First, I have to say thank you to everyone for all your kind comments and overwhelming response to our new kitchen island. I'm still a little speechless...I've never received this kind of response to any of my projects, so I'm quite beside myself, really. Amazing.
Speaking of amazing and Craftwood Lumber and Hardware {nice transition, eh?}, I thought you should know that we spent the better part of the weekend at their store. Looking at trim. That's right, trim.
Speaking of amazing and Craftwood Lumber and Hardware {nice transition, eh?}, I thought you should know that we spent the better part of the weekend at their store. Looking at trim. That's right, trim.
Ok, so perhaps I was naive going into this little project, I can admit that now. I simply had no idea how many options were out there. We've wondered the aisles of Home Depot and Lowe's before, assessing their options, but nothing could have prepared us for this. At first glance, there seemed to be a bigger selection at Craftwood, which is why we choose to use them instead of hitting up our standard go-to places, like Lowes.
Bigger selection turned out to be an understatement. There were more options tucked into these two walls than I can even begin to tell you about. But, this is good, because the Mister and I had a really, really hard time agreeing on trim. Let me just stress -really, hard time. It was not pretty. There was a lot of arguing, eye rolling and muttering, but thankfully we got through it and came away with a final decision. Almost 2 hours later - yikes!
Here are a couple of tips I came away with:
1. There is no right vs. wrong combination. Go with what is aesthetically pleasing to you. Unless of course, you are trying to put crown on the floor, or something else equally as silly. But honestly, everytime I asked the sales guy if this is a combination people usually do, he would just look at me and repeat, there is no right or wrong. If you like it, then go for it. It took awhile, but eventually it sank in.
2. Consider what you are working with - wonky existing trim, walls, floors, angles and levels {we had all of the above}. When we discovered that we couldn't match the bit of decorative trim above our baseboard, we decided to remove it, leaving only the 88 year old flat baseboard. That board was not in the best of shape, but it had character and we didn't really want to scrap it. But working with it had to be taken into consideration. Our new trim piece needed to be flexible, have good coverage, and be willing to play well with others. Ultimately, we picked a panel moulding that notched out to cover the baseboard, solving a lot of the existing gaps with the warped baseboard. Bonus.
3. Lay out all your options together to create patterns that work for you. Keep playing around with it until you get the result you want. This was probably the most helpful and most frustrating part of the selection process. I'd do something I liked, then Mr. DD would do something he liked. Very rarely did they coincide. Once we decided on the notched piece shown above, things kind of started falling in place, but in the end, it was all about compromise.
4. Don't be afraid to layer your moulding pieces to create a custom look. Yes, it's a lot more work for install, but chances are you'll be getting a look you won't see at your neighbors house! It's kind of hard to tell, but this is actually four separate trim pieces combined to get a custom look. Never be afraid to think outside the box!
5. Know where to splurge and where to cut back. As much as I loved working with Craftwood, I also realized that their moulding wasn't exactly super affordable. So in the end, and with a heavy heart, we returned the non-decorative boards we purchased from them. We headed over to Home Depot to pick up the standard boards for $150 less. Yes, it meant two trips and more driving and wasted time, but a savings of $150 is no laughing matter. We all know how important it is to shop around.
We're hoping we selected moulding that will be easy to work with as well as give us the beefed up board and batten look that we're after. If you'd like to see some of my inspiration images for creating our custom moulding look, check out my board and batten board on Pinterest, by clicking here.
Spoiler Alter: we've started in on our moulding installation and should have some good pictures to share later in the week, so stop on back by.
Spoiler Alter: we've started in on our moulding installation and should have some good pictures to share later in the week, so stop on back by.
until next time,
