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A small yet mighty design element in a room, trim is a type of millwork used on walls for both practical and decorative purposes. “Typically, trim covers the gaps between two areas, but it can also be highly decorative, setting the style and tone of the room,” says Lowe’s Project Expert Hunter Macfarlane. “Trim can also help protect surfaces. For example, chair railings help prevent a sliding chair from striking the wall.”
Trim is primarily made from wood, but these days, it also comes in more affordable synthetic materials like polystyrene, polyurethane, and PVC. It can also be made from plaster.
There are quite a few different types of trim (a.k.a. molding or moulding, a.k.a. casing), and keeping track of them all can get a little confusing. But we’re here to help walk you through all the basics so that you know exactly how to describe what you’re looking for—or what your designer or contractor is talking about!
P.S. The words “trim,” “molding,” and “casing” thrown around by designers and contractors. “Trim and molding are used interchangeably to describe types of millwork,” says Macfarlane. “Casing is a specific type of molding used to trim windows and doors.”
Crown Molding
Given its name, it’s no surprise that crown molding is the king (or queen!) of trim. It’s long been one of the most popular types of millwork, and continues to be installed in homes today, covering the joint where a wall meets the ceiling—and visually drawing the eye up to give the feel of higher ceilings. It doesn’t need to be ornate, but many homeowners go with a bit of a flourish here to elevate a space.
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Baseboard
The humble baseboard is also an incredibly popular type of trim, serving as a counterpoint to crown molding. It covers the joint where a wall meets the floor. Since it’s not always as noticeable as crown molding—furniture often covers it up—it can be much plainer
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Chair Rail
One of the more practical trims, a chair rail is installed to protect the wall from chairs bumping into it and damaging it. “Chair rail molding is applied on the wall about one-third of the way up from the floor,” says Macfarlane. As such, this type of trim is most popular in dining rooms. Sometimes you'll see paneling under it, too.
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Picture Rail
Like chair rails, picture rails serve a purpose. They’re installed a foot or two below the ceiling and can be used to hang art without damaging your walls—you nail into the molding rather than the wall. Over the years, though, picture rail has become a decorative element in its own right.
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Picture Frame Molding
A decorative form of trim, picture frame molding is installed like a picture frame directly on the wall. It can be used to actually frame art, but more often, it’s simply a visual element. It can either be repeated to mimic paneling across an entire wall or it can stand alone as a focal point.
SHOP NOW Primed Polystyrene Preassembled Picture Frame Moulding, $10.68
Panel Molding
“Panel molding is a purely decorative molding used to trim raised-panel wall construction,” says Macfarlane. It’s essentially the same as picture frame molding, but rather than being installed directly on the wall, it’s installed on top of paneling.
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Door or Window Trim (Casing)
Any trim that surrounds a door or window is known as casing. It’s both practical and decorative, as it physically connects the window frame to your wall while also serving as a visual design element.
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Kinsley Pierced Moulding Pierced Molding
Kinsley Pierced Moulding Pierced Molding
Pierced molding is a decorative trim that’s not a fully solid form, but is cut through to show the wall behind it.
Architrave Molding
Architrave molding is a type of trim set atop windows and doors for decorative effect.
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Corbel
Corbels are loosely L-shaped brackets installed between a vertical surface (like a wall) and a horizontal one (like a ceiling or a countertop). While they were originally designed to be weight-bearing, they also can be decorative.
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EverTrue Square White Hardwood Unfinished Rosette Rosette
A rosette is a round floral-like decorative ornament used on walls, ceilings, and columns, among other structures.
Plinths
Plinths are blocks used at the base of a door as a decorative addition to casing.
SHOP NOW Ekena Millwork PVC Standard Foster Plinth Block Moulding with Beveled Edge, $3.92
EverTrue Interior Colonial Inside Corner Moulding Bloc Corner Block
EverTrue Interior Colonial Inside Corner Moulding Bloc Corner Block
Corner blocks are, perhaps unsurprisingly, decorative blocks placed in corners to create an elegant look.
Wainscoting
Though it is technically paneling and not trim or molding, wainscoting is often placed under the same umbrella as decorative millwork for walls. Wainscoting is paneling set on the lower portion of walls framed by trim.
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Beadboard
Beadboard is a type of wainscoting (meaning it, too, is paneling and not technically trim or molding) comprising a row of vertical boards separated by ridges known as beads. It’s also framed by trim.
SHOP NOW White MDF Truebead Wainscot Panel, $19.57
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