The concept design phase for the interior door and window trim project consisted of a combination of taking pictures at different model homes, looking at a lot of examples on Pinterest, and checking out blogs to see how different people had done it.
The composite picture above shows samples from Pinterest we checked out and below are links to Tami’s Pinterest board and youtube videos by people who’d already done similar projects.
(Tami) I ALWAYS start looking for ideas on PINTEREST! Here’s a link to a board I put together just for this topic: https://pin.it/6flmc27ibdhjxr Bill tends to go blog posts and YouTube videos to see how others have done these projects! I am the IDEAS PERSON and Bill is the IMPLEMENTATION Person!! I like that! 🙂
(Bill) I was late to the party embracing youtube, but for projects like this, it’s an amazing resource. Below are just a couple sample videos on the topic – there’s a bunch more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_IrMqiksuI link to a 6 minute video by a guy named Chris Palmer (Handcrafted by Chris Palmer) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Co4wSPZPgG0LfKkpcAVGA who uses a different design and approach, but looks like he has way more knowledge and skill than me (low bar, admittedly). Even though I like the design we ended up going with, he had some great tips for different aspects of the process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jv8-_B3hGQ another 5+ minute youtube video by a lady named Kristy Green (Mama wants to build) – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLYZiBmpiHjS0DpEDbk_B2w. The dimensions for her header design were exactly the same as ours. She used pine vs MDF and got more involved with what she did to the bottom of her windows, but the end result was very similar to what we did.
We ended up going with a simple design that had a “Craftsman” style appearance that looked like it could be done without any really fancy cuts. Here are the details:
Horizontal units above the door and window frames are made from 1×6 boards with horizontal 1×2’s that extend ½” beyond each edge of the 1×6. On top of the top 1×2 is a 1×3 that extends an additional ½” on each side of the 1×2. The vertical trim at the sides of each window and door frame is made from 1×4’s that sit on top of homemade 2×6 bases for wall openings versus windows (more on that in the next post of prototyping!)
The pic from Pinterest is exactly the window design we used.
I did the rough sketch to the right of it on my phone for our neighbor to give to her contractor. Probably the funniest thing the contractor saw that day, but it did the job.
All the pieces on the headers are nailed together with 18 gauge brad nails using the first new tool I got for this job.
(Bill) Please forgive me, but I’m going to get a little weird about this tool. If I’d have had to nail these together with a standard hammer and nails I’d have quit after the first one. The time this save was HUGE. It made assembling the headers easy, then also attaching the headers and other pieces to wall a piece of cake. The fact that it’s cordless made it even better. No pneumatic hose or electrical cord in the way. Perfect for a job of this scale.
Also a quick plug on Ryobi. I’m a hobbyist – not a pro, so I use tools maybe once or twice a week versus daily, but I’ve been really happy with the Ryobi tools I’ve purchased. There’s definitely an advantage to consolidating on one line of battery operated tools so that batteries are interchangeable and you can minimize charging stations. I’ve been happy with the Ryobi tools I’ve purchased and the price is almost always better than any other brand – sometimes significantly. And, no, Ryobil is not paying me a dime to say this. I wish they were.
A few things to note from this pic:
- Yes the workbench is a mess and the power distribution system looks straight out of the basement scene from Christmas Vacation.
- In researching cordless tools at one point, I came across a youtube video from a handyman who seemed to know a lot about cordless tools. I wish I’d have saved the link, but alas I didn’t. Anyways, the bottom line was that he spent a lot of time demonstrating that the power available through a cordless tool was largely dependent on the battery size, not necessarily the quality of the tool. And so began a quest to look for specials on bigger Ryobi batteries. You can see I’ve already collected three different sizes. The power bill for our home has gone up significantly, but I never have to stop nailing due to a dead battery. Kidding about the power bill.
- There are three different lengths of brad nails shown. All three are 18 gauge, and you’ll notice none of them are Ryobi. That’s because Lowes doesn’t sell Ryobi specific nails (if there is such a thing), and the Porter Cable work fine. I used the medium length (1 ½”) for most of the header assembly. Sometimes the longest to nail the top 1×3” board onto the header. Usually used the 2” brads for fastening header assemblies to walls. When I forgot to replace the long with the medium length brads, it was not uncommon that I would shoot the ends of the brads out the surface of the 1×6 in the header. Pretty easily fixable, but it slowed things down and was a pain when it happened.
As a somewhat humorous (or discouraging) aside, I noticed that the guy in the first youtube video (Chris Palmer) was using a Rigid brad nailer. When we were looking at buying a starter tool set for our son, the sales rep at Home Depot made a big deal of how Rigid’s lifetime warranty would be worth the investment for someone our son’s age. He was good with Ryobi for me. I’m still working on forgiving him.
Here are pics of what the final design looked like for both a completed window and door opening.
Overall, we ended up very happy with the design. We’ve seen different variations of it at numerous locations, but for our house, the look turned out to just “feel right”. Not very scientific, but a pretty good indicator of a successful design.
Enough for today! As always, if anyone out there has questions or recommendations, don’t hesitate to post them. The next post will be on how we used prototyping on this project.
