I have to disagree, I live in a neighborhood of Greek Revival houses and there are variants of the trim pictured in the original post. The dog ears around the doors, the corner blocks, the plinths, everything. The trim in the house pictured looks out of scale and exuberant because it was grafted on to a muc older period house that was different in scale. The federal period houses a few blocks down are significantly smaller, and the pre-Revolutionary ones even further down are smaller still. But since houses don't exist in a vacuum, people update them with the latest, so the house in question got Greek Revival details at Greek Revival scale grafted into a smaller house. It's interesting that you mention Deco though, because Art Deco furniture looks beautiful in certain styles of of Greek Revival houses, because there are certain commonalities.

Hi Dirtymartini. I don't know, "awful" is such a harsh word. I'd probably go with "interesting", as in "That was very interesting, Marty", Lorraine's wonderfully tactful comment in Back to the Future. You ask if you should even add crown molding at all? Good question, and to answer, let's stop & look at history. In traditional houses--Colonial, Victorian, Craftsman, even up to postwar Cape Cods, crown molding was expected. Fancy houses had elaborate designs in molded plaster or carved wood, but regular middle class houses had crown molding, too, the only difference being that the stuff in those houses was cheaper & smaller. But it was still there. Even no-frills Victorian-era workers' cottages had it, although it was pretty meager. But houses--respectable houses-had crown modling for the same reason that women wore gloves when they left the house. It was expected. It was proper. The Modern movement came along and banished fussy crown moldings along with the trim around doors & windows, on the theory that unneccessary applied ornament harbored vermin & dirt, and if you've ever popped off the trim from around a door in an old house & seen the black soot streaks underneath, you know how right they were. But that aspect--health & cleanliness--wasn't the real reason the Modernists banned trimwork. No, it was all about aesthetics. And at first, the clean, stripped-down Modern look was very expensive. Actually, it still is, if you do it right. One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons has a designer explaing into a potential client, "Yes, of course we can do Minimal--but not on your budget." But once plasterers & drywall installers got with the program & learned to do neater work--no more gaping, drafty holes between walls & ceilings, or around doorways--they didn't have to rely on the trim carpenter to come along & hide their crummy workmanship. And once they got that skill-set mastered, it was just a matter of time before budget-driven developers (who cared nothing about aesthetics) eliminated all the trim they could eliminate in new houses, leaving only the baseboards & some vestigial ranch-profile trim around doorways that had actual doors, which, with the rise of open plan houses, were getting fewer & fewer in number. It was Modernism by default, not choice. That was then, but this is now, so let's look around. Today, with the resurgence of interest in traditional design, most new houses again have crown molding. Unfortunately, a lot of it is often way out of proportion for the rooms where it's used--either too big in small-studded rooms like yours, or woefully undernourished in double height rooms--and lots of people living in otherwise handsome, clean-lined Mid-century houses & later open-plan houses are sticking it up in places, where, stylistically, it doesn't belong. Just because a thing, in itself--or in one particular context--looks good doesn't mean that that same thing will look equally good in another place. The demure white gloves that look so natural on Grace Kelly & Betty Draper would look out of character on Carmela Soprano. How about broad horizontal stripes? Great on some people, but disaster on others. But here's what's weird: people understand that concept of appropriateness when it comes to their clothes, but they don't realize it applies to their homes, too. Will adding crown molding work at your house? It's hard to say. Maybe yes, maybe no. So, instead of deciding one way or the other based on what you saw at the neighbor's house--or based on what we, who don't know your house, say--why don't you ask your house what it wants. It will tell you: all you have to do is learn to listen. The mix-'n'-match look? That question's easier. No. Sure a lot of people do it, but a lot of people use their cell phones while driving, too, and a lot of other people jaywalk. Doesn't make it right. Magnaverde Rule No. 5: Stop, Look & Listen.

red eared-You did the right thing w/the turtle! That blind turtle of my mom's is going to outlive her, that is too much of a commitment for me, without any payoff, as far as I am concerned! I would love to see pics of your house. Post them here if you want! hoosier-Thanks! I guess since this is going to be our home for a loooong time, I feel I want everything perfect. Also, this is the first(and maybe the last) house that is not only a home, but a way of expressing ourselves. I never used to be "into" interior decorating, landscaping, etc. I mean, I could appreciate a beautifully appointed room or a pretty plant, but now I am actually interested in learning more about them both. While I just said I feel more comfortable in a slighly messy (lived in) house, I also appreciate going to someone's house and seeing that a "mood" has been created and effort has been put into bringing it all together. I am worried about having my beautiful spanish dining set handed down from my parents, gorgeous art on the walls, well thought out window treatments and then have something simple and basic as baseboards detract. But yes, yes, I know...no one is noticing! Except maybe a Gardenwebber. Not sure I would let any of you in my home! Haha, I kid, I kid!

Thanks wannabath for the detailed response. This is not MDF, it's wood baseboard pre-primed...not from a big box store but from a small place that does flooring. I've painted this same baseboard once before in a rental property, but it was installed by someone else first. The floor was all tile and the board just rested on top of the tile. The board is pre-primed and I painted it with SW Pro-Classic. The painting wasn't too hard but keeping the paint from getting on the floor was the main problem. I do have a coping saw and have done coping before on some of the shorter baseboards. My main concern was whether to install the boards first or do it after the carpet was installed. The advantage to installing the baseboard before the carpet--from what I thought--seemed that I wouldn't have to worry that much about a little bit of paint getting on concrete floors, and I could caulk and cover the nail holes first and then just paint it one time instead of having to do touch up.