How Hardwood Mouldings Can Transform Your Home

Redesigning your home can be a really fun and incredibly rewarding experience. From selecting comfy sofas and chairs to considering sensible storage options, you can easily get immersed in the world of colour palettes, patterns and fabrics. However, there may be extra features you haven’t even thought about, namely, mouldings.

An interior moulding is an architectural term used to describe a decorated recessed surface. This is usually a strip of material with various functions that are used to cover joints or transitions between surfaces e.g. where the wall and the floor meet, but usually, are an added architectural room decoration commonly referred to as “trim”.

You may not have even noticed them, but mouldings likely already feature in your home. From skirting boards to door casings, these minor details are usually overlooked to the untrained eye but can actually transform your entire home by giving a room a feel of completeness whilst adding an air of elegance.

As well as this, mouldings - particularly those manufactured from hardwood - have many added benefits and can be installed in various areas: doors, windows, floors, walls and more. At Pro-Fit Mouldings, we are experts in all things to do with hardwood mouldings so, we’ve written this blog to explore the various hardwood moulding options available and the benefits your home can reap from them.

Different types of wood mouldings

With many diverse wood moulding options for a property’s interior space, it’s important to know what is what. Each has different features, functions and the potential to lend themselves to any style choice, whether elegant and simple or elaborate and regal. Let’s take a look at some of the most common hardwood mouldings found within homes:

For doors

As the entranceway to any room of the house, a doorway area is usually the first things any visitor sees. So, to ensure your doorway is complete, why not consider some of these mouldings to immediately enhance your door area.

• Door casings - a door casing is a wood moulding that surrounds a door frame and is always installed before the baseboard. Usually made out of a hardwood like oak, a door casing’s surface can provide a perfect canvas to be painted any colour you desire and the oak lends itself to any room style. These are usually one of the most affordable moulding options because the joinery and installation is simple.

• Architraves - similar to a door casing, architraves are the moulded frames around doors and windows and is a strip of material that rounds off where the wall and door/window meet. Beneath the architrave, there’s a joint between the wall/ceiling and the door. The purpose of the architrave is to the hide that joint, usually horizontally, and any shrinkage/movement between the two. These are different to door casings though in that door casings are more decorative and have thicker borders around the door’s entirety. Again, these are manufactured into oak architraves that can be painted any colour and come in different styles such as bullnose and chamfered.

• Door bars/thresholds - these mouldings form the bottom of a door that you walk over as you enter a room or building.

For ceilings

Ceilings can tend to go unnoticed unless you live in a stately manor house with elaborate decoration. However, there are certain oak moulding touches you can add to brighten up and transform it.

• Coving and cornices - coving and cornices are both mouldings to describe those that conceal the joint between the wall and the ceiling so that it avoids displaying any cracking and adds a layer of durability against any paint/wallpaper peeling and damp. A plain ceiling moulding is referred to as coving. Whereas, a cornice is usually highly decorative and intricate in its design. Coving would suit a more contemporary or modern home whereas cornices would suit a more traditional home.

For walls

For walls, there are a few oak mouldings you can add to transform a room. However, some wall mouldings can be a bit outdated - these are only for homes that are sticking to a very specific style choice.

• Pilasters - these aren’t commonly found in the average UK semi-detached home due to being quite intricate and regal. Pilasters are rectangular columns that are attached and partially project out from the wall. These are purely for decorative purposes and are best suited to traditional style homes or those opting for Victorian or Georgian styles.

• Dado rails - also known as a chair rail, dado rails are fixed to the wall, roughly about a third of a way up from the floor and run parallel to the skirting boards. These can encircle an entire room or part of a room and are usually best suited in homes that conform to a country house, cottage or rustic aesthetic.

For floors

In the home, the floors will always experience the most traffic, slowly wearing out over time. Whilst looking aesthetically pleasing, mouldings can also help protect your surfaces and the joints where floors meet walls or stairs.

• Skirting boards - these are boards that run along the base of an interior wall and covers the joint between the wall and the floor. Skirting boards are particularly useful to protect the wall from any scrapes, knocks, scuffs and other general wear and tear. Additionally, skirting boards feature in the majority of UK homes and really elevate a space.

• Stair nosings - stair surfaces experience a lot of foot traffic too and this is where stair nosings can help. These mouldings are fitted to the horizontal, protruding edge of a single step. As well as helping decrease wear and tear, these can help stop trips and slips.

Benefits of hardwood oak mouldings

Once you’ve decided which hardwood mouldings would best suit your home, these can be easily manufactured and supplied to you by an expert mouldings company.

• Aesthetic - we’ve already covered this, but hardwood mouldings can typically blend in with any style choice, whether you opt for a traditional style or modern household. Each offers many options for finishes - staining, clear coat finishes or various paints - and the potential for intricate designs into the wood.

• Durability - of all the materials used for mouldings, hardwood (oak) is one of the most durable and has a longevity that many materials can’t match. Some wood can be prone to cracks and experience quick wear and tear over time. Whereas, hardwood is much more durable and stands the test of time. This is a huge benefit, especially as many homeowners wish to simply enjoy their home instead of continually forking out for replacement features.

• Environmentally friendly - oak really is quite hard to beat in terms of environmentally friendly and ethical building materials. It’s a raw material and pure hardwood is the only renewable construction materials. Hardwood, including oak, doesn’t require lots of energy to be produced and absorb carbon dioxide instead of emitting it.

• Increase property value - if the rooms in your house have the appropriate hardwood mouldings, your home will give off a finished feel that will translate well with estate agents valuing your house and potential homebuyers looking to purchase. With this in mind, your house value could increase and any photographs will be enticing.

• Manufacture and installation - hardwood oak mouldings are manufactured to a high quality and the construction process of creating mouldings and joins are a lot easier than other materials such as metal and stone. Finally, oak mouldings are easy to install within homes, are low-maintenance, don’t emit dust and debris and are smoothed out, ready to fit onto any surface.

Pro-Fit Mouldings - quality hardwood products

At Pro-Fit Mouldings, we provide stunning oak mouldings in various designs to fully transform any property. Alternatively, if you’re also looking for a supplier of high-quality oak doors and flooring, we’ve got it! For more information regarding our products and how it could suit your home, contact us today on 01777 872085 or visit our online shop for more details.