Designer: Alisa Bovino
With the explosion of design resources, from TV and magazines to online resources like Pinterest and Houzz, homeowners are savvier than ever before when it comes to design. They know what they like, and they’ve got the screenshots and clippings to show you exactly what they want in order to bring their vision to life.
A challenge for dealers, contractors and designers is helping homeowners understand why they like the images they bring to you. The goal of this article is to help you discuss with your clients that a room is more than just paint color and patterned prints; we want to help you discuss how panel moulding will help them achieve the look and feel they want from the room of their dreams.
Why Use Panel Moulding
Moulding is one of the easiest and most cost-effective design feature builders and designers can include to increase the perceived value of a home. Using high-end finishings like trim and moulding gives any room a sense of completion, and tells a prospective homeowner they’re going to get a high value for their money.
Realtors use terms like “craftsmanship” and “pride of ownership” when they talk about homes with updated moulding, and those terms have a direct impact on a home’s price tag. For builders and homeowners looking to attract quality buyers in a competitive marketplace, panel moulding can make a home shine.
Tips for Using Panel Moulding
Great design doesn’t need to be complicated. Share these tips with your customers to help them get the look they would be pleased to show off to friends and family.
- Use painter’s tape to lay out the boxes before anything is nailed in. Moulding designs can be hard to visualize, so this can help show what the final outcome will look like while ensuring proportions and measurements are correct.
- When it comes to outlets, there are a few options. The best option is to ensure the panel moulding design puts the outlet inside the created box. Another option is to have the moulding start and stop at the edges of the outlet. This works best with thinner profiles, so the break isn’t as obvious. Alternatively, create the panel moulding boxes so the outlet is set outside of the design instead of inside of a box.
- For tall and large rooms, break up your wall by including chair rail, like in the bedrooms of Glass of Bovino and Jeweled Interiors shown below.
- While panel moulding can be a great design enhancement, it is important that the space looks intentional, not cluttered. A best practice is to keep at least four inches between panel moulding and crown moulding at the top, and four inches between panel moulding and baseboards at the bottom.
- Choose baseboard, trim and moulding with a similar look and feel to keep a consistent aesthetic throughout the room and between rooms. The Option {M} combinations are pre-selected to make sure everything from moulding to trim to doors looks intentional when installed in the space together.
- Choose moulding that works with the size and height of the room. The taller the room, the taller the moulding you can use. Choosing a profile that is too tall for a smaller room with lower ceilings will make the whole space feel smaller and cramped. The same goes for thickness of the moulding: larger rooms can have thicker moulding, while thick moulding could overpower a smaller room.
Mixing Classic & Modern
Metrie’s Option {M} product line consists of curated combinations of moulding and interior doors that brings together the most sought-after decor styles. New Traditional is one of six styles that help make creating a truly finished space easy. This on-trend style brings a classic, tailored and sophisticated look to any room.
The moulding shapes include traditional sloping curves and modern bevels that can be used to tie the room together from floor to ceiling. Full-size panel moulding creates height while chair rail can define the area and give it a classic sense of spaciousness, and different profile thicknesses can drastically change the feel of a room. New Traditional gives classic a facelift, bringing a subtle sophistication and a sense of fun to traditional profiles.
Using Option {M} will help take the guesswork out of selecting moulding types, such as baseboard, crown, and casing, to ensure the completed room is finished with a distinctive look every time. Below are five creative ways that three design experts used Option {M} New Traditional moulding to create five unique spaces.
Using the New Traditional Style
A Glass of Bovino, Living Room
In this living room, extra-large boxes using Option {M} New Traditional moulding take up the whole length of the wall with multiple boxes per wall, creating uniformity and also drawing the eye from one panel to the next, farther into the room. The thinner profile of moulding is ideal for this kind of design, as it creates visual interest without conflicting with the many other design and decor details of the room.
Using long, thin boxes adds soft refinement that complements the elegant dark green velvet couch, while the leopard print accent chairs add a fun, contemporary twist. The panel moulding in this design is used more as a subtle accent, leaving the decor as the star of the show, unlike the bedroom discussed next.
A Glass of Bovino, Master Bedroom
In the same home as the living room featured above, designer Alisa Bovino from A Glass of Bovino, used a similar design style that gives a different feel, thanks to different size boxes. Instead of the boxes flowing the entire length of the wall, the multiple boxes are set above and below a chair rail that wraps the entire room.
In the bedroom, Bovino used the same New Traditional moulding profile as in the living room to work as a frame for artwork and complement the deeper-set profiles of the closet doors. The moulding works well with the dramatic and eye-catching features, like the floor-to-ceiling gold curtains and statement piece light fixtures to add subtle sophistication to the bolder pieces.
By using panel moulding and adding chair rail, Bovino was able to create a completely different feel to the bedroom compared to the living room, while still ensuring both rooms work together in harmony. While the panel moulding in the living room above is used as a background element, this panel moulding takes center stage as a main part of the design.
In these two rooms, Bovino has cleverly used the New Traditional panel moulding in two very different ways.
Andrew Pike, Condo
If your client wants continuity throughout their whole home, or condo in this case, why not use the same design throughout? Celebrity designer Andrew Pike, from Andrew Pike Interiors, used a double box of panel moulding that follows the entire length of the wall in several different areas of this condo.
On each of the three walls, one in the bedroom, one in the hallway and one in the sitting room, there are three sets of double boxes, all in the same New Traditional profile. This creates a wonderful flow and feeling of unity throughout the entire space.
Jeweled Interiors, Bedroom
Jewel Marlowe of Jeweled Interiors took a bold approach by using wider panel moulding in this bedroom. The thickness creates a clean, simple pattern that contrasts with the playful illusion of the carpet. The linear pattern repeats throughout, from the headboard to the striped comforter, all the way down to the tassels on the blankets and bed skirt.
To prevent the room from becoming overwhelming and keep a sense of control, moulding boxes are the same width throughout, and they’re broken up by a central chair rail. The uppermost boxes work with the angled ceiling, using triangular and trapezoid shapes to blur the lines between wall and ceiling and add a sense of height to the room.
Jeweled Interiors, Hallway and Stairs
Hallways and staircases are often a missed opportunity for personalization and customization, but not for Marlowe.
In the same home as the bedroom featured above, chunky moulding helps to maintain this home’s distinctive style, even in a mostly functional space. The high boxes work well with the tall ceilings, and angled boxes follow the flow of the stairs to create a sense of fluidity.
Marlowe used panel moulding and chair rail distinctively in this hallway, but because she used all Option {M} New Traditional profiles in her home, she was able to ensure that the moulding flows smoothly from the bedroom into the entry hallway for a sense of balance.
Find the Perfect Moulding
To find the perfect moulding and a trusted partner to support your next design project, check out Option {M} on the Metrie website or reach out to your Metrie Representative to find out what Option {M} styles and profiles are available in your region.
