Take a Proactive Approach to Your Trim Plan
In this episode of NS Builders Podcast, it’s confession time: I’m going to share with you some mistakes I made when building my house. These faux pas involve finishes—specifically trim—and how I didn’t take the time to appropriately evaluate my trim plan during the rough stage of construction. If only I had…
Oh well, I can’t change the past—but I can share the lessons I learned and help you avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTENTIONAL DESIGN AND FINISHES
Intentional design and your selection of finishes must start dating early on in the project. Waiting to think about your finishes until the end of a project is a rookie mistake. Let’s face it: trim, paint, flooring—these are the things you’ll see every day. Things hidden behind walls or up in ceilings, like HVAC or plumbing, will be forgotten about. Out of sight, out of mind.
When trim is done right, it showcases what it surrounds. When it’s done wrong, it’s glaringly evident that little thought was put into it. Therefore, never underestimate the relationship between intentional design and planning ahead for your finishes—especially your trim package. Trim should appear intentional in its placement, not weirdly notched and forced to fit into a tiny space it had no business being in.
THE BENEFITS OF KNOWING YOUR TRIM PLAN
One of the biggest advantages to having your trim already selected is that you can take a piece of it and walk around your home as it is being built (or remodeled). You can hold it up to the walls, corners, ceilings, etc., and see whether or not it’s going to fit. For example, I like to take a piece of casing in my hand and go around to door openings and check measurements. Will it fit? Or will it be too tight to the inside corner? Too tight against another piece of casing? Will there be any room between the window casing and the ceiling?
This exercise allows you to correct any problems before they appear. It’s an opportunity to figure out a plan of how to address the casing—perhaps some pieces will need to be sized down to accommodate tight spaces. Or a door can be moved over or shrunk down a bit.
Thinking of my own home, I opted for the biggest doors wherever I could fit them in. And I made the mistake of not considering the trim. I made it work—I literally had to rip an inch off the casing, push it tight up against the corner, caulk it, paint it, and call it good. But now, every time I’m in that room and I close the door, I look at that corner and lament: ‘What was I thinking?’
What’s irritating is that it literally would’ve taken me just a few minutes to walk around and measure and realize the casing was not going to fit. And I could’ve come up with another option. It’s a mistake that I don’t want to repeat—for myself or my clients.
CASING AND ELECTRICAL OUTLETS
Always consider the height and width of your chosen casing and where electrical outlets and light switches will go. For example, if you have a 4 ½ inch casing picked out, have you conveyed that to the electrician? How close is he putting the light switches to the doors? Is the casing going to be pushed up tight against the light switch or outlet?
I learned this lesson the hard way as well—many light switches in my home are placed too close to the door casing. I even had to cut one of the light switch plates because it was so tight. All of this could have been easily avoided—if I had taken the extra time to walk around my house and use the sample casing piece to measure.
LESSONS LEARNED
Don’t wait till the last minute to select a trim package. Take a sample piece and do a complete walk-through of your project. If you see a potential problem, address it then. This may be a change in the trim itself or perhaps a tweak in design. The key is to be proactive in your approach to selecting interior trim versus a reactive approach when you discover the casing is too tight in certain areas.
It’s time to discover what NS Builders can intentionally craft for you! Contact us today to get started on your custom dream home. Together, we can make it happen.
—Nick Schiffer