Hi Brent, About fifteen years ago I wrote a letter to Home Depot regarding their poor selection of trim and molding. It was all thin strips of cheap wood. I was rehabbing several homes at that time. The Headquarters contacted me directly and asked for suggestions and were very interested in improving. Soon after and to my surprise the Home Depot very quickly added an entire line of custom trim (interior and exterior). Yes they have better selection but prices aimed for DIYs. That was fifteen years ago. It goes to show that writing a letter can help.
tHank you.....as a share holder of a whopping 7 stocks....You've made the orange better. If you have a chance, pen another note about having more Made in USA.
@@Dancing_Alone_wRentals My next letter, which I should have mailed three years ago will be written to Joe Biden. He needs to get out of our White House. He has ruined America with the worst economy and so many lives were lost in these senseless wars. We need to get our country back to how it was before.
I love historical moldings.. doing Reno's and adding molds... It's boring if you don't have moldings. It's beautiful hate the plain ones. Like corbels. Love them, so beautiful!
@@BrentHullat 9:59 in the video, shown is a hallway with a window on the left, kinda Greek capital type stuff. If that detail is necessary, (and it looks added on, definitely post 1950), why is there a large gap that looks like it is tipping out of the wall? When rooms were huge, and fireplaces the only source of heat ( and smoke), one was left in boredom to fume or wander, and the moldings were there to entertain your mind with a detail. Many of them were made of plaster mud, scraped to shape before hardening. Very cheap, but skill was required. Now, we have architects that know more about lgbtq stuff than they do structural matters, and neuveau riche clients with absolutely zero taste, and money to burn! So would you not agree that such folks are better off with a renovation done on a simpler scale, with modern minimalist mouldings? They will certainly won't want to pay someone to clean the complex shapes. Old house have lots of dust. We have devolved enough, lost enough of our sanity, and our humanity, and the real truths that make us travel forward. The lies of this age will bury the path forward and destroy any progress we could hope for. Humans have lost the ability to be stewards of the earth, the Nuclear murder factories dot the land, and radiation brain damage, indicated by obesity, shall further drag us down. This is the end of the line, folks! 4 reactors are the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, the vial is poured. Now all we need is the final trumpet.
On a side note...for years and years I did trim work in modest homes. Eventually I moved to rentals. Looking back I was simply in the wrong hub of customers. There are customers out there that wish they could find you.
I think people don't want to spend money on something that don't understand. It is your job to share the value and purpose and beauty so that they spend more money on the moldings instead of upgrading their granite counters to quartz.
@@cjdflkjeven with a larger budget many will trade aesthetic for more square footage, similarly they will trade lot size, distance from neighbours for interior square footage. Doing a reno for a rental right now. Trim from Home Depot, of course.
If they understood the problem the materials would follow. I am an all wood guy, and make my own molding planes, but if the demand existed, someone would come up with a product, maybe foam, and it would be available.
Brent, you and your videos have had a remarkable impact on my life. I purchased (for good reasons) a small, extreme-fixer 1910 farmhouse on an acre of weeds in rural WI 3 years ago. Then I gradually discovered just how much a house could deteriorate from decades of neglect. No contractor would or did suggest that repairing anything made sense, only a total teardown and rebuild. Well, I didn't have the cash to do that, but thanks to you, it was incredibly fortunate that I didn't. I became a Build Show fan, which introduced me to your mission of bringing historical inspiration to unappealing, modern buildings. Then last year, IMO "New House, Old Soul" took YT videos in this genre to a new level ... even down to the superb intro music (what was it? It wasn't named). But the real game-changer came for me when I watched your Arts and Crafts videos. I was ecstatic to learn that the house that I, my realtor, and everyone else saw as such a total piece of crap was actually a bona fide, never-modernized A&C Craftsman home. Even better, you showed what authentic improvements could be made to it - preserving ceiling beams, installing appropriate moldings, plinths, etc. So VERY much more attractive than a rebuilt 'modern' house would've been. We never experience reality, only our subjective perception of it. Well, your videos radically transformed mine - esp how I see my home and my future in it. I just can't thank you enough for that.
@@BrentHull I really appreciate how passionately you've worked to pass on what your education and experience have taught you - not just to builders, but to anyone open to becoming more enlightened about the buildings we live and work in. As for that word "helped" ... people often help each other, but what your videos did for me was way beyond that. Can't think of the right word for it, so I'll make one up ... how 'bout "super-helped"? 😸Btw, it's been 6 mo since I came up empty trying to identify that great banjo music in the first minute of each "New House, Old Soul" episode, but I'd still love to find out. Do you know the song's name or who made it?
Excellent and informative. I am renovating my 1903 house that has three-piece baseboards. There is no way to substitute a modern molding in the same house that contains original molding. Thank goodness we have planing mills that can cut knives for us.
I did this to my house, lot of work… but it looks really nice. It always really surprises people to see a pretty modest home with crisp original looking moldings not covered in 20 layers of paint. While I was milling it a neighbor with a duplicate house had seen me working on this asked the person remodeling their house to match the trim. They laughed… they should have just asked me to run the trim. They would have gotten the deal of the century on custom trim considering I already had the knives made and setups going. I found out after. Oh well…
In our area there's a local mill that bought up the molding forms (knives?) from the older mill that was closed, so in our 1930 house we were able to order the exact same molding. So glad it's stuck around!
Thank you for this Brent. I'm an Architectural color consultant. I'm always telling clients to paint the clam shell molding the same as the wall color so as to make it disappear. Now I know the reason is - because it's not delivering any information!! It's not telling you anything - love it!
Can't agree more. I'm in a 1951 mid century modern home. Button board build up plaster walls. Cove ceilings. All trim is simple with shoe molding on the floor. Cove slope linoleum floors in kitchen and bath. Cast iron pipes, sinks and tub. Love my house. Two wire fabric wrapped together type. Just after knob and tube. I've done lots on it. Full rip and replace all wire and electric panels. Love my home now. Reno'ed base bath to curbless shower, triple diverter setup. Tried to keep it simple and not flashy. Chrome fixtures throughout like it was in the 50's. You and matt kept me on my game to not miss the details. Love the details. You have to. I'm in my reclaimed window shipping crate dark stained pine room. Original owner did it in the 50's. Build in desk, glass top. Cool as heck. He was a glazier. And leaded stained glass on the side job guy. Their daughter sold us the house. 8 years ago. We are just the second owner.
The history of moldings in western civilizations goes back thousands of years and evolved from wooden structures to stone structures and back to wood. Moldings were originally simple linear boards with the practical purpose of covering gaps in joints of wooden structures. These structures were porous to wind, rain, inspects. All the materials warped, expanded, shrank, so the gaps changed over time, so moldings were a practical necessity. An effective "crown mold" might have one horizontal board attached to the roof beams, another attached to the wall, and a third smaller one filling the gap between. All of the "stepped" moldings we see today are an echo of built-up compound moldings of the distant past. When the Greeks (for one example) started to build stone buildings, they made them to look like their familiar wooden buildings. But you cannot fashion stone into linear boards because stone is too fragile in bending. But you can carve larger blocks to make them look like built up moldings. And you can more easily create curved surfaces perpendicular to the length. Starting with the industrial revolution and through 1950, our wood moldings could be made to mimic the stone moldings which in turn were meant to mimic the earlier wood moldings.
