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Molding can really make or break a house, but it can also make or break a budget. Unfortunately, I just can’t get enough of it! You may have noticed in a lot of the pictures of my house that I have ornate molding – but I also have areas where we installed simpler, linear molding. Let’s face it, the fancy-smancy stuff isn’t for everyone and it has to suit the architecture of the house. It can also be pretty pricy. The problem I run into is that I have tall ceilings – 12′ on the main floor and 10′ in the basement and upper level. With that, the molding has to be in scale, so in many rooms I have stacked moldings or, in the case of our mudroom, duped the eye and used a trick that builders use to get the most bang for the buck.

Here’s what I opted for in our mudroom, which was SOOOO dreadfully plain, boring and devoid of any details:

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I incorporated the wall into the molding by painting it the same color, which added several inches to the height. All the pieces are generic stock molding that can be bought off the shelf at Home Depot or Lowes. I SO wish I remember how much I paid for this project, but it wasn’t much!

The top piece of molding is 5 or 6″ crown – I chose the largest face they had on the shelf. I then chose a smaller half-round to place on the wall about 3″ down from the top molding. A piece of cap molding placed 3″ down from the half round completed my “molding stack”. I always paint my molding before installing, so I just had to go back, fill nail holes, caulk, and paint the wall in between the wood pieces.

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In person, it looks like one solid piece…

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The molding is up high, so you can’t tell. But from this particular picture it looks dinky (grrrr!), which makes me want to go back and add to it!!

ADHMolding0201133Next time, I’ll explain how I addressed the walls (sneak peek above) keeping with the same linear look  🙂

Regardless of your aesthetic, you can tweak this idea and make it your own, blending it in to fit with the architecture of your home. And adding upgrades like these not only sets your house apart from others and adds visual interest, but it also adds equity! I hope you all have a great weekend!!