This DIY farmhouse style trim is such a simple and inexpensive way to completely transform the look of your home!
Good morning friends!
You may remember my mentioning our little old hallway and our plans to transform it a few short weeks ago. And then you probably thought I forgot all about it. I mean, aside from this round up of brilliant linen storage ideas, I’ve barely mentioned it since.
But, as always, we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes demo’ing, reno’ing and DIY’ing our little hearts out. Seriously, the proof is in the pudding so to speak.
We’ve been painting, trimming, caulking and of course, more painting with the hopes to create a farmhouse style hallway.
And friends, it’s so exciting to see this vision taking shape!
I can’t get over how much lighter the space looks with our new wall colour (Edgecomb Gray from Benjamin Moore in case you were wondering). And our new planked ceiling is everything I’d hoped it would be (watch for that tutorial coming soon).
But, my favourite part so far, the one thing that’s made the largest impact?
Without a doubt, it would have to be that DIY farmhouse style trim! I mean really, how could we create a space with the character and charm we’d been hoping for without this most basic element?
I cannot wait to show you how simple, inexpensive and relatively painless it was to trim out our entire hallway space in farmhouse style.
We started by carefully removing ripping out all of our old trim and giving the walls a fresh coat of paint.
With our beautiful blank canvas ready, it was time to start trimming out our doors.
We thought long and hard about what sort of wood we’d like to use. Okay, maybe not long and hard per say, but we did think about it. Here’s the thing: regular old lumber would have been the less expensive way to go for sure and I’ve actually come across a few great tutorials about how to use it to frame a window (here and here for starters). But, sometimes (often actually) our lumber is warped, knotted, or otherwise not wonderful and, as much as we were going for character here, we weren’t sure that crooked trim should be a part of that. Painting it all was also a consideration for me – primed wood meant one less coat of paint to apply and with our tight timeline, I was all for saving work. So, long story short, we went with plain old primed millwork, though we were sure to go with the most plain moulding design in the interest of keeping things simple (and inexpensive).
In the end, we ended up using 1×2, 1×4 and 1×6 moulding for the door trim and the same 1×6 moulding for the baseboards.
We kept things really simple making all straight cuts throughout, which meant we didn’t have to mess around with tricky angles or mitred corners (yay!). We did make sure to have a few tools on hand though:
– finishing nailer
– air compressor
– saw
– and of course, a handy tape measure
The first boards we nailed to the wall were the 1×4’s which ran the entire length of the doorway, right from the floor all the way to the top edge of the door casing. We then turned a 1×2 on it’s side (so that it would stick out from the wall 2″) and stacked that on top of our 1×4’s, nailing it in place too. We cut our 1×2 an inch longer than the span of our 1×4’s so that it would stick out 1/2″ on either side. We also did the same with the 1×6 that we stacked on top and then we finished it all off with one last 1×2 turned on it’s side again so that it would stick out further from the wall.
Finally, we filled all of the nail holes and caulked all of the seams between each board to give it a finished look.
Another great trick we’ve learned along the way is to caulk along where the trim meets the wall – it helps to hide any little gaps and really gives things a professionally finished look.
The trim seemed to go up really quickly, it was the caulking and painting of course that turned into a tedious and time consuming task.
But boy was it worth it!
So, what do you think? Doesn’t this DIY farmhouse style trim make a world of difference?
*UPDATE: See which one we went with and how it all came together in the end with our farmhouse style hallway reveal here!
And check out all of our DIY hallway projects below:
Wishing you SUCH a lovey day!
PS. This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. For more information please read my disclosure and privacy policies.
This is such a great idea! I’m wanting to work on my hallway soon, and adding a farmhouse trim to the doors would be a good way to add a pretty touch. I’m obsessed with anything farmhouse and need some ways to add it to my home. p.s. I just LOVE your new look, friend! It’s so YOU!
Oh Jenna, you are always just SO sweet! Thank you so, so much my friend! I’m thrilled that you’re feeling inspired! And I couldn’t be any more excited about the new look!!! xo
THIS IS JUST PLAIN BEAUTIFUL AND GIVE ME IDEA ON HOW TO MY HALLWAY. I JUST LOVE THE PLANK CEILING AND WOULD LOVE TO DO THAT ALSO. YOU GUYS ARE JUST AMAZING AT WHAT YOUR DOING! I AM SO GLAD THAT I SUBSCRIBE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR BEAUTIFUL AND SIMPLE IDEAS!!!!
Oh goodness Barbara, you’re sweet comments just made my day! Thank you so very much!!! I’m so happy that you’re enjoying following along!!!
What a wonderful transformation! It couldn’t have turned out better…I love it!
Awwwww, well thank you!!! xo
The trim makes such a difference, Kristi! And love your new look! It’s all so beautiful! Have a wonderful day! xo
Thank you so, so much Kendra! It’s totally transformed that hallway! Wishing you a wonderful day too my friend! xo
Really nice Kristi – it draws the eyes up and makes the hallway look so grand. Need to show Mr. Frugalista this post and do a lot of hinting.
