Home Decor

Add Architectural Details to Your Home on a Budget

1

When we purchased our home a long time ago in a land far away, it came with many things.
Acres and acres of farmland.
Vintage wood flooring.
10 foot ceilings.
Vintage crystal chandeliers.

And as amazing, wonderful and incredible as these things are, I would have traded an acre or two for a little architectural detail. Yep, a vintage farmhouse without an architectural detail in sight.

No worries. I just added my own. So if you are like me and you have a few rooms looking for an update… here’s a few architectural-detail-adding ideas for you.

What to do with the space over the window

2

All of the windows in the home came with 1 x 6 trim. There was at least a 3 foot gap over the window.  No problem.  Just add a little molding. Here we added a 1 x 10 at the top over the window and topped it off with crown molding and pieces of screen molding. Next, we painted and caulked it in place like it’s always been there.

Add a little faux into your life

3

Here we addressed the same issue in the kitchen with a little different take. We created faux transom windows over the bay windows overlooking the porch. Simply frame out the top of the window with 1 x 6’s, and add a piece of crown molding to the top. Then miter simple molding pieces to create a faux frame and caulk and paint.

Store your plates in style

4

This plate rack started off as unused wall space between the dining room and the kitchen. It was too narrow to put a traditional piece of furniture. So we created a plate rack with by adding a frame of 1 x 2’s.

Next, we added two pieces of screen molding to each shelf.Then I added a simple recipe to the back of the plate rack. Just add platters and plates, and you’re done.

Reuse an old window

5

We created this transom above the space that goes between the living room and the kitchen from an old window. The window originally had 48 panes. We created a wall chalkboard from some of them and then added this transom from one of the rows of the window. We added a piece of molding on the top and bottom to make the window fit – and so much less expensive than if we ordered it new.

I love our farmhouse. I love the acres and acres of land – and the sunshine. And I love the smell of hay and green grass growing in the meadow. But my favorite?  My almost-old architecture that fills every room.

Happy building to you.

Website | See more posts by this author