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Door and Window Casings

Eager to enhance your home’s personality?

Casings around windows and doors greatly influence the look and style of your home’s interior. Traditionally it was always the door/window casing that set the tone — from the graceful arched profiles in a Georgian to the stocky symmetrical surrounds in a Craftsman. Casings are often the most visible part of the trim, making them the defining feature in any home, making it look either formal or casual. Casing trim also serves a practical role – to bridge the gaps and cover spaces between the door frames or window jambs and the rough framing or surfaces. Door casings and window casings are usually installed with a “reveal” between the edge of the jamb and the casing – typically 1/8”. This allows you to adjust the casing if the jamb is not perfectly straight.

Choosing the right Casings

Making the right choice isn’t always easy given the wide range of casing and baseboard profiles available these days. But there is one rule to follow: door and window casings are generally smaller and thicker than the base mouldings. Choosing a profile boils down to a question of taste, but be sure to prioritize the same curves of casings and baseboards to ensure a harmonious effect. To create symmetry in a room, the proportions and profiles on your window casings should match or at least complement those on your door. This is easy enough, considering windows share the same head and leg casings as doors. The only difference is that windows have a fourth side, a bottom ledge consisting of the stool (or sill) and the apron.

Large sized casings are in today. If you want to make your home look fashionable, your existing door and window casings can be accented by applying smaller mouldings, such as backband directly around existing trim. Same casing profile can be used to trim completely around each side of the doorway or window, or they can be used in conjunction with other architectural elements such as headers, rosettes, and plinth blocks.

Archways and Flexible Profiles

The archway is also making a comeback. There’s a renewed interest in the richness of detail and sense of permanence that a traditional archway brings. In the past trimming out an archway meant forcing straight wooden moldings to bend through a series of complicated curve cuts. Today Royal Mouldings simplifies the process using flexible polymer moulding. It is cheaper than custom wood curves, cuts with standard woodworking tools, is paintable and stainable and and won’t rot, warp, or crack. Yes, it’s also cheaper than custom wood curves, but flexible moldings still cost more than most straight profiles. We have all of our profiles available in Flexible styles, to match the rest of the trim.