What's all this talk about molding?

Without the unique invention of molding, not only would we be faced with boring flat interiors, we would literally lose our sense of time. We're not kidding! Molding is often the first item that we look for and inspect to determine the age of things like walls, furniture, doors, windows, and ceilings. (Molding that's applied to walls is designed to conceal the corner between the ceiling and the top of a wall, and is better known as cornice.)

As a decorative strip used for ornamentation or finishing,
Molding has historically served as an artisan signature - allowing archivers and historic researchers to easily identify the time-period of a particular item. Of course, this wasn't the intention at the time the molding was created, but it's nevertheless an extremely practical way to assess the value of something.

For example, if we happen upon a piece of
Furniture with unusual modeling on its cabinet doors, we can have an connoisseur study the design of the modeling (and the material that the molding is made of) to find out it's history. Perhaps a piece being evaluated is from the early Renaissance era or even from an earlier Hispanic period. Molding is one of the clues that will tell us where the piece came from and how old it is.

Today's historians are a lot smarter than we think and it's hard to fool them. As experts in their field, it would be very difficult to pass off a newly built table with old-styled molding as an antique. But that doesn't mean you can't have a little fun with it yourself. This article will suggest a few places where can you get some creative molding ideas for your home.
1. Nature. Nature is always a beautiful start. A lot of molding ideas have come from nature and you've probably seen this yourself in the form of leaves, exotic plants, fruits or flowers.

2. Geometric shapes. Geometry has also always been a common theme in molding and can look as beautiful as the objects found in nature. For some really creative applications of geometric shapes, look to the abstract art that our wonderful artists have blessed us with over the years.
3. Your existing decor. Take a look at your existing decor and try to detect a recurring theme. Are there a lot of circles throughout the room? You can reinforce that shape by including them in the room's molding. How about objects? Are there a lot of animals or plants in the room? These too, can exist in a room's molding and as a result, really tie a room's theme together.

4. Another option is to go ahead and try to fool the fans of history with your own rendition of 20s, 30s, or even 40s style molding. Want to create the Renaissance within your own home? How about ancient Greece?
Whichever style you choose to go with, you want to be sure that it fits within the overall scheme of the room that it's in (or the entire house). Otherwise, your home may send mixed signals. If your home is newly modernized for example, then your molding should exhibit a more recent design with geometric shapes. But if your home is filled with beautiful early American antiques, then you may enjoy the styles that own a colonial flair.

Author Paul White represents FloridaHomeBuild.com. A site designed to help home owners from Florida locate local home contractors with their home improvement projects.
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