molding

We used the same vertical grain fir that we used on our window trim.  I found Mr. Plywood to be a great place to buy fir, as they have a nice selection of “shorts” that are about 1/2 the per foot price of custom lengths.  Since most of the shorts are 6-8′, they work out perfectly for door and baseboard trim.  It’s a (relatively) cheap way to get fir trim.  Even though this is VGF while the original woodwork in the rest of our house is flat-grain, it still has a very authentic and original look once it’s stained.

This is what our trim looked like after staining.  We were extremely fortunate that the Minwax Cherry stain on the fir trim and windows was an almost exact match to the stain on our cabinets.  It really helps tie the room together, and it didn’t require any customizing of the stain, like we had to do on the living and dining room windows.

We completed the window and door trim and the wainscotting.  We modeled the wainscotting design to mimic that of the dining room.  We are very fortunate to have McCoy Millwork here in Portland, from which we bought the cove/crown moulding for the tops of the windows and doors.  While not an exact match for the house’s original moulding, it is very similar and adds a strong dose of authenticity to the appearance of our bathroom (and kitchen, too).  You cannot buy trim like this at Home Depot or Lowe’s.

We  purchased a new Milgard window, because the old one was completely falling apart.  While we try to reuse as much as possible, sometimes it’s just not all that practical.  If the old window had had any aesthetic or vintage value, we would have put more effort into saving it.  Since it was a complete mess, we felt better about installing a new, energy efficient Marvin window.  We used Marvins for all our downstairs replacement windows, since the wood interior trim goes very well with our house.  The no-maintenance aluminum exteriors actually look quite good and will hold up well over time.

It was very encouraging to see these things go in.  It makes you feel like there actually is light at the end of the tunnel.

Julio holds up a piece of the moulding.  This was another great moulding from McCoy Millwork.  It has a nice, simple angular design that really fit well with the Craftsman aesthetic of the house.  It would not have been appropriate to install anything curved or frilly in this kitchen.  The angle is later mirrored in the window/door trim, as well as the piece on top of the cabinets.  We got a great color match with our cabinets with one of the stock Minwax stains, plus a satin poly finish.

Because the price difference was huge, we chose to use hemlock instead of fir for this moulding.  Like so many other details, it became much less noticeable once the whole room was put together.  Even though it doesn’t really match the trim in our other rooms, the “feel” is the same, so nobody ever notices.