Shame on us.  We haven’t shared a trim tutorial in quite some time.  What were we thinking?  Obviously, we weren’t.  How would you like to see our master bedroom and bathroom trim?

Let’s get started.  We (well, Ben) started with 4 foot by 8 foot MDF sheets.  One that is 3/4 inches thick and another that is 1 inch thick.  He cut tons of 2 inch wide strips, several 3 and 5 inch wide pieces out of the 3/4 sheet.  Then, he cut 1 1/2 inch wide pieces from the 1 inch thick MDF sheet.

To start, we installed the 5 inch baseboard around the perimeter of the room.  Then, we started placing the 2 inch wide verticals, placing one centered on each wall.  From there, the verticals have 12 inches of wall space before the next edge.  The horizontals are also spaced 12 inches from edge to edge.  With the grid in place, we added the three-inch wide top rail, capped off with a 1 1/2 inch deep by 1 inch thick piece, to finish it off.

Now, onto the tricky parts, the doors and windows.  Ben had the idea to install lights above each window and door in our master bedroom.

Door and window casement starts out the same as the rest.  Rather than a piece of casement at the top, we’ve added three trim pieces.  First, a piece of 1 inch thick MDF, cut into strips and routered for a decorative edge.  Then, a piece of 3/4 inch thick MDF cut into 6 1/2 inch widths.  The tricky part was cutting the crown to fit against walls; both doors nearly touch the wall.  For Ben, the easiest way to tackle this obstacle was cutting, gluing, and nailing the crown to the flat trim, leaving a 4 1/2 inch reveal.  After the glue had set, Ben cut the pieces to size, installing the whole piece over the routered rail.

The lights tuck neatly inside the crown, glowing at night.

That concludes our current home’s trim treatments.  Anything else you want to know before closing day?