Exteriors: Premium Interior & Entry Doors

When it comes to putting together a budget for the trim package in your home, you can start with a basic, quality trim package, or spend as much as you’d like - it all depends on the depth and complexity you are trying to create in your living space. The largest initial factor in determining your budget is material choice - with primed pine being the more budget friendly choice compared to high end stained-finishes on oak, cherry or maple.

For the quality trim package that Composite Carpentry recommends as a starting point, you are generally looking at under $1000 dollars per door and $900 per 225sqft room of baseboard and door casing - with materials, labor and painting included (solid-core doors with solid painted pine trim.)

There are 5 major interior trim styles that are most popular today - traditional/colonial, craftsman, farmhouse, ranch, and modern.

Traditional/Colonial: Characterized by decorative and symmetrical designs, this style often features intricate moldings and is reminiscent of early American architecture.

Craftsman: Known for its simple, clean lines and often an emphasis on natural wood and handcrafted details.

Farmhouse: Evokes a rustic feel with wider, flat trims and often uses distressed or reclaimed wood, reflecting the homey and practical aesthetics of countryside living.

Ranch: Typically minimalistic with slim, unembellished moldings, the ranch style is a nod to the mid-century modern homes of the 1950s and 1960s.

Modern: Defined by its sleek and unadorned surfaces, modern trim focuses on straight lines and geometric forms, often integrating materials like metal or glass for a contemporary finish.

Each of these styles is associated with its own choices of door design, and many offer the opportunity to add layers of more complexity and detail to accent your home - with crown, wainscoting, coffered ceilings, ship lap and more.

If confused, speak with the trim carpenters at 309-824-1292 today. We will help you make a wise choice for your home.

Before our doors carpenters discuss door styles, it’s important to discuss build-quality. And when it comes to doors, we recommend Solid-Core doors at the very minimum. They are much more durable, can significantly improve security, and they reduce noise transfer between rooms when compared to Hollow-Core doors.

That being said, choosing door styles can be a lot of fun. Naturally, your door style will tie in closely with the style of trim package you have envisioned, and there are multiple door styles to choose from within each trim package. Overall, door choices are associated with the same five trim styles: Traditional/Colonial, Ranch, Farmhouse, Modern, or Craftsman being the most popular.

When choosing the right materials for the finish work in your home, you should first determine if you’d like a painted or stained trim look.

For paint-grade trim, we typically recommend to go with primed pine. It has an attractive price point for a real wood product that is of course durable, but also finishes beautifully with a quality paint job —-If you are wanting to upgrade to top quality paint-grade trim, poplar is the best option. It is the top choice for premium quality paint finishes, is more durable than pine as it’s considered a hardwood, and it holds really nice, clean crisp edges in its trim profiles. Price is as much as double that of primed pine, but especially when it comes to stair parts, centerpieces such as fireplace surrounds, or other finish work requiring fine detail, poplar is often worth it.

For stain-grade trim jobs, the most popular choices are maple, white oak, red oak, cherry, walnut, mahogany and poplar. All are considered hardwoods, and therefore the finished look is the biggest consideration when selecting a material. Pine is known for not taking stain well and therefore not a good choice for stained trim.

We as seasoned finish carpenters recommend going with a PVC trim in certain situations such as small bathrooms with a lot of moisture. This is the best way to ensure a high quality finished product for years to come.

MDF is a fully manufactured product that we avoid using at all costs. It is a very popular paint-grade trim choice due to its low cost and similarities to real wood, but it simply cannot match the quality that comes from a solid-wood trim install.