Adding Architectural Details To Add Character To Your Home!!

We all know that in good design it is all about the details. I look at the main architecture of a space as the base, but when it comes to embellishing our homes with architectural elements it is like adding the jewelry to an outfit. 

I am an advocate for making the inside of your home look and feel like you want. We can not always afford the perfect beach home, or a Victorian, or a modern masterpiece, to name a few, but we can make our environment speak to those looks.

I will have to admit I am one very lucky lady that I have a talented husband who can add elements to our home that I love. Over the last thirty-some-odd years we have added many personal touches to our 1970’s Californian suburban ranch home. 

We all know that this style of home basically came as a box with no embellishments at all. If it was going to have character, we had to add our own.

I thought today I would share some of what we have done to our home to make it our own personal style.

All of the treatments are doable and affordable. Any of the moldings can be purchased at any molding supply or even big box stores like Lowe's or Home depot. We are only limited by our imagination and creativity.

First let’s start at the front door…………

You will notice I have a full French door. Notice the molding and the bulls-eye corner blocks at each corner?  You will also notice a frame molding is on the ceiling. Another simple treatment is the shadow frame wainscoting. This adds a bit of formality to my entry and also gives a nod to the Traditional style that I like.

To the left of the entry is my living room. We have added crown molding and a framed treatment with a medallion on the ceiling.

This is the entrance into the living room where we added corbels to each side of the opening. Can you tell I would love to live in an older home?

The simple frame molding on the ceiling adds so much character for so little money. When doing this make sure you stand back and look at it from a distance to determine how far from the edge of the wall you want to go. I did this by using blue painters tape and moving it until it looked right to me. 

In this image you can  see we used the same dentil molding that is around the room as a cornice board to hide the top of the roller shades.

Next we will go into the kitchen. I still have the original birch cabinets that my father-in-law built over 30 years ago, but we have embellished them a bit. A easy face-lift to do.

This use to be a fluorescent light box, remember those. We took down the fluorescent lights and added different moldings to the box. I purchased a mini vintage chandelier and added a medallion. Now I have a pretty ceiling to look at instead of that horrid fluorescent light box.

We also added a cornice board on top of the kitchen window to hide a privacy shade that blocks the afternoon sun.

My cupboards in the kitchen had no molding what so ever. Before we had them painted we added a small crown and a skirt molding to the bottom of the cupboard to give it some character.

We also added legs that are actually $2 shelf brackets. See the tiny molding at the bottom of the cupboard, that little inexpensive piece of molding just finished off the look perfectly. A shadow box frame was added to the end of the cabinet. 

This shows the skirt molding at the bottom of the cupboards.

I love adding architecture to a home, it seems to give it so much more character. I know many of you on the east coast have lovely older home that already have built in character. Living in suburban California does not always give us the character built in that we would like.

Have any of you added some character to your home with moldings? Can you believe what an amazing affect it gives to your home?

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of how we added some moldings to make our home look and feel like the home we have always wanted! If you would like to see more of my kitchen you can go to the side bar and click on the picture of my kitchen and it will take you to a post that shows the different ways I change my kitchen for the seasons!

“Enjoy the Process” Of:

Adding character to your home with molding!!

Kathysue