Knowing why something looks the way it does, to know the practical history of something, is to be able to "speak the language" again instead of just repeating the echoes.
You might enjoy seeing Meyer's Book of Ornament. It's an old, out of print book, but digital copies are not that hard to find on certain archival sites. It is wonderful to see. It was was written in the 1800's and shows tons of designs for cartouches, ornamentation, moldings, stonework, rococo patterns for trims, etc. And the graph lines are extended out on most of the drawings so you can see how the artist was guided in his renders. I am sure the great wallpaper designer William Morris used the book for his designs.
Thank you!!! Makes a great deal of sense. I can finally create some beautiful style in my 1956 tri level ranch with WINDSOR moldings. You are a genius!
There are gorgeous historic moldings in apartments not renovated since before WW2 in Saint Petersburg, Russia where I live, some are even from 19 century, it is hard to see them destroyed during renovation. At least some people have will and money to restore them instead of throwing into garbage.
I only realized after several years that the AEC tract housing of Los Alamos we lived in had picture railing along the upper edges of the living room walls. Everyone I knew used bulldog hangers or adhesive hangers. Our neighbors hung a fancy shadow box mirror from the moulding with fancy chords and hooks that hung over the edge of the moulding, finally revealing its intended purpose. These house were built just about 1950 with utterly clear (no knot holes) lumber. Try to find that these days.
Great tips. You put into video what I have felt intuitively for many years. I inherently knew that those older, more classic looking trims looked better and were more pleasing. Something about them just feels right. It says professional. It says craftsman. It says I care.
We just rebuilt our house after the Colorado Marshall Fire and because of you we modeled our trim and fireplace on Kuiken Brother's five piece Arts and Craft Moulding--Thankfully we had a true artisan who could do trim work. I've learned so much from you Brent. Thank you.
One of the things that the flat places on the pre-50's molding do visually, is provide much better flow once the moldings in place. Watching your video, the older moldings comfortably draw your eye around the spaces you're showing. Very good tip.
I work on pre 1950's houses on the west coast in Canada, and I am very glad I stumbled on this video! You are absolutley correct !! The struggle for us is finding stock. Your ideas are excellent and very helpful !! Many 1920's homes that are large and quite beautiful, were finished in flat stock mostly. They do extremely well with molding upgrades.
I’ve done a lot of restoration work on historic register homes. Many times we had special shaper knives made to match existing mouldings. However more than a few times I’ve had to break out the old Stanley 55 to make a small run of a particular profile. I share your passion for architecturally correct profiles that are aesthetically appealing. Great video 👍
Interesting!!! I have a job interview at a Hardwood company that sells moldings, plus floors and decks. For awhile I was worried because most houses nearby are newer. Now I have some intelligent ideas. Thank you. I'm glad I just found your channel.
Same, I e been following Brent for a year or so. We completely gutted the 1970 renovation of our 1850s farmhouse. I’ve done everything Brent said to do, and it turned out so great!
I'm up in PA but now willing to save these wavy glass windows due to your other videos. Might take a few years but I'll get to it. Lot of windows. This house reserves that respect! Don't thank me- I thank you. Sometimes it feels overwhelming but your videos break it down- its manageable now. We got this! I suck at glazing but I'll get better. @@BrentHull
I ran across some unusual moldings in an estate sale that were about 6" wide flat strips of 1/2" profile, painted in flat matt colors that had individual pieces of lattice that were painted different colors... three and four layers of intricate painted layers so that it had a stacked look. Blue with tomato red diamond cut shapes with white flur-de-lis cut shapes. I've never seen anything like it again in anyone's home.
Just discovered this channel, and so thrilled! What admirably informed taste and how learned, how keen you are to share your love of our cultural heritage! Thank you so much!
I always intuitvely recognied that mouldings made a home softer and seem more-lived in. I appreciate the little history lesson and the tutorial about moulding styles. Its fascinating how an overlooked addition to you home can have so much going on with it.
Thanks for this! We just finished putting moulding in our dining room walls in our 1950s house from home depot. Ofcourse this is just temporary until the proper remodel. Love your channel!!
Just came across your channel, I like everything about this video: terrific content, professional delivery. Having worked in Seattle residential real estate since 2002, I have witnessed exactly what you're talking about in countless homes. I can't say how many times I've walked through a classic home and said to the clients "This has been altogether de-charmed" and it was largely due to trim choices (although removing single-pane vintage windows and installing vinyl is the other transgression - go for storm windows instead!). And I am not an elitist! My clients are generally scraping together what they can for a reasonable home. But small (but important) choices can make such a difference for not much more cost. Thank you, I hope more carpenters/homeowners take in this content and apply it.
Thanks Mr. Hull for the Informative video. So many small things can make a difference in improving the feel of a home. One of the things we did was add a proportioned back band to the H trim ( clam shell) casing on the doorways and windows. Replaced the base with square stock with cap moulding . Affordable change that made a nice difference. Didn’t break the bank. Enjoying your channel.
Excellent video that sums up important points! Brent, a related topic is how to _combine_ moldings. Even working with good quality moldings, people can and do combine them in inappropriate ways. Maybe you've already covered this. I'll look. If you haven't it would make a good video on its own.
There is one home that I can think of that was built in the early 1950's that has a unique molding in that I believe it is made of plaster that top goes into the ceiling with a single curve, larger than the basic mold that I've seen in most other homes especially with the common 1950's suburban home. Really difficult to describe honestly. This home was custom made in an isolated region in rural California on what was a family property, recently the family sold that portion of the land and it crushes me cause that house is one of the few homes that had the motivation of craft integrity into the building. Thanks to certain natural disasters a lot of the traditional homes before the 1950's are rare in this region, most of the neighborhood homes are mainly built after the 1950's. Sadly this has contributed to a lot of people upset about the lack of nicely looking buildings, especially as the scenery surrounding the region is an oasis.
Love listening to you talk about mouldings, so informative. In the grand scheme of things they don't cost much at all for the wow factor they bring IF they are done right, which you are teaching. Thanks so much!
Brent, you are a true artisan, I hope to one day have the means and opportunity to have someone such as yourself to decorate a property with such beautiful ornamentation.
Thanks for the education. I grew up in a house built about 1908 with sponged-swirl ceiling plaster with crown mouldings. Solid cedar baseboard about 7" tall with a 3/4"bottom, fluted doorway/window mouldings and solid 1" thick x 2" wide maple flooring laid over diagonally laid Douglas fir subfloor. I loved that old house, but I wasn't sure why. Thanks to you and your channel that I've bumped into, I think I now know. The detail and proportional sizing of the woodwork made the whole house feel much more comfortable and homey than any house of today. I will endeavor to try your approach because I just did not like the junky, everyone-uses-it stuff at the lumber/millwork places. Of course, my designs will need approval from the project designer first... Cheers and thanks from Alberta, Canada.
I have seen some really funky things done with modern moldings and agree with your ideas. I learned from some old timers who also said a bed molding was for exterior only.
Brent, I love your presentations! In simplest words you manage to explain to everyone the Vingiola orders which architect students study in universities👍 Like!
