Advice for laying out trim/moulding

12 years ago

I'd love to replicate this look but I have no idea how to lay the trim out. I have a small gallery wall display that would need to be incorporated, a stair case and a rounded nook at the staircase. My house is a new build and I'm a slow decorator.ceilings are 9". Eventually I'll have more on the walls. Looking for advice from someone who has successfully done this. The picture attached is one that I found on Houzz from Nest Design Studio and I am obsessed with. Absolutely love it.

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Gantt's Decorating

12 years ago

What you have fallen in love with is called Field and Style treatment. It gets kit's name from the old english word for fence-style- and of course the field the fence encloses. I especially like to use this effect in 2 storey ceiling foyers. It makes the area more formal and breaks the large wall into spaces more easily digested visually. It is traditionally the way these oversized spaces were dealt with. To do a treatment like this yourself, you need a tape measure a ruler and 1/4" scale grid paper. One wall at a time measure and draw on your grid paper each element of the wall. I usually do my plans in 1'2" scale . So in 1/2 scale if your ceilings are 8' you will show them as 4" on your grid paper. A calculator is handy to have as well. If your ceiling is 8'5", you know 1/2" equals 1' so 8' equals 4". If 1/2" equals 1", then 1/4" equals 6"-you will mark the ceiling height at 4 and a little less than 1/4".

If you are not mathematically inclined don't worry about it. No one is more helpless with math than I am. If I can do it anyone who works at it can too. While you will make measurement notes on your drawings, the drawings are more about seeing how each wall will look than precision.

Looking at the room and taking into account the sizes of your uninterrupted spaces decide roughly what size fields will work well on the spaces you have.

Assume you have a nice long wall with no windows and a door on the far right side.
Measure from the edge of the door molding to the opposite corner. This will be the space you will be working with. Let's further assume you decided 35" fields will work best in your spaces. Let's then assume the space from the edge of the door molding to the corner is 145". Start by dividing 145 by 35=4.142. Because you need space between the fields you will have three 35" field and styles. Three field and styles will need 4 spaces between. Multiply 3x35=105" Deduct 105" from 145"=40" 40"divided by 4(#or spaces) =10"

Now you look at what 10" space between will look like. I think it's a little too much. I'm going to change it to 8". So now I work the opposite way 4 spaces 8" = 32" 145" minus 32 = 113" 113" divided by the number of field and styles (3) = 37.666". I would start in the centre of the space, mark off a 371/2" field, then measure from the edge of the first style to the corner. Deduct from that measurement 37 1/2" and divide that # in half for the spaces.

Say at this point the measurement was 16 3/4", you would allow 8 3/8" to the next style and 8 3/8" to the corner.

The photo you show has a larger field and style to compliment and create focus on the center. Most likely if there are more fields not showing they are the same dimensions as the smaller ones. Too many dimensional changes destroy the effect.

I need to do a blog on this at ganttsdecorating.com. I hope this much is helpful. I'll post some pictures of treatments like this I have done. Bill

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Comments (11)

Lee Smith
12 years ago
i absolutely love the inspiration photo too! I've gone from loving asymmetry to desiring symmetry. That's my suggestion is however you lay the trim design out, keep it symmetrical. See how the mirror is the focal point the trim that contains it is square while the panels on the sides are rectangular.

I also love that look as well especially when the trim and wall color is painted the same.
Lee Smith
12 years ago
my other suggestion is first get the furniture you plan to use on whatever wall and the lamps etc before you decide on how to design the trim. Gather a bunch of these types of rooms. See how that one has a chair rail? See how the table top is right there at the chairrail. The boxes below the railing are the same widthe at the ones above the railing.
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Interiors by Natasha
12 years ago
I have to agree with Lee Smith. What makes this photo so intriguing is the balance in symmetry. If you are going to duplicate this look I would make sure that you measure the walls and the placement of the trim correctly. Measure twice and cut once. I did a room similar to this one and it came out great! Good luck with your project!
tbertelsen
12 years ago
N Benn non none b. NBCbb.
bgillies8
Original Author
12 years ago
Great points, thank you!
Brenda
12 years ago
I've always called this "picture frame molding"
PRO
Gantt's Decorating
12 years ago
Notice that some are done with moldings and some are done with mini borders trimmed from striped wallpaper. The space between the styles is as important as the space inside them. You can see on the foyer above sometimes spacing doesn't allow for perfect symmetry . The space to the right of the door simply would not accommodate a style. It all comes off balanced and beautiful any way. As you see in the bottom picture you can use one or two in a room to emphasize specific areas. Over a server in a Dining room is a great place for a single. Good luck. Bill
PRO
Ironwood Builders
12 years ago
Layout is first on paper...then again on the wall to make sure paper and wall agree. Then measure and cut. All points above are good. Where I foresee trouble is in the curved area of the "rounded nook" at the staircase. Curved work is hard and will require not only some really good craftsmanship but some really expensive custom milled moulding...unless you can find the rubber moulding to match. Or match the available flexible stuff, see here: http://flexiblemillwork.com/panel-mold.html?SID=6024c983b572aaec089a7c9b90a911eb
PRO
Gantt's Decorating
12 years ago
I usually use an inexpensive "sash bead molding." I have used a plastic one from Home Depot that I have been able to heat with a hair dryer to bend. Cutting the right joining angle on a curved surface would be a nightmare. I'd probably work around the curved nook and not mold it.
PRO
Nest Design Studio
12 years ago
Thank you very much for using my image - I am really flattered.

My advice is to get it right to use a professional moulding company. This was not done as a DIY - they planned it out using all the dimensions of the specific wall. You really need to take everything into account: width of wall, ceiling height, if you want a mirror hung in between, the fact that you have a curved wall etc. Those are things you fully need to consider in the process.

Map it out if you can. Designers/Architects use a program called AutoCAD - it helps us see the picture two-dimensionally to ensure that things make sense. This way you can play with the increments before beginning to really hammer things in (literally). If you want to do this as a DIY, then you should probably draw it out somehow.

Thank you again and all the best!