Update Your Doors With Easy Craftsman Trim

by Karrah @ Mrs Do It Herself

Easy

Our house is full of builder grade trim... and I hate it! While remodeling the bathroom, I decided that the plain trim had to go.

Craftsman trim is the simplest way to take your doors, windows and entryways from builder grade to custom. When I say simple, I mean it. 3 pieces of wood, some finishing nails, caulk, paint and Liquid Nails and you are set!

Let's get trimming!

Step 1: Measure up!

I knew I wasn't going to remove the side pieces of my door trim, so I measured from one end of the trim piece to the other. If you are removing these and using 1" x 4" (or another size) to trim, you'll want to make sure you measure from outside edge to outside edge. My trim from edge to edge was 33".

Step 2:

You'll want to pick up 3 different pieces of wood/trim.

I used:

* lattice

* 1" x 4"

* 1" x 2".

Step 3: Cut It Up

1" x 4" - Cut this to the same size as your measurement of the outside trim to outside trim. So in my case, it was 33". This will be your middle piece of the craftsman trim.

Lattice - this will be the bottom and will be laid flat. You want it to be 1/2" longer on each side than your 1x4. So mine was cut at 34".

1" x 2" - This will be the top of your craftsman trim and it will be laid flat on the 2" side. Some people cut this the same size as the lattice so that they are even, but I wanted mine a bit longer. I cut this at 35", so from the edge of the 1x4 it is 1 inch longer on each side.

Lay everything out on a flat surface and nail it together. The flat surface makes sure that everything is even and fits up against the wall. Here is mine with the 1x2 and 1x4 in place.

Step 4: Caulk

Now, let's caulk all of the seams. This makes the craftsman trim look like one piece.

Step 5: Prime and paint!

This is when you are really going to see how pretty this piece is going to be.

Step 6: Prepare your door.

Cut the top portion of your original trim off. When you do this, make sure that you cut straight across so that your lattice will sit level on each side. I used my Dremel MultiMax... I absolutely love this tool and use it all the time.

Step 6: I used Liquid Nails to attach my craftsman trim to the wall.

I couldn't find any painter's tape, so as a last resort, I grabbed my husband's packing tape and put a small piece up to secure the trim. I also used my level on top to make sure everything was straight... No fun-house doors please.

Step 7: Caulk AGAIN

Caulk the space between the door casing/trim and the new craftsman trim to make it all look like one piece.

That's it!!

Here's the final product and a sneak peek at what the door treatment looks like (it looks like there's a gap, but I don't have my door stops up yet, that should be fixed when those are in place). When you read my post about the door, act surprised...ok?

Here's the before:

And the after:

Check out the entire tutorial at:

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2 questions

Barbara Bateman on Feb 04, 2016
My 1974 ranch house has all original wood trim, narrow dark stained. I'm wondering if the craftsman trim will look good as a relatively easy inexpensive update?

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Sheri Schoenthaler on May 27, 2018

How can you do this if you have oak trim throughout the house? The door would look out of place being white with all the other trim being oak on the floors. Would love to change the basement door to this but not sure with all the oak trim. Thanks!

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Barbara Bateman on Feb 05, 2016
I'm going to do this. I have lots of doors! Will start in the bathroom first.

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Bonnie smith on Feb 26, 2023

I try to go to your blog post to see a clearer picture of this tutorial but I could never get it to pull up. My question has to do with what you did around the door handle. I’ve been wanting to transform my plain builder grade doors but have been unsure about how to work around the door handles. Any ideas would be very appreciated.

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