That was pretty educational. tHanks for the video. ( I grew up in a clam shell.... Bought a mitre box and a coping saw and went out to capture the world! )
Yes sir @@Don.Challenger . I especially liked the corona emphasis. It makes perfect sense and I look back at crown I've done; the best jobs always had that open detail. ( Just between me and you....I like that chic contemp empty look too. Where a home has little to no trim. But don't say anything..I would hate for anyone to find out ).
After many years of looking and searching I located a Vintage Walker Turner Band saw.@@BrentHull This moves me another step closer to making my own millwork. Have a spectacular week!
Your B-roll molding shots show some absolutely fantastic treatments! As an owner of a late 70's rancher, I'm not sure what applies for elevated molding design, but I'll be watching more of your videos to see if any treat that condition. Very cool information, thanks!
Thank goodness you came up on my feed! I’m definitely going to watch all your vids on molding! I have an 8 year old house with no molding, and I would love to add some, but have no idea where to start. Until now! Sure hope you have techniques/suggestions for floorplans and 9’ ceilings. (Discovered I don’t care for open floorplans.)
Englishman here. We've got a minefield of styles to navigate in the UK. Then there's artistic licence / taste / subjectivity and having the confidence to use them. Great attention to detail in this video and pause for thought and ponderment. However i would add that it isn't necessary to add mouldings to every property because in certaun cases they will jarr with the architectectural aesthetic. I don't know how it works in the US but in the UK the cornice (you say crown moulding) was always plsster of paris, also including the visual 'pause' but often with deep concave surfaces and consequent shadows rather, rather than a fabricated box. This process can be viewed on the New Yorkshire Workshop channel,balthough i'd be surprised if you didn't have the same or similar in the US.
It seems odd that you say not to use finger jointed trim. Yet Windsor One uses that, and you designed the styles. I am about to remodel a 1968 ranch style, concrete block house and am at a loss to determine the style of trim. I don't know what the house wants to be. But I know I don't want it to be a dairy milkhouse! That project will start this summer, and I look to you to help educate me on the do's and don'ts of style and trim.
Thanks for watching. The finger joint rule is for exterior wood. It is also a reality in a world of plantation grown wood. As for moldings for your house, if it is 68 ranch it may not be that modern. Like mine. Check out my video on moldings in an 8' room. It may help.
I admire what you’re doing Mr. Hull; however, I love my clamshell moldings in my simple ranch house. It’s modern. It’s clean. It’s organic. History hasn’t stopped in 1950. Not all of us have the means to own historic homes. And using graduated moldings or Americana moldings or traditional moldings don’t fit in this style house. Making it something that it isn’t on the inside jars with a more modern outside. It’s like using Americana style furniture in a ranch home rather than furniture with clean, organic lines. That said, I’ve enjoyed your videos and ideas.
Thanks so much. I should have noted that a clam shell is great for houses built in that style. The point is that if you are picking moldings for today, you need to have this info to make good choices. Cheers.
Very educational and makes me consider the molding telling us something. Taste is subjective though so there's not really a right or wrong set in stone. I've mocked up dozens of coffered ceilings for clients who ultimately choose what we would consider to be the 'wrong' choice. They're the ones that need to look at it forever and it's their money so as long as they like it then that's what's important. I'm just never a fan of these extremely modern homes completely eliminating moldings and using end beads, corner beads, and flat stock to keep windows bland and eliminate baseboard, crowns, etc. It's suprising to me because the same people will generally consider victorian style homes to be very beautiful(because who can deny that) but they seem lack the ability to connect the dots in their own space so they default to simplicity. There's also just a matter of cost. Not only does the trim price skyrocket, but so does the paint job when you're searching for someone that really knows how to cut into all the nooks of complex moldings. Nowadays, I just recommend stafford casing, craftsman headers, and speedbase for anyone looking for cost effective upgrades to their space. Keeps things manageable and at least they're not stuck with 3 1/2" colonial casing and base.
wish my architecture school had someone like you who could teach the meaning behinds things like mouldings. Modernism has sucked the beauty out of architecture and left us with a poor understanding of how to truly build beautiful architecture. If only they could teach us things like this. Great video!
I agree, authenticity is important. My first home was a Victoria painted lady from 1895. Indeed there were no mouldings on the market in my region suitable for this house. I ended up DIY fabricating my own moulding cutters for my table saw to replicate the existing original mouldings. Since 2000 I have owned only modernist homes on the west coast, so go out of my way to eliminate all the colonial revival stuff that randomly infects newer homes here. I like a home fluent in its era's design language.
I love these old houses where you can see the solid wood Casements and solid wood moldings and beautiful fireplaces of pure wood carved beautifully. Nothing is made like that anymore and It makes my heart sing to see those beautiful old houses with the solid wood accents.
My contractor assured me he had a millwork expert who would be involved in the job. Turns out, it totally fell on me to tell them what to order, (without ever giving me access to anyone)…and guess what? I had no idea what to choose in a hurry out of a little brochure. The pile arrived at the house, and is just flimsy old school colonial style. A total disappointment. I’m learning that it’s typical for contractors, to use just have a few vendors, which then slap their usual stuff into every house. I can only hope I can add something to my new trim? The casings you have there are beautiful. ❤
Molding was built up, using multiple pieces, near a brick wall. The molding hid a trivial unlevel ceiling vs brick line. Removing the molding was the worst thing I did.
There are a few good sources out there. Brent showed one from Kuiken. But even the top producers like Kuiken and WindsorOne have curious gaps in their selections. I've been looking for base moldings modeled after classic column bases, that could be used for building porch columns, for example. Can't find them. There are some but they are far too small. Another is the sima molding at the top of the cornice. Simas should be produced in matching pairs, one for a horizontal cornice and a matching angled piece for pediments or raking cornices. Three or 4 sizes, paired with 3 or 4 rake slopes would cover the large majority of situations.
Excellent video…. from my standpoint, the manufacturers are attempting to run the various patterns out of standard stock which severely reduces the ability for definition. Crown, as an example is often produced from 1x4 and 1x6 stock materials with only 3/4” working depth. In addition to the limitations imposed by using stock materials, modern molding designs suffer from a lack of knowledge about classical design and application and unfortunately, most people simply don’t notice the difference.
A helpful thing to understand is that any kind of trim originates from the need to bridge a gap, cover a seam, or make a transition between materials or surfaces. For example: When you frame up a door after building your walls there is likely a gap. So you put some thin timber over the gap, but you also need some backing to transition between the thickness of the wall and your frame. And you add a little detail edge to that on either side, using a profile plane, and maybe a little heavier detail on the outsides, you might add some other strip of wood to protect the thin cover. Then you add a little decorative cover profile because the cover turns out a bit wide, because the mason left a generous amount of space for your door, because that's always better than making it too small, right? Then, once it looks good and will fit as a standard for the rest of the build, you set up your complicated multiprofile edging plane to start copying the resulting compound profile in bulk. It will still look like the set of geometric elements you put together. For plaster profiles, consider they were often made in stages, extruded on the spot as it were. So first you create the offset, then make the concave, then you add some beading and a contour, working from the center outwards, from the ceiling to the wall with different profiles. Now look at classical profiles and you may begin to see how they are built up, and the logic behind the beads and concaves and spaces. This knowledge used to be passed on through generations, alas a lot of it is lost with industrialisation and machine production and the craftsman/apprentice setup not really being a thing anymore.
