Decorative and Functional Wall Trim

For that complete and decorative interior decorating accent for any room, consider adding wall trims. These are molding made of wood or other such light weight material that is used to dress up walls. Apart from adding character to the wall and being a bold design statement, trims are a creative way of hiding construction imperfections like dents, joints and gaps. Wood trim is cheaper than polymer trims but may contain imperfections that make it hard to nail through them on installation. It also shrinks with time especially if the wood had not dried properly at the time of manufacture.

Different Types of Wall Trim

Trims can be used on any wall in the house and can be done uniformly throughout the house. Crown moulding is installed at the joint between the ceiling and wall while baseboards are installed at the joint between the wall and the floor. Both these can be used to hide a gap between the wall and the flooring or the ceiling. Casing is another type of trim that is used to define the area around the window or door frames. A chair rail is a horizontal piece of trim about three feet from the floor that originally protected the walls from chairs though today it is used as a decorative element. A picture rail is a variation of the chair rail higher on the wall that was used to hold hooks for hanging pictures.

Wall frame moulding is found on more luxurious houses and is a decorative wall feature that can be assembled to create the effect of a picture frame. Wall trims like the chair rail can be used to divide two different colours on a wall with the trim taking up one of the colours or a third, matching colour which further accentuates interior decorating in the room.