Fall in Love with Subtle Crown Moulding and Trim Ideas for Your Boston Home

Rumors have been circulating wildly about crown moulding. Is it still in? Or is it on it’s way out? What about other types of millwork for your Boston home? Let’s take a look at today’s most popular crown moulding trends as well as trim and other molding ideas to find out!

Crown Moulding Isn’t Out — It’s Just Less Obvious

For the past few years, homeowners and designers were demanding big, beautifully carved crown moulding, particularly in rooms with high ceilings or vaulted ceilings. Today, however, the trend is being modified. In some new homes, upper moldings are absent completely, but the more popular trend is the subtle crown moulding.

So how do you choose the perfect subtle trim for your home? The answer will depend largely on the height of your ceiling. In general, the higher the ceiling, the wider the trim. For ceilings that are eight feet high, simple millwork that is only an inch or twowide will suffice. Taller than that and you can safely go wider, all the way up to six-inch moldings and beyond. Just keep the look   simple — for example, use cove molding like these oak crowns from Metrie.

What about Matching Baseboard Molding?

The simplistic trend carries over into baseboards, too. As far as width goes, baseboards tend to be on the wider side — at least three inches high but often as much as six or eight inches in height. Alexandria Moulding’s Modern Simplicity Gallery shows a few examples of this: Click here to check it out! You’ll see that the most popular baseboards aren’t the curvy, old-fashioned types but instead, trim that offers clean lines and a sleek look.

How to Pull the Trim in Your Boston Home Together

Now you know which crown moulding styles are popular and what to look for in baseboards but what else do you need to tie the room’s millwork together? For 2018, the idea is to think in terms of the number three. That is, make sure that you have three molding features within the room to make the look work.

What is the best way to do this? Consider your crowns and baseboards as pieces one and two. After that, there are a few great ideas that you can use to add the third millwork feature:

• Opt for bold trim around windows and doors. Again, you’ll want to keep the profile of the molding simple to match the rest of your theme but make that trim stand out to place emphasis on the upper and lower moldings.
• Go for clever millwork in archways: Trim around the archway itself or maybe even decorative pillars to add a bit more wood to the room.
• Wainscoting and chair rails remain a popular choice to tie a room’s woodwork together. For 2018, wainscoting trends are steering more towards beadboard and simple panels rather than the ornate French country look.

For 2018, crown moulding is definitely still in! Just make sure to keep your trim sleek and simple — and don’t forget to work these themes into the rest of your millwork!