Woodwork Trim Around Doors and Floors

Door and baseboard molding adds the finishing touch to your room's overall design. It not only is a finishing detail, but also has a practical side. Door moldings hide gaps between the wallboard and door jam, while baseboards hide gaps between the flooring and wallboard.

The type of door you are installing should determine the type and width of woodwork trim around your door. A simple, contemporary, plain faced door would suggest a very plain molding, while a more elaborate door with panels or carvings would suggest a more elaborate molding. If your door is smaller than the door opening, then a wider molding should be used to cover the wider gap. Depending upon the overall design of the home, you could paint the doors and moldings or stain them. However, for the sake of continuity, they should match the other doors and molding in the rest of the house. Visually, your baseboards are the foundation of your room. They should compliment the flooring that you install. You can paint them to match the walls or stain them to match a hardwood floor. Modern designs usually use a narrower two and a half inch baseboard while the more traditional style homes have up to five inch baseboards. The more elaborate designs will even have a base cap molding that sits on top of the five-inch baseboard.

Whatever type of molding you choose, the door molding should cover the gaps around the door jam and match the door style, and the baseboard molding should compliment the floor and match the door molding.