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1915foursquare

1915 door trim?

7 years ago

We have a 1915 Foursquare. The original trim is still present in the hallway (see photo) but was removed from the bedrooms in the 50s. Would the door and baseboard trim in the rooms match the trim in the hallway, or be simpler? Can you point me to any examples for inspiration? Thanks!

Comments (5)

  • 7 years ago




  • 7 years ago

    Sometimes trim is simpler upstairs than in public parts of the house. In our house I used cherry downstairs and painted poplar upstairs, but the same pattern both places. Ceilings were lower upstairs so I used a 6" base in place of the 8" downstairs.

    I'd keep it the same in the rooms off a hallway. You have a very nice example in your photos that looks to be quite easy to replicate-- mostly built-up from flat boards. I'd just continue it through the rooms.

    Isaac thanked rwiegand
  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    I have a 1912 Craftsman bungalow and all the doorways originally had matching trim almost identical to yours. The crown is missing in a few areas, and we plan to replace it with a near-match from Anderson. Ours has been painted liberally over the decades by previous occupants, and we're not about to strip it.

    Isaac thanked Libby Estell
  • 7 years ago

    In both my old homes the trim was the same throughout the house.

    Isaac thanked cpartist
  • 7 years ago

    What you have would have been considered fairly simple and typical for the day (though the two stepped design in the jamb casing and the plinth block is unique and very interesting), so I would expect the same to have shown up in bedrooms. In most old homes that I have seen from the early 20th century, there may sometimes be a downgrade in profiles from first floor public space to everywhere else, but once you get to the upstairs hall, you would already be looking at the "downgraded" style. The only places where you would have found more basic trim would be in the closets and basement.


    In our 1920s house the same profiles and wood species were used everywhere, including the kitchen and back hall, but not the basement. The only thing that changes is that the public rooms have a substantial 7" crown, while the bedrooms and some of the first floor rooms have a more modest 3.5" crown. Since I have yet to see anything of these profiles anywhere else, it could have been a custom design for the house. But this is in an architect designed house for a upper-middle class family; not everyone had the money to spend on areas that no casual guest would ever see..


    I would do your best to replicate what you see in the hallway in each of the rooms.

    Isaac thanked A Fox