So many moldings are basically cove, bead, ogee and flat. By varying the combinations and sizes different designs happen, but those are the typical shapes of traditional moldings.
Brent as a 35 yr old carpenter I along with a lot of other people have been used as labor and no one taught us all this technical details. I would have loved to work for you if you taught this well. Not many people will devote time to teaching they just want to make money. I would buy a book from you if you had it . Where do I buy these moulding to learn how to stack them?
Question: I own a small, cheaply built three bedroom tract house built in 1954, with vaulted ceilings throughout, modernist post and beam construction, and small clamshell moldings for both casings and baseboards. Because of the vaulted ceilings, (which aesthetically make the interior seem much larger) typical classical moldings don’t seem to fit. But I am enamored of classical proportion and decorative style, and would like to find a way of incorporating these elements as I renovate. Suggestions?
Brent - I’m coming to find you Buddy It’s time for a Timber Frame - Texas Lime stone house:) Lots of tongue and groove wood work:) One level - post modem
Wow, thank you. I know I liked the older moldings but I did not know why. Now I can articulate this to the people I know in the real world who will be annoyed because I am the wrong kind of person to take advice from, you know, the kind of person who actually does his homework. In peoples defense no one can afford these expensive moldings.
I just found you and this video, if I could hit the like button 10x, I would!! Thanks for a great video. Look forward to watching more of your channel.
5:30 those two show some good trim for thoose of us who are minimalist. The simple lines can keep the cost down and leaves a simple impression that doesnt imply structure underneath, since we all know the build up isnt really there on a more modest house. My next personal house Brent has gotten me thinking of an enteryway and mud room trim design. Doing shadow lines in most of the house. It has to be playfull because the house has a lot of exposed concrete inside and out.
I hadn't thought about this, but it makes sense. I've gone into modern McMansions and seen large molding that just didn't look right. It just looked like some contractor slapped a bunch of crap up there with no thought to raise the price. I restored an 1890 farmhouse, and was careful to find out what would have been original. It was very simple, but took some work to get the dimensions right. My current home was built in 1948 with cathedral ceiling and walls. all in knotty pine. The moldings are the same material, and don't have any embellishment to distract. The pine is slightly whitewashed to contrast with the aged fir beams. Clamshell moldings were used in the rest of the house, but they're all varnished old growth.
My house was built 1960, but not by a builder who was into minimalism. A few of my rooms still had a 3 inch cove (as well as bead board & chair rail) mold up top & ive been trying to copy it, but the big box stores dont carry it. Ive been looking into a table saw & jig set up....
My house was built in 1958 and it has nothing but clamshell moldings; even the original baseboards were clamshell. I don't mind moving subtly toward a little more ornamentation, but most pre-1950 moldings would look out of place, especially since I'm not looking to replace everything. Ideally, I'd like something similar to the Windsor moldings at 9:44 better than what I have, but the casing at 5:05 is too busy for my taste, and would be in any building, it looks as if they started out with a nice simple door frame, then threw a ledge on top of it to dress it up. If the top looks like a ledge or a lintel, I want the sides to look like pillars, with maybe a small bullnose or something similar to make the transition between them . But if there is any kind of molding that is mitered like a picture frame, I don't want much of anything added to embellish it. PS: The one style of modern door casing that really bugs me is the perfectly rectangular profile of most prefabricated steel door frames, the kind they often use in commercial buildings. That style is more boring than it is clean. A perfectly hidden frame, integrated into a perfectly flat wall opening, would be better.
Thanks for sharing. My point was not to have people replace clam shell moldings in mid-cent. modern homes. Rather for those picking moldings today, to understand the history to make better decisions. Most new moldings today are bad.
Hi Brent, About fifteen years ago I wrote a letter to Home Depot regarding their poor selection of trim and molding. It was all thin strips of cheap wood. I was rehabbing several homes at that time. The Headquarters contacted me directly and asked for suggestions and were very interested in improving. Soon after and to my surprise the Home Depot very quickly added an entire line of custom trim (interior and exterior). Yes they have better selection but prices aimed for DIYs. That was fifteen years ago. It goes to show that writing a letter can help.
tHank you.....as a share holder of a whopping 7 stocks....You've made the orange better.
If you have a chance, pen another note about having more Made in USA.
@@Dancing_Alone_wRentals My next letter, which I should have mailed three years ago will be written to Joe Biden. He needs to get out of our White House. He has ruined America with the worst economy and so many lives were lost in these senseless wars. We need to get our country back to how it was before.
That is very interesting. I'm surprised and impressed. Thanks for sharing.
I love historical moldings.. doing Reno's and adding molds... It's boring if you don't have moldings. It's beautiful hate the plain ones. Like corbels. Love them, so beautiful!
@@BrentHullat 9:59 in the video, shown is a hallway with a window on the left, kinda Greek capital type stuff. If that detail is necessary, (and it looks added on, definitely post 1950), why is there a large gap that looks like it is tipping out of the wall? When rooms were huge, and fireplaces the only source of heat ( and smoke), one was left in boredom to fume or wander, and the moldings were there to entertain your mind with a detail. Many of them were made of plaster mud, scraped to shape before hardening. Very cheap, but skill was required. Now, we have architects that know more about lgbtq stuff than they do structural matters, and neuveau riche clients with absolutely zero taste, and money to burn! So would you not agree that such folks are better off with a renovation done on a simpler scale, with modern minimalist mouldings? They will certainly won't want to pay someone to clean the complex shapes. Old house have lots of dust. We have devolved enough, lost enough of our sanity, and our humanity, and the real truths that make us travel forward. The lies of this age will bury the path forward and destroy any progress we could hope for. Humans have lost the ability to be stewards of the earth, the Nuclear murder factories dot the land, and radiation brain damage, indicated by obesity, shall further drag us down. This is the end of the line, folks! 4 reactors are the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, the vial is poured. Now all we need is the final trumpet.
As a remodeler, the issue I see is that most clients simply cannot afford the material and labor costs for extravagant, classical moldings.
On a side note...for years and years I did trim work in modest homes. Eventually I moved to rentals. Looking back I was simply in the wrong hub of customers.
There are customers out there that wish they could find you.
I think people don't want to spend money on something that don't understand. It is your job to share the value and purpose and beauty so that they spend more money on the moldings instead of upgrading their granite counters to quartz.
@@cjdflkjeven with a larger budget many will trade aesthetic for more square footage, similarly they will trade lot size, distance from neighbours for interior square footage. Doing a reno for a rental right now. Trim from Home Depot, of course.
@@BrentHull Customers don't understand money.
If they understood the problem the materials would follow. I am an all wood guy, and make my own molding planes, but if the demand existed, someone would come up with a product, maybe foam, and it would be available.
