Hi Hamptonmeadow.

I feel your pain. Moldings are one of the most misunderstood--and, consequently, worst designed--features of most new construction. Part of that comes from ignorance on the part of builders and, sad to say, part of it comes from architects who went to school during the ascendancy of the stripped-down, functional Modern style, and who, as a result, never learned how to construct a traditionally correct molding. Now they're playing catch up, and throwing together willy-nilly a lot of stuff that doesn't go, but they get by with that kind of potluck detailing because a lot of their well-heeled clients are just as ignorant as their builders are about such niceties as history & proportion & suitablity, so they accept what they're given without a peep. And, apparently, the more of it the better.

In the mid-Nineteenth Century, every builder with a more than a few years' experience could build an attractive traditionally-styled house, and they did so without ever going to any architecture school. For most of that period, the United States didn't even have any architectural schools of its own, but it didn't matter, because widely available pattern books made sure that Bob the Builder could as easily build a fashionable Greek Revival or Italianate house as he could a simple barn or chicken coop out back. It was just a matter of following the rules, and in most cases, the process was as foolproof as making a cake out of a Bety Crocker box.

One of my family's houses--5 or 6 generations back--is a massive Italianate pile that stands out in the middle of a Central Illinois cornfield ten miles south of a sleepy little town of 7,000 people. The rooms are lofty & well-proportioned, the black walnut trim--from trees in the woods nearby--is handsome & substantial, and its solid brick walls are just as strong as they were when Abraham Lincoln was still working the county circuit. What's amazing--apart from its severe, weathered beauty, like a midwestern Andrew Wyeth painting--is the fact that it was built by a local builder who never went beyond grade school.

These days, I see million dollar town homes that have to rely on eye-popping color schemes to distract from the erratically grained finger-jointed paint-grade trim that somebody made the mistake of staining, or windows and doors with trim that--like yours--is scrawny & underscaled, and which problem becomes worse as rooms keep getting bigger & ceilings get higher, or rooms with atrocious built-up trim that somebody with no understanding of proportion slapped together in the mistaken belief that more is always better, and ended up with, say, the mantel version of "Pimp My Ride". So be really careful if you're thinking about adding on to your trim: you don't want your trim to end up looking like that.

Traditional trims have specific profiles & specific uses, and although this is a free country and we're all therefore free to use them anyplace we want and any way we want, that doesn't make it right. In the same way that a six-inch bullion fringe that would look great on a big down sofa and that might also work in a pinch--I say 'might'--to lengthen a set of curtains that came back from the cleaners a tad too short would look odd on a throw pillow and downright silly used as trim on a dress (Scarlett O'Hara notwithstanding), so would a chair rail pressed into service as an impromptu doorway & window trim extender.
As Belle Watling would say, "It would be fittin'."

And here's why: those people who would be likely to diagnose the existing trim as underscaled in the first place would also be the first to notice the makeshift nature of the cure, and those who wouldn't see any problem with a chair rail used incorrectly--and in these days of 'There are no rules, anymore', there would be plenty-- wouldn't be likely to notice the problem with the skinny existing moldings in the first place.

Anyway, if you can't afford to replace all the offending trim in your house, you might just do so in one or two of the public rooms, and wait on the other areas until your budget allows. That way, at least, it would demonstrate that you are already aware of the problem--the builder's taste, not yours--and are in the process of correcting it. And, since you're going to be painting the trim anyway, you can use less-expensive MDF molding--in the correct proprotions & profiles--and get a better finish on the hard-milled surface of the MDF than you could on open grain oak, anyway. Not only that, but you can do it at a lower cost and with a lot less effort than filling & sanding the existing skinny trim to eliminate the see-through grain.

The main advantage to doing it this way, rather than using a chair rail where it doesn't belong, is the solution won't be worse than the problem. It's like what happened to me the other day. I went to lunch right before I was scheduled to go to a meeting where I was on a planning committee with some heavy hitters around town. And, of course, being as clumsy as I am, I managed to get a big glob of salad dresing on my tie and had no time to go shopping for a new one before the meeting. A woman in the group offered to give me the tie she had just bought for her husband. It was a kind gesture, but the tie was cheap & ghastly, and there was no way in hell I'd be caught wearing it. But it would have been rude to say so, so I gracioulsy accepted her kind gift--and it was a very thoughtful gesture--but I went ahead and wore the stained tie to the meeting. I figured that in a profession like mine, and among a group like that, sloppiness was a sin that could be forgiven, but an error in taste wasn't.

Meanwhile, get yourself a copy of Edith Wharton's book, "The Decoration of Houses" which is crammed with good common-sense advice that's every bit as timely as it was when it was written more than a century ago. Here's what Edith had to say about the same topic of the correct use of moldings:

"Another thing which has perhaps contributed to making people distrustful of styles is the garbled form in which they are presented by some architects. After a period of eclecticism that has lasted long enough to make architects and decorators lose their traditional habits of designÂonly the most competent are ready to respond to this unexpected summons. Much has to be learned, still more to be unlearned. In fact, in such matters the cultivated layman, whether or not he has any special familiarity with the different schools of architecture, is often a better judge than the half-educated architect. It is no wonder that people of taste are disconcerted by the so-called "colonial" houses where stair-rails are used as roof balustrades and mantelpiece friezes as exterior entablatures."

Regards,
MAGNAVERDE.

That may be my single most favorite forum rant ever. Thanks, magnaverde.

And what's more it is absolutely right. I played around with various moldings and all of them look like the village idiot had cobbled them together. So I will follow your advice and do the public roooms and work on the others as finances permit.

It drives me to near implosion to see the new house lack of grace. They are so poorly designed. Fireplaces in odd places, with giant tv holes above them, doors that are not balanced with other features in the room, and rooms that are so tiny one begins to feel like a rat in a maze.
I wish I could go around to every builder and explain what people really want. What scares me is the longer these faux pas are acceptable they eventually become fashionable. The best example being snout houses.
So off to find an appropriate molding.

I have to ask: What's a "snout house?"

A house with a garage as the main architectural feature, as in sticking out in front of the house.

Unfortunately I am buying a townhouse with this lovely outcropping.

It seems just about all "affordable" new construction houses have them.

The room where I am sitting right now has 7 1/2 inch wide mouldings built up of 4 different pieces. The first 3 are layered on top of each other and the fourth is a 1 1/4 by 3 1/4 inch bull nosed trim piece applied around the outside at a right angle to the wall.

There are a lot of ways to do it. But the trim has to be proportional to the room and appropriate for the period of your house. Study a lot of examples before you actually go ahead.

Try a real lumberyard for decent molding.
Oak is pretty easy to get ahold of, other hardwoods can be run for you. Expect to pay a couple hundred for a setup charge and then per ft, so try and buy all you need.
There are also many 'standard' patterns that any lumber yard can order, but minimum orders are still likely to occur.
A router table and a table saw will allow you to make small runs of most patterns. Larger paterns need a spindle shaper and the cutters run $100-$400 each.
If you want painted trim you can make it from poplar (best) or pine (not as good but OK). Either produce good trim and are available.
Watch out for trim at bog box stores. Most is undersized since it was made from standard sized lumber. The baseboards are typically about 5/8 thick instead of the older 3/4 inch standard. Even the quarter round is reduced in size from the old 3/4 inch size to 5/8.
In the Washington DC area there are a number of vendors who have been in business a very very long time (from the 1780s) and they pride themselves on still making pieces to match the Federalist townhouses in Alexandria, VA. It is not cheap, but they will exactly match a pattern over 200 years old.