Thank you SO much Marie! It’s totally transformed the space for sure! Happy you love it too!
Wow Kristi, this made such a huge difference and it looks beautiful! You’ve got an eye for detail and it definitely looks professionally done. Love it!
You are so sweet Katie! The trim went up so quickly, but caulking all those seems to ages! Totally worth it though!!!
It looks absolutely fantastic!! Great job:)
Thanks so much Krista!!!
Love this style of trim! It looks so good. Cant wait to see the final hallway reveal 🙂
Thank you Katie!!! I’m absolutely thrilled with how it turned out!
Oh what a beautiful job!! It makes such a difference!
Great job!
Nancy
wildoakdesigns.blogspot.com
Thank you SO much Nancy! It really does!!!
Thanks for sharing your simple farmhouse trimDIY, my builder added a very similar trim to our home, i did not realized it was a farmhouse trim. I actually have it also half way up my wall as well. Thanks for sharing this on Dream Create and Inspire. Stop by and visit as well, love to hear from you. Thanks Maria http://www.simplenaturedecorblog.com
Thanks so much Maria! I think it’s a really classic look that could lend itself to many different styles and I bet it looks just beautiful in your home!
Beautiful Kristi! I love, love old houses. They have so much charm and character. You did an amazing job recreating this look and it sounds so easy! Thank you for sharing at Dream. Create. Inspire. Link! Pinning and sharing!
Cat
Thanks so much Cat!!! I’m really happy with how it turned out and cannot wait to spread the look through our entire house!
I’ve been wanting to do this. Thanks for posting this tutorial on The Creative Circle!
Oh good, I’m so happy you found it helpful Angela! Thank you!!!
Hi Kristi, It all looks great – well done! Blessings, Janet
Thank you SO, SO much Janet!!!
That trims make such a big difference and it’s such an easy update! I’m featuring you on the Talented Tuesday Link party, thanks for sharing!
Thank you Stephanie! They really do!
Love the simplicity and clean look of the trim. Can you come over and decorate my house?! 🙂
Awwwww, thanks Erlene! It’s completely changed the look of the space!
Love, love the trim work!
Thanks so much for sharing at AMAZE ME MONDAY!
Blessings,
Cindy
Thank you SO much Cindy! It’s made such a difference to the space!
Girlfriend, you have been productive! It looks amazing!! Thanks for sharing. You are one of the features at the Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. Here is the link to this week’s bash. http://www.thededicatedhouse.com/2016/04/make-pretty-monday-week-174.html Have a lovely week! Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse
How exciting!!! Thank you so, so much Kathryn!!!
It’s Beautiful!!! Wanting to do it myself now and get rid of the awful brown moulding we have in our house! May I ask how you did the corners? Thank you for inspiring me to do something different!
Thank you Jennifer! I still can’t believe the difference it’s made! For all of the corners, we simply butted the flat end of one up against the next – you could also mitre the corners on the baseboards, though, without any details on ours, we didn’t feel that was necessary. Be sure to caulk all of your seams as well as where the trim meets the walls – makes for a much more polished look. Good luck!!!
A lovely hall … one comment however, my eye was immediately drawn to the tiny space between the trim and the wall .. perhaps widening the trim just slightly so as to be flush to the wall might have made that dark line disappear.
That’s a great suggestion! Thanks so much for sharing!
I love this but I have a question does your baseboard go all the way to the door or does the door trim come down to the floor?? I’m not sure which way to do it!!!
I think the usual way is to run the trim around your doors all the way to the floor and then run your baseboards into the side of that. Good luck!
What is the trim around your ceiling? We are trying to find exactly that….how thick is it and where did
You buy it!
It’s just a simple 1×3 trim that we picked up at Home Depot: http://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/7615004/type/dlg/http://www.homedepot.com/p/Trim-Board-Primed-Pine-Finger-Joint-Common-1-in-x-3-in-x-8-ft-Actual-719-in-x-2-5-in-x-96-in-424600/202085979
This is so encouraging! Really love this post! I don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on crown molding !
My question, the ceiling molding, are those simple 1×4’s as well? I’ve been wanting to see someone do that! Thanks !
I’m SO happy you love it Nikki! The moulding along the ceiling are plain old primed 1×3 trim pieces.
So there are no angles really ? It’s just flat ?
That’s right, we made all of ours flat to keep things simple.
Hi Kristi! I’m considering painting my interior walls edgecomb gray and love the trim color you used with it – would mind sharing the name?
Oh, you’re going to LOVE it! I’ve seen it used in so many spaces and it’s always the most perfect mix of grey and beige! We paired it with Cloud White from Benjamin Moore – a subtly warm white, without being too warm. Hope this helps!
This looks great!
Just one question, when nailing the 1×2, how did you nail that? To the wall? To the 1×4?
Thank you!
That’s a great question! We nailed the 1×2’s down into the boards above/below them, but the 1×4’s and 1×6’s were all nailed straight into the wall. Hope this helps!
