Not-so-common trim details

Q: I used to live in a house designed by Sarah Susanka, and I loved the style and trim details. I’d like to incorporate some “Sarah-style” trim details into the house I’m building now. My plan is to use clear maple for the door and window trim. I would like to do something more interesting than mitered casings, but what?

A: Sarah Susanka, an architect and the author of Home by Design, replies: Just for the record, Gene, I’m not a big fan of mitered corners, either. There’s nothing inherently wrong with them; it’s just a stylistic preference. You can do so many things with trim around doors and windows to make them appear a little more interesting than the standard mitered-corner look. I like to join head and side casings with butt joints rather than miters. One way to dress them up is to add an additional narrow piece of trim just below the head casing, something perhaps 1/4 in. thicker so that it stands proud of the jamb and head trim pieces (see drawing). A rounded profile is a common detail for a piece like this. There are illustrations of this approach in my book Creating the Not So Big House. This detail, employed by architect Robert Knight, adds character to simple buttjoined casing. For more “Sarah-style” trim ideas, see “Drawing Board” in FHB #171 (p. 136).