One of the ways the architect stamped his mark on the house was that he’s decided to go with no mouldings anywhere in the house. No crown moldings, no frame around the doors, none around the windows. There is a baseboard, but it doesn’t look much like a baseboard – it’s flush with the drywall with a reveal between the two.
Here’s a picture of what I’m talking about…
It needs to be cleaned up, but you can get the idea… That’s pretty much the finished trim. We just have to figure out whether we’re leaving the metal visible or painting it.
The way you achieve that look is to use what’s called a Z-Bead. They’re pretty expensive – 15 cents/linear foot and there’s well over 1000 feet of reveal in the house – so it adds up. plus it takes a detailed oriented workman a while to install it. It’s much easier to just slap a piece of wood trim over the imperfections. It’s funny how “minimal” is often more complicated.
While it’s more expensive, I gotta say it will be one of those subtle details that make people know some care and thought went into both the construction and the design.
I think this is a great look! We’re doing something similar in our place, with reveals around the doors. I vote for painting the metal…
I vote for painting the metal, but reserve the right to change my mind when I see it in the flesh!!!!! Can’t wait, you are making such good progress.
Without putting trim around doors and windows is it expected there will be more cracking? We did that in London and had tons of cracks, which I didn’t entirely mind, as I preferred not to see all the excessive trim, but the cracks were more visible than I expected.
I think we will paint the metal for the simple reason that it’s only on 2 of the 3 sides of the reveal.
I don’t think there will be more cracking, but we did have a problem with hinges. Standard American hinges include space for door framing, which we don’t have. Our contractor had to find narrower hinges.