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Adding Architectural Details

© Barbara Nicholson Bell

Recently I watched an HGTV program called "Decorating Cents", a half-hour show in which the host and a decorator transform a room for under $500 and in a day's time. These rooms are in typical middle-class American homes, so we're not talking big budgets and cutting-edge design. Nonetheless the techniques, materials and design theory are useful to everyone, no matter how big and fancy or small and ordinary their rooms might be.

The decorating idea that caught my attention was the addition of faux "columns" in the corner of a kitchen to visually set apart a small dining area. The decorator used 1"x8" planks to which she attached simple crown molding at the top, to represent the column's capital, and baseboard molding at the bottom. The plank "columns" were painted white, and attached to the wall on the left and right sides. They "popped out" against the wall which was painted a deep pumpkin orange.

Many homes built since the 1960s have no crown molding which was so popular in the first half of the century. Wood baseboards disappeared in favor of vinyl cove molding which is pliable, inexpensive, and easy to install.

Window sills shrank from a nice size for a houseplant or two, to a narrow nonfunctional strip of wood. Door frames no longer boasted corner medallions, and ceilings which once featured beams, embossed tin, stylish papers or plaster filigree, instead turned into acoustic tile or "popcorn" sprayed-on finishes. Ugh...

Wouldn't you like to return your home to the warmth and style of an earlier time? It isn't as difficult as you think. Different kinds of molding can be used creatively to spark change in your room. You need not even spend a lot of money on wood molding, because now there are molded plastic copies of the most intricate Victorian designs which are lightweight and paintable. Molding can be used around the top of the wall at the ceiling line, as a chair rail, to frame windows, create shelving, even picture frames.

An afternoon spent rummaging around the yard of an architectural salvage firm can turn up fireplace surrounds and mantels, old doors, fixtures and hardware, claw-foot tubs and pedestal sinks, multi-paned windows, stairway parts, wrought iron gates and fencing, kitchen cabinets, lighting, plumbing parts, restorable stoves and iceboxes, bricks and pavers, ceramic tiles, and so on. Every era of American design, but most commonly the 19th century, will be represented. You can find online wholesale and retail architectural salvage resources as well. Keep in mind that reproductions are not necessarily cheaper than the originals, although they might be more available or can be custom designed to your needs.