How do you terminate wainscot into door frame

[clover]

We're adding a double panel board and batten wainscot to our front hall, and are not completely sure how to transition the top piece of molding into the side of the door casings. We added the same wainscot to our mud room last month, and that's when we realized that our preferred molding extended past the door frames. We ended up just having the pieces cut at a 45 degree angle at the corners, but I wasn't crazy about that look. I actually wanted an even deeper piece of molding - more like a ledge - but thought having even bigger chunks out of the corners would always bug me.

I've seen where the molding extends over the door casing, but the profile of our casing is too detailed to allow for that. The best solution I've seen is just to round the corners of the molding where they terminate into the door. It still extends past the door frame, but at least you won't need stitches if you run into it. The only thing about that way that bugs me is that it can look a little odd to have rounded corners amidst all those nice clean 90 degree angles of the trim. Of course, I could also go for a flatter molding that wouldn't extend past the casing, but it would have to be something fairly substantial in height to balance out the double panel.

For those with wainscot - how do your top moldings terminate?

[Gothichome]

Clover only thing I can think of would be coping rail to match the frame.

[Texas_Ranger]

One vague idea would be to put up a vertical piece of trim (which protrudes at least as far as the top rail) against the door trim.

[cold floors (WavyGlass)]

no, i know what clover is looking for. its an outside corner that "dies into" the door casing/trim. picture making an outside corner with your top cap, but one piece will be a "return" piece. it will have the same profile as the longer piece. the profile will be facing the door trim, it will actually touch the trim. also, it will be only long enough to reach the wall. ill try to find some pictures...

[cold floors (WavyGlass)]

here it is http://pinterest.com/pin/8936899232959998/ <-- click here. i tried to post a picture but i couldnt do it.

[Scott S (WavyGlass)]

Cutting a return is the "correct" way to end a chair rail of any other kind of horizontal trim into a vertical casing. Most quality trim carpenter will use this technique for chair rails, shoe molding and any other trim element that extends further from the wall than the door or window casings. This picture should help explain it.

[SkipW]

Cutting a return is the "correct" way to end a chair rail of any other kind of horizontal trim into a vertical casing. Most quality trim carpenter will use this technique for chair rails, shoe molding and any other trim element that extends further from the wall than the door or window casings. This picture should help explain it.

A "quality trim carpenter" would have done a return on that flat stock on the top of the rail too. Also would not have left that gap between the lower band and the casing

[clover]

Thank you for the photos. I'm really still not sure what to do. Our casings aren't flat like Scott S' photo, so we can't extend any of the molding part of it. And when our contractor did the mud room, he suggested cutting a return (though I didn't know that was what it was called). He even cut the piece and showed me how it would look. Frankly, I hated it. At least in our case, the profile of the molding meant there was a gap between the molding and the casing, which didn't seem right to me at all. It looked like the molding had taken a 90 degree turn directly into the wall. It looked most similar to image 7 on this site http://www.wainscotingamerica.com/galle ... -pictures/

Am I just being picky? My molding of choice would be a good 2 inches deep, which I think draws even more attention the gap.

[SkipW]

I cant tell from photo (#7) but it looks to me like you could do a return into the casing just as easily as into the wall.

But, that said, if your carpenter did the return into the wall and it was all stained or painted out, you probably would not even see it after awhile. These are the things we agonize over and then forget when we walk by them every day.....

[ekane25 (WavyGlass)]

A picture would be worth a thousand words in this case.
Based on how I'm picturing it, a returned piece that is coped to meet the casing still seems the cleanest option. That method you mentioned about returning before the casing which leaves a gap seems to be a typical solution based on some google image searches though. Maybe bump it towards the casing just enough to close the gap and notch out the returned piece. Another option which would be quick, but possibly sloppy-looking would be to 45 deg. chamfer the face of the chair rail that is proud of the casing. It all depends on the two profiles what you can get away with - the essence of finish carpentry