My Light Bulb Moment!

 

Details, details!! What they say about details is so true....... 

 This week we are suppose to start our entry hall project. I have written about it here

I made a mock up so I could see the lighting I have to use in there.....

 The picture above is similar to the look I have planned, except there will be a slab mirror underneath the oil painting.

While we are addressing the entry hall we are also addressing all the door openings, and crown molding in the main living area.

All of our door openings are 9ft tall with rounded edges. The rounded edges are actually quite nice and I don't mind them, however I prefer a more traditional look so we will have all the openings framed out with door frame molding.

I have one opening in particular that I wanted to look a little different than the rest, but at the same time keeping it fairly simple with just a little something extra.

The opening to our great room is about 12ft so it needs a little bit of attention.

The reason I don't want a massive frame or pediment on this opening is because of the windows that you see when you look into the great room. 

Above each window will be a pediment eventually. similar to the one above the door pictured below.  I don't want it to overwhelm the space our home is a cottage, nothing big or grande.

I have been wracking my brain to come up with something simple with a little more detail than a normal door frame molding. I want it to have some details yet not make it too massive in scale for our little cottage. Yesterday it happened....

I was looking at my fireplace wall at the mantel and there it was......

Simple, understated, classic, all the buzz words I like to use in describing my home. See the mirrors frame, that is what I want but with a straight edge on the top.

Then the research began, after all I had to have some pictures to show this look to my contractor.

 I did not have a name for it. I knew my mirror was a Dutch Cushion mirror, but that did not give me the technical term I needed for the treatment I wanted around the door way.

I have to admit. I had so much fun searching to find the perfect picture, description and history of this frame work.

It had to be historical because some of the door frames in the White House look like this......

I kept googling White House Doors. I just hope I don't get a knock on my door from special agents wanting to know why I kept googling the White House!

I kept searching and I finally came up with a post  that told me the name of what I wanted....

EARRED ARCHITRAVE

Boy I would have never figured that one out on my own.

My mirror is actually a earred shoulder architrave because of the way it dips in the middle, making shoulders.

This look comes from the Georgian, or Greek revival era in the late 18th century and early 19th century. Now how about that!

Scale is going to be so important in all of my architectural additions because our home is small and nothing grande  or large.

Now I have a plan to show the contractor and I am so excited about this light bulb moment I had yesterday. I will keep you posted on what he says when I tell him what I want.