Brent, you and your videos have had a remarkable impact on my life. I purchased (for good reasons) a small, extreme-fixer 1910 farmhouse on an acre of weeds in rural WI 3 years ago. Then I gradually discovered just how much a house could deteriorate from decades of neglect. No contractor would or did suggest that repairing anything made sense, only a total teardown and rebuild. Well, I didn't have the cash to do that, but thanks to you, it was incredibly fortunate that I didn't.
I became a Build Show fan, which introduced me to your mission of bringing historical inspiration to unappealing, modern buildings. Then last year, IMO "New House, Old Soul" took YT videos in this genre to a new level ... even down to the superb intro music (what was it? It wasn't named). But the real game-changer came for me when I watched your Arts and Crafts videos. I was ecstatic to learn that the house that I, my realtor, and everyone else saw as such a total piece of crap was actually a bona fide, never-modernized A&C Craftsman home. Even better, you showed what authentic improvements could be made to it - preserving ceiling beams, installing appropriate moldings, plinths, etc. So VERY much more attractive than a rebuilt 'modern' house would've been.
We never experience reality, only our subjective perception of it. Well, your videos radically transformed mine - esp how I see my home and my future in it. I just can't thank you enough for that.
I am so glad to hear it. Thanks for sharing your journey. It is the reason why I do this. Thanks so much. I'm glad it has helped. Cheers.
@@BrentHull I really appreciate how passionately you've worked to pass on what your education and experience have taught you - not just to builders, but to anyone open to becoming more enlightened about the buildings we live and work in. As for that word "helped" ... people often help each other, but what your videos did for me was way beyond that. Can't think of the right word for it, so I'll make one up ... how 'bout "super-helped"? 😸Btw, it's been 6 mo since I came up empty trying to identify that great banjo music in the first minute of each "New House, Old Soul" episode, but I'd still love to find out. Do you know the song's name or who made it?
I painted classical/traditional houses for over forty years, and I greatly appreciate your message.
Nice. Thank you!
Yep, you can charge more for painting all those fussy bits.
Excellent and informative. I am renovating my 1903 house that has three-piece baseboards. There is no way to substitute a modern molding in the same house that contains original molding. Thank goodness we have planing mills that can cut knives for us.
Exactly. Go for it.
I did this to my house, lot of work… but it looks really nice. It always really surprises people to see a pretty modest home with crisp original looking moldings not covered in 20 layers of paint.
While I was milling it a neighbor with a duplicate house had seen me working on this asked the person remodeling their house to match the trim. They laughed… they should have just asked me to run the trim. They would have gotten the deal of the century on custom trim considering I already had the knives made and setups going. I found out after. Oh well…
In our area there's a local mill that bought up the molding forms (knives?) from the older mill that was closed, so in our 1930 house we were able to order the exact same molding. So glad it's stuck around!
Thank you for this Brent. I'm an Architectural color consultant. I'm always telling clients to paint the clam shell molding the same as the wall color so as to make it disappear. Now I know the reason is - because it's not delivering any information!! It's not telling you anything - love it!
Exactly. Thanks.
Architectural colour consultant sounds interesting. Do you have a website?
As a young designer this was so informative! I thought I hated all moulding but turns out I hated box store mouldings and now I know why!
Yay!!! I'm so glad you see the difference.
Can't agree more. I'm in a 1951 mid century modern home. Button board build up plaster walls. Cove ceilings. All trim is simple with shoe molding on the floor. Cove slope linoleum floors in kitchen and bath. Cast iron pipes, sinks and tub. Love my house. Two wire fabric wrapped together type. Just after knob and tube. I've done lots on it. Full rip and replace all wire and electric panels. Love my home now. Reno'ed base bath to curbless shower, triple diverter setup. Tried to keep it simple and not flashy. Chrome fixtures throughout like it was in the 50's. You and matt kept me on my game to not miss the details. Love the details. You have to. I'm in my reclaimed window shipping crate dark stained pine room. Original owner did it in the 50's. Build in desk, glass top. Cool as heck. He was a glazier. And leaded stained glass on the side job guy. Their daughter sold us the house. 8 years ago. We are just the second owner.
Congrats! Sounds wonderful.
The history of moldings in western civilizations goes back thousands of years and evolved from wooden structures to stone structures and back to wood. Moldings were originally simple linear boards with the practical purpose of covering gaps in joints of wooden structures. These structures were porous to wind, rain, inspects. All the materials warped, expanded, shrank, so the gaps changed over time, so moldings were a practical necessity. An effective "crown mold" might have one horizontal board attached to the roof beams, another attached to the wall, and a third smaller one filling the gap between. All of the "stepped" moldings we see today are an echo of built-up compound moldings of the distant past.
When the Greeks (for one example) started to build stone buildings, they made them to look like their familiar wooden buildings. But you cannot fashion stone into linear boards because stone is too fragile in bending. But you can carve larger blocks to make them look like built up moldings. And you can more easily create curved surfaces perpendicular to the length. Starting with the industrial revolution and through 1950, our wood moldings could be made to mimic the stone moldings which in turn were meant to mimic the earlier wood moldings.
Nice. Thanks for sharing.
Knowing why something looks the way it does, to know the practical history of something, is to be able to "speak the language" again instead of just repeating the echoes.
You might enjoy seeing Meyer's Book of Ornament. It's an old, out of print book, but digital copies are not that hard to find on certain archival sites. It is wonderful to see. It was was written in the 1800's and shows tons of designs for cartouches, ornamentation, moldings, stonework, rococo patterns for trims, etc. And the graph lines are extended out on most of the drawings so you can see how the artist was guided in his renders. I am sure the great wallpaper designer William Morris used the book for his designs.
Thank you!!! Makes a great deal of sense. I can finally create some beautiful style in my 1956 tri level ranch with WINDSOR moldings. You are a genius!
Thanks.
Don't do it. Why put faux makeup on a building that was never meant to be detailed like that? Its out of historical context.
There are gorgeous historic moldings in apartments not renovated since before WW2 in Saint Petersburg, Russia where I live, some are even from 19 century, it is hard to see them destroyed during renovation. At least some people have will and money to restore them instead of throwing into garbage.
very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
I only realized after several years that the AEC tract housing of Los Alamos we lived in had picture railing along the upper edges of the living room walls. Everyone I knew used bulldog hangers or adhesive hangers. Our neighbors hung a fancy shadow box mirror from the moulding with fancy chords and hooks that hung over the edge of the moulding, finally revealing its intended purpose. These house were built just about 1950 with utterly clear (no knot holes) lumber. Try to find that these days.
Thanks for sharing.
Great tips. You put into video what I have felt intuitively for many years. I inherently knew that those older, more classic looking trims looked better and were more pleasing. Something about them just feels right. It says professional. It says craftsman. It says I care.
Glad it was helpful! Thx.
We just rebuilt our house after the Colorado Marshall Fire and because of you we modeled our trim and fireplace on Kuiken Brother's five piece Arts and Craft Moulding--Thankfully we had a true artisan who could do trim work. I've learned so much from you Brent. Thank you.
So nice! Thx.
I just moved back to Denver from Grand Junction, is anyone up there still looking for contractors?
One of the things that the flat places on the pre-50's molding do visually, is provide much better flow once the moldings in place. Watching your video, the older moldings comfortably draw your eye around the spaces you're showing. Very good tip.
