The Next Big Molding Trend Instantly Elevates Basic Doors

PublishedDec 2, 2024 1:45 AM EST

We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs.

Sign Up for Domino’s Newsletter

By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to ourTerms of Useand acknowledge the data practices in ourPrivacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Like so many interior designers, Lucinda Sanford has a brain full of inspiration just waiting for the right moment. One idea she kept noodling on? Delicate, beaded-style plaster molding. She first spotted it on the ceiling of a friend’s bedroom in Ireland and never forgot it. “It was like a pearl necklace and just so charming,” says the London-based creative. She didn’t get the chance to recreate it until she was brought in to decorate an apartment in south London—and was greeted by a seriously underwhelming hallway.

Sanford decided to put her own spin on the beaded cornice and apply it to the internal doors to instantly elevate the space. “We were on a budget, and specifying bespoke or glazed doors just wasn’t an option,” she says. She’d applied decorative trim to cabinetry before, but this time she went for oversize bobbins (yes, like the turned wood balls you see on centuries-old furniture) from her go-to supplier, Decora.

The bobbins come in 60-inch strips that are flat on one side and rounded on the other. The designer first used them to line the bathroom and lounge doors, then carried the trim around all the entry’s doorframes. The whole thing turned out to be a seriously cost-effective move: “Adding the detail meant we could purchase very plain fire doors, which are more economical,” says Sanford. Same goes for the baseboards, which were cut from simple MDF sheets by a millworker and topped with a run of beading. So clever.

The actual application was surprisingly simple: they glued the raw wood moldings to the walls and used nails to secure them to the doors for extra hold. But the priming and painting? That part ate up some time. In hindsight, Sanford says she’d have the strips professionally spray-painted off-site in the hue (Vert de Mer by Edward Bulmer) to make the whole thing go way quicker. Live and learn!

For the finishing touch, the designer chose a tonal blue wallpaper from Sandberg to make that painted trim really pop. “By just using the bobbin detail, we could keep maximum space between the top of the doorframes and the ceilings so a good amount of wallpaper is still exposed. And because everything flows through a continual use of color, it looks neat and tidy despite being very decorative,” she says. Honestly, the results speak for themselves.

The client is obsessed with her jewel-box entrance, and honestly, Sanford is hooked on the molding style too—she’s already using it in another project, this time on a ceiling. “It’s also a great detail on the front on shelving,” she says, reminding us that the possibilities are pretty much endless. Consider us inspired.

Olivia Lidbury is a freelance writer based in the U.K. She has been regularly contributing to Domino since 2021, pitching charming British houses, whimsical apartments and must-see vacation stays. Olivia also regularly writes for a number of national U.K. titles such asThe TimesandThe Sunday Times Stylemagazine. She lives just outside of London in Kent.

Learn more about Domino.comEditorial Standards