My architech is going to kill me!!

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Yes my archetech, a good friend of mine that is also a member on here, has helped me a lot with my new addition. By bouncing ideas off him, I think we created some great trim details on my house's siding...details that are not flashy and gaudy such as gingerbread trim on a ranch style home.

Anyway I asked some questions about eastern white pine and trim a few days ago, and described what I intened to do. It took me 2 days to cobble my baseboard together but I think I pulled this one off.

Its baseboard that has a lot of curves and sweeping lines to it. It also has a lot of cutout such as a "peacock pattern" on the plinth blocks around all the doors. The corners of the bedrooms also have theme cutouts such as hearts in Alyson's bedroom. I mean how else do you tell a little girl you love her everyday for the next 18 years...hearts in her bedroom's baseboard of course :).

In the master bedroom I added some shamrock cutouts as my wife is Irish. Its a batlle because I am English, but I thought I would throw her a bone on this one...and because a tower of london cut out would be too big. As for the kids spare bedroom...well I went ahead and used tractor cutouts. I figure IF we do have another curtain climber (term stolen from Vaughn) I got a 50/50 shot!!

Anyway here are the pictures of my unique baseboard. Let me know if you like or hate it. I have thick skin and I know its not baseboard for everyone. I just wanted a house that looked custom built.

Hearts.JPG


Shamrock_Corner.JPG


Shamrocks_and_Peacocks.JPG


Tractor.JPG
 
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Neat idea! I bet I could even talk my wife into doing Irish Setter cutout ones! :thumb: Only drawback I see is painting the walls...might be fun painting within the cutout! Might be interesting to laser cut the designs into the wood, but not all the way through. Wouldn't have the paint problem that way, just dust! :rofl: Jim.
 
Travis, very neat. Very precisely job I guess, and having a lot of patients, right !!
 
Neat idea! I bet I could even talk my wife into doing Irish Setter cutout ones! :thumb: Only drawback I see is painting the walls...might be fun painting within the cutout! Might be interesting to laser cut the designs into the wood, but not all the way through. Wouldn't have the paint problem that way, just dust! :rofl: Jim.

Jim..I painted the walls first, then put up the baseboard. That worked out well on the hearts and shamrocks, but the tractor cut out was too big. The tires went below my paintline as I used a roller and just went as low as I could go using that. Personally I dislike the tractor one. It should have been a bit smaller for beter visual effect. Still if you paint the walls first, you could paint lower in the corners with a paint brush and not have to paint inside the cut-outs.

By the way, the 3rd picture down does not show the details well, but it gives a great shot of how the baseboard "flows" around the rooms. You can see through the doorway the closet corner. I did not use any theme-base cut outs there to save a little time as scrollsawing out those shapes took some serious time. Still that picture shows a theme-based corner, the doorway peacocks, and a closet corner.

I tried to put a lot of thought into every detail so that everything flowed...even in the closets and places where no one will ever see them. I think doing the smallest details, even in the obscure places...is what makes a project...any project...stand out. I just wanted a house with baseboard that did not look like someone came in, tossed a bunch of boards on the wall and moved on as quickly as they could. Yeah I used pine, but hopefully the use of pine is mitigated by the look of raised corners and lots of sweeping curves.
 
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What, no snowmobiles????????
Your architect friend, paulh

No Patty vetoed that idea VERY quick. Still no comment on the baseboard huh? I am not sure whether to take that as a good thing or bad.:):dunno:

Actually I did not think you would really kill me, but it should be said that I do appreciate all the help and guidance you have given me along the way on this addition. I am hitting the home stretch now thank goodness...just in time for snowmobile season!!
 
Travis,
didn't mean anything bad by lack of comment - I think it's great what you've done. Creative, well done, and definitely "yours". You've built in a little history that gives the place character. Those are the sorts of thumbprints that can literally add life to a building - over time, people are more inclined to respect and maintain a place like that than something more off-the-shelf.
Keep up the fine work - well conceived, well executed.
paulh
 
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