Nice. Thanks for watching
I work on pre 1950's houses on the west coast in Canada, and I am very glad I stumbled on this video!
You are absolutley correct !!
The struggle for us is finding stock. Your ideas are excellent and very helpful !!
Many 1920's homes that are large and quite beautiful, were finished in flat stock mostly. They do extremely well with molding upgrades.
Nice. I agree. THx.
I'm an engineer and wannabe architect and greatly enjoyed your explanation of how good moldings affect our interpretation of a space.
Glad it was helpful!. Thx.
I’ve done a lot of restoration work on historic register homes. Many times we had special shaper knives made to match existing mouldings. However more than a few times I’ve had to break out the old Stanley 55 to make a small run of a particular profile. I share your passion for architecturally correct profiles that are aesthetically appealing. Great video 👍
Nice. Bravo for being able to use a 55. That is hard. Thx.
Interesting!!! I have a job interview at a Hardwood company that sells moldings, plus floors and decks. For awhile I was worried because most houses nearby are newer. Now I have some intelligent ideas. Thank you. I'm glad I just found your channel.
Nice. Let me know how it goes. Good luck!
How is there only 34k subscribers... My 200yr old farm house is better for this channel.
IDK, but it’s a goddamned tragedy more people aren’t currently subscribed!!! Americans are in desperate need of architectural education!!!
Thank you.
Same, I e been following Brent for a year or so. We completely gutted the 1970 renovation of our 1850s farmhouse. I’ve done everything Brent said to do, and it turned out so great!
I'm up in PA but now willing to save these wavy glass windows due to your other videos. Might take a few years but I'll get to it. Lot of windows. This house reserves that respect! Don't thank me- I thank you. Sometimes it feels overwhelming but your videos break it down- its manageable now. We got this! I suck at glazing but I'll get better. @@BrentHull
Well, there is one more as of today
Yes! Thank you, Brent, for helping us understand right from wrong and really, really wrong.
Welcome! Thanks for watching.
I ran across some unusual moldings in an estate sale that were about 6" wide flat strips of 1/2" profile, painted in flat matt colors that had individual pieces of lattice that were painted different colors... three and four layers of intricate painted layers so that it had a stacked look. Blue with tomato red diamond cut shapes with white flur-de-lis cut shapes. I've never seen anything like it again in anyone's home.
Wow, sounds amazing.
Just discovered this channel, and so thrilled! What admirably informed taste and how learned, how keen you are to share your love of our cultural heritage! Thank you so much!
Thanks for watching.
I've watched almost all your videos on moldings. This is a great synopsis!
So glad to hear it. Thx.
Another interesting, educational video. Thank you Brent.
Thanks for watching.
I always intuitvely recognied that mouldings made a home softer and seem more-lived in. I appreciate the little history lesson and the tutorial about moulding styles. Its fascinating how an overlooked addition to you home can have so much going on with it.
Exactly. Thx.
Wow! I’m so glad this vid popped up on my feed! Thanks!
Thanks for watching.
Thanks for this! We just finished putting moulding in our dining room walls in our 1950s house from home depot. Ofcourse this is just temporary until the proper remodel. Love your channel!!
Glad it was helpful!
I agree with you and your presentation!
Thanks so much.
Just came across your channel, I like everything about this video: terrific content, professional delivery. Having worked in Seattle residential real estate since 2002, I have witnessed exactly what you're talking about in countless homes. I can't say how many times I've walked through a classic home and said to the clients "This has been altogether de-charmed" and it was largely due to trim choices (although removing single-pane vintage windows and installing vinyl is the other transgression - go for storm windows instead!). And I am not an elitist! My clients are generally scraping together what they can for a reasonable home. But small (but important) choices can make such a difference for not much more cost. Thank you, I hope more carpenters/homeowners take in this content and apply it.
Thanks so much. I agree.
Thanks Mr. Hull for the Informative video.
So many small things can make a difference in improving the feel of a home. One of the things we did was add a proportioned back band to the H trim ( clam shell) casing on the doorways and windows. Replaced the base with square stock with cap moulding . Affordable change that made a nice difference. Didn’t break the bank.
Enjoying your channel.
Nice. Good ideas. Thx.
I've said it before; love the way you think!
Nice. Thx.
Excellent video that sums up important points!
Brent, a related topic is how to _combine_ moldings. Even working with good quality moldings, people can and do combine them in inappropriate ways. Maybe you've already covered this. I'll look. If you haven't it would make a good video on its own.
Thanks, will do.
Love it, so information packed.
Thank you.
Thank you Brett for helping preserve our history
Welcome. Thanks for watching.
Thank you for creating your channel!
Thanks for watching.
I second that!
Love the content!!
Keep it coming!!
Thx, will do.
Thank you! This was very helpful. 👍
Glad it was helpful!
There is one home that I can think of that was built in the early 1950's that has a unique molding in that I believe it is made of plaster that top goes into the ceiling with a single curve, larger than the basic mold that I've seen in most other homes especially with the common 1950's suburban home. Really difficult to describe honestly. This home was custom made in an isolated region in rural California on what was a family property, recently the family sold that portion of the land and it crushes me cause that house is one of the few homes that had the motivation of craft integrity into the building.
Thanks to certain natural disasters a lot of the traditional homes before the 1950's are rare in this region, most of the neighborhood homes are mainly built after the 1950's. Sadly this has contributed to a lot of people upset about the lack of nicely looking buildings, especially as the scenery surrounding the region is an oasis.
Shoot. sorry to hear that. Thanks for sharing.
Eye opening, enlightening, and spellbinding. I stumbled in here and was captivated by every concept.
Thanks so much.
Love listening to you talk about mouldings, so informative. In the grand scheme of things they don't cost much at all for the wow factor they bring IF they are done right, which you are teaching. Thanks so much!
Exactly! Great point!
I'm impressed by this level of craftsmanship and detail but I hope I never own a home with this type of molding
Ok. thx.
Brent, you are a true artisan, I hope to one day have the means and opportunity to have someone such as yourself to decorate a property with such beautiful ornamentation.
Thank you.
So well articulated
Thanks so much.
It is amazing how much you share with us. Thank you, Brent!
Thanks for watching.
thank you for the education
thx for watching.
Thanks for the education. I grew up in a house built about 1908 with sponged-swirl ceiling plaster with crown mouldings. Solid cedar baseboard about 7" tall with a 3/4"bottom, fluted doorway/window mouldings and solid 1" thick x 2" wide maple flooring laid over diagonally laid Douglas fir subfloor. I loved that old house, but I wasn't sure why. Thanks to you and your channel that I've bumped into, I think I now know. The detail and proportional sizing of the woodwork made the whole house feel much more comfortable and homey than any house of today. I will endeavor to try your approach because I just did not like the junky, everyone-uses-it stuff at the lumber/millwork places. Of course, my designs will need approval from the project designer first... Cheers and thanks from Alberta, Canada.
Good to hear! Thx.
Great information, Thank you.
Glad it was helpful! Thx.
This is so informative Brent. What a great way to think about molding selections.
Thanks for watching.
I have seen some really funky things done with modern moldings and agree with your ideas. I learned from some old timers who also said a bed molding was for exterior only.
ok. thx.
