Five cheap home décor tricks with trim and molding

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Not every room has instant architectural interest, but you can create a dynamic look with the reasonably priced, paintable moldings and trims offered at any home improvement center. Here are just a few of the many affordable ways to give a space an expensive look.

1. Add crown molding to a room, and you also add pedigree. Profiles range from simple to elaborate, and some can create the illusion of a sculpted ceiling.
2. Install a chair rail to add elegance and definition to a space. This element also creates the opportunity to marry two complementary colors or a solid color and pattern for additional visual interest.
3. Use a small crown molding and parallel trim piece to make a frieze along the top perimeter of a room, and paint a border design or apply texture or an allover pattern between the boundaries.
4. Apply beautiful pieces of wallpaper directly to a wall and then trim out with decorative molding for a pretty framed-art effect. Or swap in solid color as a backdrop to a collection of framed photos or other keepsakes.
5. Change a room’s mood by painting trim and molding with colors from a tone-on-tone palette or by using contrasting colors for dramatic effect.

Installing these molding is also becoming simpler as smart manufacturing ratchets down the skill levels required. For example, So Simple Crown Molding is made out of foam and can be help in place with just caulk.

Plus, all corners are pre-cut which eliminates the most difficult crown molding installation step, cutting a compound-miter corner.

Tom Kraeutler is the AOL’S Home Improvement Editor and co-author of “My Home, My Money Pit: Your Guide to Every Home Improvement Adventure.” He delivers home improvement tips each week as host of The Money Pit, a nationally syndicated home improvement radio program.