Gates Reno
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April 9, 2007
Old Meets New
There were still enough of the old baseboards left to try to match what was there rather than start fresh, so Mr. Contractor had a knife cut to approximate the old moulding. It's not exactly the same (it's a more interesting design, we think), but we can get away with it because there's only one place in the whole upper two floors where the old and new meet up, near the staircase (pics above).
Unfortunately, the moulding that's in the same areas as the original moulding (in the hallways and stairwells) is shorter than what was originally there, because the original moulding lost a few inches when new plywood and floors were put down. But in the bedrooms, where there's no original moulding, they made it tall. Omer was rather surprised/dismayed at how tall it looked while sitting in a pile in the hallway, but admitted that it looked good once it was installed and painted.
The weird thing about the new moulding is that it looks, well, new. It doesn't have thirty layers of paint on it like the old moulding and the old window casings. The extra paint softens the edges and gives it character.
Comments
Nice floors! What are they? Also, did you lay the floor planks across the shorter dimension of the room as opposed to along the long axis? Thanks.
Posted by: Jim at April 9, 2007 8:06 PM
Thanks! They're Brazilian Cherry. They're laid front to back, the long way. Most of the rooms are kind of square-ish, so it matters most in the hallways, which we thought would look really goofy laid the short way.
Posted by: Amy at April 9, 2007 8:51 PM
Yeah, Nice floors!! Hey where did you guys get your baseboards from, I really like the look. They are almost exact in look to the baseboard mouldings in most of brooklyn. And how much were they? I'm doing a renovation now and I'm quite interested!!
Posted by: Freeform at April 10, 2007 11:30 AM
Looks very nice. We have places were the transition from old to new is seamless and other spots where it's bit more obvious. I've made my peace with it all. Only regret a little than we didn't strip more of the painted wood mouldings, doors etc. since personally I don't love the layer o' ancient paint look. Btw, Freeform, I think Amy was saying her GC custom made their new mouldings.
Posted by: NeoGrec at April 10, 2007 12:15 PM
You're correct, NeoGrec, the GC had a knife made to cut the new mouldings. But I think he said it's only a couple hundred dollars to get a knife made. I'm not sure what large loud power tool the knife gets attached to, though.
I wouldn't mind the crispness of the new moldings if all of the moldings in the house were new. But the ones running up the stairways are original (top pics), and all of the windows but one have the original mouldings as well. So there's quite a texture difference where the new baseboards run up against the old window mouldings. But the old window mouldings were in great shape, so we didn't mess with them (except for one on the top floor, where someone at some point had put in something completely out of character with the rest of the house). Once the mouldings have been painted a few times they won't look so obviously new.
Posted by: Amy at April 10, 2007 3:14 PM
I take issue with this "The extra paint softens the edges and gives it character."
Um....No. All the paint just obscures the proportions, ruins the texture and makes it generally look bad. Seriously people. Moulding is nice, great moulding is fantastic but moulding with 25 coats of paint is just bad. I'm sorry but the idea that the character of spaces is achieved through decay is one of the most pernicious ideas infiltrating the collective consciousness of homeowners. I take great care of my home(built in 1904) and if I had the time or the energy or the money I would strip the mouldings and patch them as required. The layers and layers of paint are a sign that my building was not well cared for, that it was neglected. The character of my home comes from the quality of the construction and the consideration and thoughtfulness of the architecture not from the paint on my rotted mouldings. And on top of all this, you're HIGHLIGHTING the bad state of the original millwork by combining it with brand new millwork that isn't the same.
People who seek to preserve character ought to think a little longer about what kind of character they seek to preserve.
Posted by: Dan at April 20, 2007 11:35 AM
Hi Dan, I think you may have misunderstood the last part of my post. I tried to clarify it in the comment just above yours, but still may not have made myself clear. If we had had the money to strip and redo - or replace - all of the mouldings so that everything matched, that would absolutely have been my first choice. But since we didn't have the money to do them all the same way, we were only able to replace the door moldings (essential, since many of the doorways were moved and those that remained were very crooked) and whichever baseboard moldings had been removed in order to install new floors.
Since that's the case, and we have a few places where old molding meets new, and since most everything else in the house is old (most walls, the radiators, the fireplaces, etc.), the new moldings stand out in a way that they wouldn't in a new house or a more complete renovation.
I agree that layers and layers of paint indicate neglect and laziness, but when placed next to brand-spankin'-new moldings, what I see is crispness vs. warmth, perfection vs. history. Again, I just want to stress that I would prefer to have new moldings (in an old style), or stripped and cared-for moldings, but we made many compromises with our renovation. We installed only some new molding in an effort to save money. We did not save some in an effort to preserve character. What I talked about in my post was a reaction to what had been done, not an explanation of why it had been done. Huge difference.
Posted by: Amy at April 21, 2007 7:15 PM
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