially since I knew I would be adding window treatments that would likely cover the trim anyway.

That wraps it up for Building 101 this week. I hope you’re closer to learning everything you need to know about trim. I will update this post as I share these easy DIY wall treatments. In the meantime, you can find more Building 101 topics here.