I wouldn't put casing around an opening unless I were trying to highlight that feature of the room for some reason. So, I wouldn't case these openings.

The room is looking good, and I think that white molding would enhance the room, especially if you plan to paint a darker color.

Can you build the wall out a bit and then add the casing, so that both openings will match? You would just need a couple of doubled-up studs, and then cover them with the casing.

We decided to case in our doorways, and one we did what NHB suggests above, we built out the wall enough to accomodate a casing. On our second opening, we built out the wall about a foot to allow for the addition of kitchen cabinets on the kitchen side. We still have to put casing on that one. Here is a photo, where you can see how the right side had ended at a thicker wall. Our solution was to build it out enough to not only give room for a casing, but to make the opening the correct size for the bifold doors.
And the next pic shows the kitchen opening, that had we not built it out, the lower kitchen cabinets would have jutted out beyond the opening.
Both were an easy fix.
Oh, and I much prefer the look of ours with the casing, over the way it used to look without.(We still have to build the header over the one with the bifold doors, so for now a piece of casing is just tacked there.)

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

NHB - that is kind of what we were thinking. Eventually we will be painting the room a little darker - but also with the white molding you can see the true color a little better.

I don't think we'd be able to build out that one wall b/c of the door that leads to the garage.

We might have to scrap this one.. I just don't know how it would look to have one opening with moldings around it and none on the other.

Ruth

balego - we must have cross posted - WOW - your doors look great. I do love the way the casing looks around it..

hmmm - I keep going back and forth about it.

Ruth

Ruth, is the door to the garage the one I can see in your photo? How wide is that opening? And how much space is there where the present door casing to that door and your opening is?

I'm always of the mindset that if there's a will, there's a way. No one else thought casing in our doors and adding french doors would be possible, or look good. But I persisted because that is what I wanted. The doors serve no purpose, but I love having them there. :)

Keep in mind that Balego didn't just case the doorway, they added doors. Which are stunning, BTW.

gosh, I've already mentally added a french door to Ruths doorway, LOL.

balego - I just looked at your pics again - I love your base molding - It is so nice - is it original or added when you did the hw. I am looking to get my base and the "big box" stores have such plain stuff. The only way they are a little more decorative is if we go 7" and we don't want that.

re: garage door -

It is hard to tell but the casing around that door goes right up to where the LR begins, where the soffit thing is.

Here are some pics - they are OLD but you get the idea...

Ruth

Hi Ruth
Thanks for your compliments. :)
Our baseboard is just 4 inch high Home Depot stuff that they sell for about $4 (Canadian) for an 8 foot length. It's the MDF that is pre-primed. Then we added 1/4 round as well.

Looking at your doorway, I think it could be done. I see that the garage door is close to the LR opening, but you could still build out the wall enough for a casing on your living room side, even if that means you would have to butt the casings on the other side that would meet at the garage door. This may only mean tacking on a couple of 2x4s to the wall, and adding a narrow strip of drywall if needed (whatever it needs to match the thickness of the top and opposite side).
In our house, two of our doorway casings meet in a corner. Sometimes it means ripping the casing up the length (I have seen this done), but it works and after it is all caulked and painted, it looks just fine. Or in our case, we have about a 1 inch space between the casings in the corner, but again, it looks fine.

I think it could be done, also!

balego - Love those doors! I didn't know that glass bi-folds were available. Your wall color is beautiful, too.

NHB, thankyou. I had wanted french doors on this opening for quite some time, but thought it wouldn't work due to not having enough room to open them into the living room. Our doorway was originally 69" wide, so although we knew we would have to reduce it in width, opening 30 or 32 inch doors would never have worked. Walking around Home Depot one time, I spotted a pair of bifold french doors, but the price on them was high for just one pair (I needed two pairs). They were only available through special order. I calculated the cost for the sizes we would need, and thought "yikes", and I let the idea go.

Two years later, I again looked at the HD doors on display, and then noticed there were some stacked in the shelves behind the display. Upon asking the clerk, I discovered that they indeed sold them in the store, and that only the ones with beveled glass like the display set were special order. I had hope, finally! We bought the unbeveled glass ones, and these doors cost us less than $400, for the two pairs.

Ruth, I love your new floors, and I think your room is looking gorgeous!