The problem isn't the cost of the trim itself, which is why the fact that it's just "5 doorways and a few pieces of baseboard" isn't all that relevant. With a non-standard shape, you're paying for custom-made tooling to cut the stuff. A large chunk of those quotes is for custom-ground shaper knives which will then sit, rusting, in a drawer somewhere after your job is done. Then there's a couple of hundred dollars worth of lumber involved, and the time to prep the stock, set up the shaper (multiple setups, too) and only then do you get to the relatively quick process of actually cutting the trim.

I don't have a particular source to point you at, but perhaps there's a salvage company that could help you out? It's probably a longshot, but might be worth exploring.

Sarah,

I, too, ran into dead-ends trying to find some of our trim pieces and also got the over-the-top estimates for having the trim made.

We have unusual trim also, and we ended up sending a sample in and having a custom blade made for our router and we've been buying the lumber and making the trim pieces ourselves. If I remember correctly, it cost about $150 to make the blade. I'd have to do some serious digging to find the company where I had it made, but if you're interested in going in that direction, I could see if I could find my paperwork.

If you can, contact White Brothers in Oakland Ca.. They've been making trim for over a century. I believe they have a website.

Good Luck

Sarah-

Try The Wood Factory in Navasota, TX. Phone: 936-825-7233, Fax: 936-825-1791. My 1890's Texas farm house has mouldings that are similiar to yours and they have the knives to reproduce my mouldings and I would expect they could do yours as well.

Thanks everyone! I found a bunch of places online, took many of your suggestions, and sent out a list of what we needed and pictures. Of about 10 sent out, I got four responses. Two were RIDICULOUSLY priced (over 2K for just the trim in our kitchen).

I also have a local lumberyard that can do it--I have a piece of the baseboard off, which helps in getting the knives made. The casing is exactly the same, except coved on two sides instead of one. The rosettes would be hand done on a laithe. But their price for just the trim and not the rosettes was about $1050.

So far, the cheapest and easiest to work with has been through Jim Illingsworth near Watertown, NY. It's about a 3 hour drive for us--which, in my husband's Silverado, would mean about $50 in gas...but would save us about $150-200 in shipping, depending on how much we're getting. I'm probably going to go with them, unless I can get the local yard to match their price, but I doubt it.

If anyone's interested, here's their link. I haven't gotten anything done from them yet, so I can't vouch for their quality, but it seems like the company's pretty decent from what I've read online. Anyone ever heard of them?

Sarah

Here is a link that might be useful: Jim Illingworth Millwork

Question. Have you checked inside your closets in the rest of your house. I removed pristine original woodwork from the inside of all my closets and replaced it with new. My closets are so stuffed no one could see in there anyway.LOL. The door frames on the backsides of the closet doors looked like they had just been installed.

I see your post was a while back, but will respond anyway. Your best bet is to contact all of the mill work shops in your region. Your house is not the only one with that moulding, and someone has renovated one of them before you, and needed mill work also; that means some shop has that set of knives in their inventory. It will still cost you a set up fee to mount them in the moulder, and either a minimum billing charge or additional price per foot to run such a small amount.