Comparing Modern and Trendy Moulding Options for Your Home October 08 2020

As a homeowner, you should be constantly looking for ways to add value to your home. While many value-adding projects can be difficult and/or time consuming, some of them require very little investment to provide a nice return.

One such idea to quickly and efficiently add value to your home is to consider a moulding project. Moulding is any strip of material that is used to cover transitions between surfaces, often providing a stately, decorative effect.

While there are dozens of projects that may fall under the broad category of “moulding,” there are a handful of exceptionally trendy moulding options that can provide a valuable touch to your home.

Crown Moulding

This is one of the more common types of moulding found in the home. Alternately referred to as ceiling moulding, crown moulding involves using strips of decorative paneling to soften the transition between the wall and ceiling. Not only does crown moulding visually enhance ceiling/wall intersections, it can provide an additional layer of insulation to ceiling and wall gaps that are notoriously weak.

While basic crown moulding is typically understated in most rooms, usually closely matching the color and design pattern of the ceiling and/or walls, crown moulding in more spacious, luxury houses is known to be exceedingly intricate, with wider moulder strips of more intricate designs tactfully used to adorn such spaces.

Baseboard Moulding

Another extremely common type of moulding, baseboard moulding is essentially the same as crown moulding, only it joins the wall and the floor instead of the wall and the ceiling.

As baseboard moulding provides similar aesthetic and insulative benefits as does crown moulding, pairing it with radiant floor heating used to warm hard floors is a great way for homeowners to optimize heating costs in the winter.

Wainscoting

This fancy term derives its name from Dutch origins meaning “inner wooden covering of a wall.”

While traditional wainscoting used a piece of oak wood to cover the lower portion of a wall with poor damp-proof qualities, modern home framing resists dampness to the point that wainscoting is now used primarily for decorative effect.

Typically covering the lower 32 inches of a wall, contemporary wainscoting can be used for any number of decorative purposes. For example, modern kitchens that make use of nonporous acrylic countertops may choose to employ solid surface wainscoting on the walls to create a cohesive effect in the space.

Casing

A highly-relevant form of moulding found in nearly every home, casing is used to conceal the gap that exists between a wall and door frame. Casing can vary widely in size and design depending on the type of door, wall, and overall elegance of the home.

Chair Rail Moulding

Often thought of as a decorative touch to a wall, chair rail moulding is an ornate strip that belts the wall 32 inches above the ground, meant to protect the wall from scratches and dents caused by chairs. Some chair rail moulding is included as part of the wainscoting, while other chair rail moulding is stand-alone.

Fixtures

While highly functional, fixtures such as door knobs, handrails, and drawer pulls can also be considered moulding due to their decorative effect and ability to provide a classy transition from the more prominent underlying material.

Conclusion

For those homeowners looking to quickly and efficiently add value to their property, a moulding project may make a lot of sense.

By softening the transition between different faces of the home, modern and trending moulding projects such as crown, baseboard, wainscoting, casing, chair rail, and fixtures can provide a number of functional and decorative benefits that can truly help tie your home together.

Matt Lee is the owner of the Innovative Building Materials blog and a content writer for the building materials industry. He is focused on helping fellow homeowners, contractors, and architects discover materials and methods of construction that save money, improve energy efficiency, and increase property value.