Brent, I love your presentations!
In simplest words you manage to explain to everyone the Vingiola orders which architect students study in universities👍
Like!
Wow, thank you! Cheers
That was pretty educational. tHanks for the video.
( I grew up in a clam shell.... Bought a mitre box and a coping saw and went out to capture the world! )
Found a few pearls in there for a future life, did you?
Yes sir @@Don.Challenger . I especially liked the corona emphasis. It makes perfect sense and I look back at crown I've done; the best jobs always had that open detail.
( Just between me and you....I like that chic contemp empty look too. Where a home has little to no trim. But don't say anything..I would hate for anyone to find out ).
Thanks so much!!
After many years of looking and searching I located a Vintage Walker Turner Band saw.@@BrentHull This moves me another step closer to making my own millwork.
Have a spectacular week!
Your B-roll molding shots show some absolutely fantastic treatments! As an owner of a late 70's rancher, I'm not sure what applies for elevated molding design, but I'll be watching more of your videos to see if any treat that condition. Very cool information, thanks!
Thx for watching.
Brilliant! Love it!
Thx so much
All , excuse me, Some of my architectural frustration’s clarified in a single video. Thank you
Nice. Thanks.
Fantastic stuff, looking forward to watching the rest of the channel
Thanks and welcome aboard!
This is facinating! Thank you!
Thanks for watching.
I wish I had known you were in Pittsburgh. :(
Sorry. Next time.
Great millwork can really transform a space from mundane to timelessly sophisticated.
100% Thanks.
Great insight and explanation. Invaluable information. Thank you!
Thanks so much.
Thanks, need to look for Windsor molding.
Word. Thx.
Thank goodness you came up on my feed! I’m definitely going to watch all your vids on molding! I have an 8 year old house with no molding, and I would love to add some, but have no idea where to start. Until now!
Sure hope you have techniques/suggestions for floorplans and 9’ ceilings. (Discovered I don’t care for open floorplans.)
Haha, welcome aboard. Good luck
Englishman here. We've got a minefield of styles to navigate in the UK. Then there's artistic licence / taste / subjectivity and having the confidence to use them. Great attention to detail in this video and pause for thought and ponderment. However i would add that it isn't necessary to add mouldings to every property because in certaun cases they will jarr with the architectectural aesthetic. I don't know how it works in the US but in the UK the cornice (you say crown moulding) was always plsster of paris, also including the visual 'pause' but often with deep concave surfaces and consequent shadows rather, rather than a fabricated box. This process can be viewed on the New Yorkshire Workshop channel,balthough i'd be surprised if you didn't have the same or similar in the US.
Thanks. I agree, I should have said, if you plan to use moldings, then only moldings before 1950.
Have worked on both historical buildings and modern, and I totally agree.
Nice! Thx.
It seems odd that you say not to use finger jointed trim. Yet Windsor One uses that, and you designed the styles. I am about to remodel a 1968 ranch style, concrete block house and am at a loss to determine the style of trim. I don't know what the house wants to be. But I know I don't want it to be a dairy milkhouse! That project will start this summer, and I look to you to help educate me on the do's and don'ts of style and trim.
I would think craftsman style
he talks about it about 3 mins in, his designed are based strongly off historic designs.... finger joints are a necessary evil sometimes.
Finger joints are probably fine when it's a very large and painted trim piece.
Thanks for watching. The finger joint rule is for exterior wood. It is also a reality in a world of plantation grown wood. As for moldings for your house, if it is 68 ranch it may not be that modern. Like mine. Check out my video on moldings in an 8' room. It may help.
Great lesson on molding Brent. Thank you!
Thanks for watching.
I admire what you’re doing Mr. Hull; however, I love my clamshell moldings in my simple ranch house. It’s modern. It’s clean. It’s organic. History hasn’t stopped in 1950. Not all of us have the means to own historic homes. And using graduated moldings or Americana moldings or traditional moldings don’t fit in this style house. Making it something that it isn’t on the inside jars with a more modern outside. It’s like using Americana style furniture in a ranch home rather than furniture with clean, organic lines. That said, I’ve enjoyed your videos and ideas.
This page is geared towards people trying to create older houses like that.
Thanks so much. I should have noted that a clam shell is great for houses built in that style. The point is that if you are picking moldings for today, you need to have this info to make good choices. Cheers.
I bought my house to live in, not "read moldings"!😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Many things were better prior to the 1950s Music, Culture and most of all, architecture. You're absolutely right about this, Brent Hull.
True. Thanks.
“magic sprinkle dust”
Word!
Very educational and makes me consider the molding telling us something. Taste is subjective though so there's not really a right or wrong set in stone. I've mocked up dozens of coffered ceilings for clients who ultimately choose what we would consider to be the 'wrong' choice. They're the ones that need to look at it forever and it's their money so as long as they like it then that's what's important. I'm just never a fan of these extremely modern homes completely eliminating moldings and using end beads, corner beads, and flat stock to keep windows bland and eliminate baseboard, crowns, etc. It's suprising to me because the same people will generally consider victorian style homes to be very beautiful(because who can deny that) but they seem lack the ability to connect the dots in their own space so they default to simplicity. There's also just a matter of cost. Not only does the trim price skyrocket, but so does the paint job when you're searching for someone that really knows how to cut into all the nooks of complex moldings. Nowadays, I just recommend stafford casing, craftsman headers, and speedbase for anyone looking for cost effective upgrades to their space. Keeps things manageable and at least they're not stuck with 3 1/2" colonial casing and base.
Thx for sharing.
Great video ...old school is always the best school
You got that right! Thx
wish my architecture school had someone like you who could teach the meaning behinds things like mouldings. Modernism has sucked the beauty out of architecture and left us with a poor understanding of how to truly build beautiful architecture. If only they could teach us things like this. Great video!
Thanks so much.
I agree, authenticity is important. My first home was a Victoria painted lady from 1895. Indeed there were no mouldings on the market in my region suitable for this house. I ended up DIY fabricating my own moulding cutters for my table saw to replicate the existing original mouldings. Since 2000 I have owned only modernist homes on the west coast, so go out of my way to eliminate all the colonial revival stuff that randomly infects newer homes here. I like a home fluent in its era's design language.
Yep. Me too. Thx.
Very nice just to be aware of these things!
Agreed. Thx.
I make my own moldings with my pre-1900 Stanley 55 molding plane.
Wow! one of the few.
I love these old houses where you can see the solid wood Casements and solid wood moldings and beautiful fireplaces of pure wood carved beautifully. Nothing is made like that anymore and It makes my heart sing to see those beautiful old houses with the solid wood accents.
I totally agree! Thx.
My contractor assured me he had a millwork expert who would be involved in the job. Turns out, it totally fell on me to tell them what to order, (without ever giving me access to anyone)…and guess what? I had no idea what to choose in a hurry out of a little brochure. The pile arrived at the house, and is just flimsy old school colonial style. A total disappointment. I’m learning that it’s typical for contractors, to use just have a few vendors, which then slap their usual stuff into every house. I can only hope I can add something to my new trim? The casings you have there are beautiful. ❤
Good luck! Thx.
Did finish carpentry for years and never noticed that before. What an eye opner.
