I'm not getting a good picture of what trim will be in what room. I say if you're doing an open floor plan LR/DR/kitchen, you *do* need to make all the trim the same. If you have a "formal" LR that can be closed off you can keep the original trim there (but put the new stuff on the side of the door opening into the new area if there is such a thing). The upstairs can be different from the downstairs - you just want continuity where rooms flow into each other.

I wouldn't notice if the trim was *slightly* different from room to room - I have 2.5" trim around the DR doorway and 2.25" trim (same profile) on the DR windows. I bought 3.5" trim (not up yet) for around the front door and sidelights b/c it looked strange with a 6ft area enclosed by 2.25" builder's cheap trim. Even though it's a different profile I'm keeping it same stain color.

Join the pieces (even if you butt and don't mitre - it'll make for a tighter joint), then route them - or route each piece and then install them. You can't route them in place.

I would match the older trim since that is what you like better, and is closer to your "if I were starting over" style. I have done renovations where people couldn't afford to change all the trim and did what you did---removed the builder "colonial" and used a more substantial flat, eased trim. However, it ended up all downstairs trim matching, and all upstairs matching, or all doors matching #1 all windows matching #2... some "order" to it.

In an old house there were often different trims, based upon the floor of the house, the function of the room, the importance of the door, etc. And then there were other changes because the house may have grown (like yours did) but houses used to get bigger more "organically" than they do now.

Thank you so much for your insights!

Maybe this will help:
here's a photo showing the old 1956 original trim. It's substantially eased on both the inside and outside edges (1/2" radius?) and mitered on the corners. This wall is actually no longer there: we opened it up as shown in the floor plan below.

So now there's no trim at all (yet) in the LR/DR, mudroom, master bedroom, master bath, and office.

The original trim is in the second bedroom, the small original bath, the hall outside that bath, and the front door vestibule. Oh, and on the window in the mudroom... forgot that one :)

{{!gwi}}

I think the original trim is fine, it's pretty plain... but it would be a PITA to recreate on all the vast amounts of new windows and doors I need to trim. I like simple, plain, farmhouse/cottage trim and might have done nothing but plain straight boards if starting from scratch. So- the question is whether to just do that now, or make at least a nod to the original stuff by rounding (easing substantially) the outer edge and/or mitering.

Shoot... those two images didn't show up. I am sorry- let me try again:

original house trim:

and the floor plan:

I forgot to mention that this isn't our forever home, so resale IS a consideration. Here are some other photos of the renovations we've done so far, if that helps get a sense of our aesthetic:

"The original trim is in the second bedroom, the small original bath, the hall outside that bath, and the front door vestibule. Oh, and on the window in the mudroom... forgot that one :)"

What about door trim in the mudroom? I'm not sure where (or what - baseboard included?) as the "hall outside the bath"?

I'd replace the front door trim (and baseboard in vestibule) to match your new trim throughout the open floor plan area you're walking into.

What's in the MBR, MBA and office since you didn't mention those? The skinny builder's stuff? Or are you replacing that trim?

I'd replace all the skinny stuff if you can afford it, and there isn't that much of the original left, so you can leave it in the bathroom and inside the bedroom, just use something about the same width in the remodeled part and the hallway leading to the BRs/office. I can't really see the details in the picture and if you got the same width and replaced it so everything in the "open" and hallway was the same, I don't think anybody would really care that the insides of the closed-off rooms were different, so I wouldn't round off or mitre the new trim if you don't want to. JMHO

Then again, since there really isn't that much of the original trim left, you *could* replace it all with whatever you like. Is it going to bother *you* if those few rooms have different trim?

Oops, sorry, you *did* say the MBR/MBA was the skinny stuff but you tore it out - I was too busy looking at the pictures and the floor plan (and being interrupted by my 6-yo DD).

So you need baseboard - what baseboard do you have left anywhere in the house?

Looks like you should just buy new trim (casings and baseboards) for the whole house, since you don't have much left anyway.

Sorry if I was confusing! The baseboard is fine: original and addition all match and I like it.

In the mudroom (that's the photo with the slate floor), only the window has original trim: all door trim has been removed.

In the MBR, MBA, it was the colonial builders stuff and it's all gone now.

So- does anyone have photos of a very plain, farmhouse/cottagy trim that's simply 1x5s with no detail? I'd love to see it if so!

Oh, I didn't see any baseboard in the reno pictures.

Here's a thread from a while back

Here is a link that might be useful: Craftsman trim examples

The original trim seems most compatible to the scale of the rooms, IMO. 1X5 may end up looking a bit wide in some areas, and I would make sure you dont have any dimensional issues with wider stock at corners and such:

We used a wide cottage-y looking trim in a house that had 9-9.5' ceilings and it looked good, but we ran into some issues where a lot of it needed to be trimmed between doorways and the corners (It was a narrow house) because doorways were closer than 5" to wall. Also in some rooms the light switches started to get in the way.

And in some cases where it was 5-1/2 or 6 to the corner we put in a wider piece in order to avoid a sliver - like gap. These issues are not as big a deal with narrower trim, but become more important with wider.

palimpsest- you know I ws just driving back from the paint store thinking, "oh shoot, I wrote 1x5 instead of 1x4!"

Sorry about that... I did mean 1x4. So the boards would be 3.5 x .75. The original rounded stuff is 3" wide, so our new trim will be just a tad wider. I've gotten pretty good with the Fein tool and cutting back baseboards, so should be OK in that regard.

The simplest thing would just be square trim with butt corners and a slightly eased outer edge to reference the older stuff. Second would be same but mitered. Ideally I'd love to have a little more detail, like a simple cap and fillet (our old house had that) but that's a whole lot more finish carpentry than I am prepared to take on right now.