I love this look! It is exactly what I’ve wanted to do in my home for a while but wasn’t sure it would look as good in reality as it did in my head. Thank you for sharing and giving me the confidence to go ahead with my ideas. One question – I saw that your ceiling trim is 1×3, and I understand the door trim sizes, but I’m not sure about the baseboard along the floor? Is it a 1×4 or 1×6?
I’m SO happy you’re feeling inspired to try it! Our baseboard trim is 1×6, good guess! Thanks so much!
I am in the process of redoing my hallway, and totally stealing this! My only issue is my 1×4 do not sit flush with the wall and door frame and leaves about an 1/8th inch gap. Did you have any issues with this and if so how did you overcome this? Thanks so much.
Oh good! I’m thrilled to hear that you’re feeling inspired! We have a few door frames that don’t seem to match up with the walls perfectly too, my favourite trick is to run a line of caulking over all of the joints and along the edges where the trim meets the wall. We actually do this on every piece of trim work – it’s a great way to hide any gaps and really makes everything look finished. Hope this helps!
Your completed project looks really good. I have two questions for you. According to both the pictures and the drawing, the 1×6 baseboard goes all the way to the door opening and the 1×4 door casing sits atop your baseboard, but one of your responses to a question sounds different. Can you clarify? Also, your instructions specify 1x material but the baseboard appears thicker than the door casing. Any help you can give me would be appreciated.
I have the exact same question! I made a mistake and bought thicker 1×6 trim. So my door casings are thinner. I was wondering if it’s OK to have the door casing sit on top of the baseboard rather than having it run all the way to the floor.
I hope my response above answers this question for you too Melanie. Let me know if you need any further clarification though. Thanks!
Yes, thank you! My husband had an idea to put a notch in the 6” baseboard right before the door casing to give the block look. I can’t visualize it so he’s going to do a sample for me. Otherwise, I’ll just do what you did. I know it’s not traditional, but I personally like how it looks!
I think that’s a great idea! You’ll have to see what look you like more, but either way, I’m sure you’re going to love it! I was so surprised at what a difference it made in updating the look of our home!
I’m so glad you reached out about this Caryn! So, the proper way to frame a door is for the door casing to extend all the way to the floor and for the baseboard to sit beside it. We purchased a value pack of 1×4 casings from our local home improvement store and didn’t realize until we started working with them that they were a bit thinner than the baseboards and casings we’d been using through the rest of the house – not wanting to waste them, we decided to run our thicker baseboards under the door casings instead. I’m happy with the way it turned out as I think it looks like we added in a trim block at the bottom of each door casing, which adds some dimension, but it’s definitely not the traditional way of casing a door. I hope this helps Caryn, but please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need further clarification or have any other questions. Thanks again!
I love the look of everything you’ve done! I’m trying to decide on baseboard size for our new house. How tall are your ceilings? Ours are 8 feet, so I’m wondering if 6 inch baseboards will be too high. Really love the look of them in your house though!!
Thank you Kate! Our ceilings are 9 ft on our main floor, but just 8 ft upstairs – we used the 6″ baseboard throughout both levels and I’m really happy with the look. I think the bigger baseboard looks more modern and makes a bigger impact in each space. I’d definitely recommend going with the the 6″.
Thanks for the response, Kristi. Your explanation clears up my confusion. Either way it is done, the look is lovely. One more question. When we installed our new knobs, we found the standard strike plate on the door frame wasn’t long enough to adequately protect the door trim from being hit by the backseat on the doorknob. Did you run into that problem and, if so, how did you handle it?
I’m happy that helped! We didn’t run into any issues with our strike plates not covering the trim, but maybe you could sand your trim down around the strike plate a bit so that it doesn’t touch or it looks like there are a ton of options available for longer strike plates on Amazon (https://amzn.to/2LH9Kep) that might work. Hope this helps!
Hi Kristi I love your door trim. We’ve trimmed all of our windows and doors like yours???? Can you share a picture of the base molding? We’re finishing up a second floor addition and I want a matching/coordinating baseboard. Thanks so much!
Thank you so much! I’m SO happy to hear that you were inspired enough to try it yourself! Changing out all that trim is a big job, but it’s amazing what a difference it makes to the feel of a space. The baseboards we used are just a simple 5 1/2″ primed MDF (https://metrie.com/products/chicago/430LM/). We added a 1/4 round trim to the bottom on our main floor to hide any unevenness over our hardwoods, but the carpet upstairs was much more forgiving, so the extra 1/4 round trim wasn’t necessary. You can see a photo of the baseboards with the 1/4 round in my Spring home tour here: https://www.makingitinthemountains.com/simple-farmhouse-style-spring-home-tour/. Hope this helps!
Is your crown molding 1×4’s as well?
Hi Lori, it’s actually 1×3. 🙂
DId you paint the trim before you installed?
I did paint the trim before we installed it and then just touched up the nail holes after.