Thanks for watching.
Molding was built up, using multiple pieces, near a brick wall. The molding hid a trivial unlevel ceiling vs brick line. Removing the molding was the worst thing I did.
Interesting. THx.
There are a few good sources out there. Brent showed one from Kuiken. But even the top producers like Kuiken and WindsorOne have curious gaps in their selections. I've been looking for base moldings modeled after classic column bases, that could be used for building porch columns, for example. Can't find them. There are some but they are far too small. Another is the sima molding at the top of the cornice. Simas should be produced in matching pairs, one for a horizontal cornice and a matching angled piece for pediments or raking cornices. Three or 4 sizes, paired with 3 or 4 rake slopes would cover the large majority of situations.
Ok, thanks.
Excellent video…. from my standpoint, the manufacturers are attempting to run the various patterns out of standard stock which severely reduces the ability for definition. Crown, as an example is often produced from 1x4 and 1x6 stock materials with only 3/4” working depth. In addition to the limitations imposed by using stock materials, modern molding designs suffer from a lack of knowledge about classical design and application and unfortunately, most people simply don’t notice the difference.
I agree 100%
Great info. Possibly a follow up on building up moldings out of standard lumber.
Ok. Thx.
A helpful thing to understand is that any kind of trim originates from the need to bridge a gap, cover a seam, or make a transition between materials or surfaces.
For example: When you frame up a door after building your walls there is likely a gap. So you put some thin timber over the gap, but you also need some backing to transition between the thickness of the wall and your frame. And you add a little detail edge to that on either side, using a profile plane, and maybe a little heavier detail on the outsides, you might add some other strip of wood to protect the thin cover. Then you add a little decorative cover profile because the cover turns out a bit wide, because the mason left a generous amount of space for your door, because that's always better than making it too small, right? Then, once it looks good and will fit as a standard for the rest of the build, you set up your complicated multiprofile edging plane to start copying the resulting compound profile in bulk. It will still look like the set of geometric elements you put together.
For plaster profiles, consider they were often made in stages, extruded on the spot as it were. So first you create the offset, then make the concave, then you add some beading and a contour, working from the center outwards, from the ceiling to the wall with different profiles.
Now look at classical profiles and you may begin to see how they are built up, and the logic behind the beads and concaves and spaces.
This knowledge used to be passed on through generations, alas a lot of it is lost with industrialisation and machine production and the craftsman/apprentice setup not really being a thing anymore.
Thanks for sharing. Cheers.
Very hard when you’re on a tight budget though 😢 we could only afford a one piece foam cornice for our 5 rooms
Dang...
I can’t thank you enough I feel like I’m getting a university degree and something I really care about. I’m a huge fan.
So glad to hear it. Cheers.
So many moldings are basically cove, bead, ogee and flat. By varying the combinations and sizes different designs happen, but those are the typical shapes of traditional moldings.
Thx
Brent as a 35 yr old carpenter I along with a lot of other people have been used as labor and no one taught us all this technical details. I would have loved to work for you if you taught this well. Not many people will devote time to teaching they just want to make money. I would buy a book from you if you had it . Where do I buy these moulding to learn how to stack them?
Hey there, Kuiken Lumber in NJ and Windsor One both sell nationally. They are great companies to work with. Good luck.
Love the video keep the good work up!
Thanks! Will do!
Question: I own a small, cheaply built three bedroom tract house built in 1954, with vaulted ceilings throughout, modernist post and beam construction, and small clamshell moldings for both casings and baseboards. Because of the vaulted ceilings, (which aesthetically make the interior seem much larger) typical classical moldings don’t seem to fit. But I am enamored of classical proportion and decorative style, and would like to find a way of incorporating these elements as I renovate. Suggestions?
That is a hard one. Watch my video on moldings for an 8' ceiling. That will answer some questions.
Brent - I’m coming to find you Buddy
It’s time for a Timber Frame - Texas Lime stone house:)
Lots of tongue and groove wood work:)
One level - post modem
Let's do it!
Wow, thank you. I know I liked the older moldings but I did not know why. Now I can articulate this to the people I know in the real world who will be annoyed because I am the wrong kind of person to take advice from, you know, the kind of person who actually does his homework.
In peoples defense no one can afford these expensive moldings.
I disagree on cost. A good molding does not cost more than a bad molding.
I just found you and this video, if I could hit the like button 10x, I would!! Thanks for a great video. Look forward to watching more of your channel.
Nice. Welcome aboard.
Yes ! We in old New Orleans still have a large stock of old houses even our lowly shotgun house's have beautiful woodwork 😎
So true. Thx.
5:30 those two show some good trim for thoose of us who are minimalist. The simple lines can keep the cost down and leaves a simple impression that doesnt imply structure underneath, since we all know the build up isnt really there on a more modest house.
My next personal house Brent has gotten me thinking of an enteryway and mud room trim design.
Doing shadow lines in most of the house. It has to be playfull because the house has a lot of exposed concrete inside and out.
Thanks for sharing. Good luck.
I hadn't thought about this, but it makes sense. I've gone into modern McMansions and seen large molding that just didn't look right. It just looked like some contractor slapped a bunch of crap up there with no thought to raise the price. I restored an 1890 farmhouse, and was careful to find out what would have been original. It was very simple, but took some work to get the dimensions right.
My current home was built in 1948 with cathedral ceiling and walls. all in knotty pine. The moldings are the same material, and don't have any embellishment to distract. The pine is slightly whitewashed to contrast with the aged fir beams. Clamshell moldings were used in the rest of the house, but they're all varnished old growth.
Thanks. It sounds lovely.
My house was built 1960, but not by a builder who was into minimalism. A few of my rooms still had a 3 inch cove (as well as bead board & chair rail) mold up top & ive been trying to copy it, but the big box stores dont carry it. Ive been looking into a table saw & jig set up....
Build it yourself. I say go for it. Thx.
When are you coming to Minneapolis?
Ha, good question.
Wow. Just Wow!
I'm subscribing and following you now.
Nice. Welcome aboard!!
My house was built in 1958 and it has nothing but clamshell moldings; even the original baseboards were clamshell. I don't mind moving subtly toward a little more ornamentation, but most pre-1950 moldings would look out of place, especially since I'm not looking to replace everything. Ideally, I'd like something similar to the Windsor moldings at 9:44 better than what I have, but the casing at 5:05 is too busy for my taste, and would be in any building, it looks as if they started out with a nice simple door frame, then threw a ledge on top of it to dress it up. If the top looks like a ledge or a lintel, I want the sides to look like pillars, with maybe a small bullnose or something similar to make the transition between them . But if there is any kind of molding that is mitered like a picture frame, I don't want much of anything added to embellish it.
PS: The one style of modern door casing that really bugs me is the perfectly rectangular profile of most prefabricated steel door frames, the kind they often use in commercial buildings. That style is more boring than it is clean. A perfectly hidden frame, integrated into a perfectly flat wall opening, would be better.
Thanks for sharing. My point was not to have people replace clam shell moldings in mid-cent. modern homes. Rather for those picking moldings today, to understand the history to make better decisions. Most new moldings today are bad.
Oh gee, I never knew what those little curves in the molding were called! 🤔
haha. cute.