Millwork

Any woodwork such as doors, trim, crown moulding and so on is generally defined as millwork.

Many of the specific features of the space are created using different types of architectural millwork: doors, window casings, baseboards, mantels, cabinets, 'built-ins', and crown moldings. The materials used in millwork items today are most often graded-lumber, code compliant fasteners, various glasses, and other decorative coatings and finishes. Most millwork building materials can be installed with little or no modification as part of the construction process

There are a variety of common moldings:

  • Astragal — semi-circular molding attached to one of a pair of especially fire doors to cover the air gap where the doors meet
  • Baguette — Thin, half-round molding, smaller than an astragal, sometimes carved, and enriched with foliages, pearls, ribbands, laurels, etc. When enriched with ornaments, it was also called chapelet
  • Bandelet — Any little band or flat molding, which crowns a Doric architrave. It is also called a tenia.
  • Baseboard — used to conceal the junction of an interior wall and floor, to protect the wall from impacts and to add decorative features. A "speed base" makes use of a base "cap molding" set on top of a plain 1" thick board, however there are hundreds of baseboard profiles.
  • Batten or board and batten — a symmetrical molding that is placed across a joint where two parallel panels or boards meet
  • Bead molding — narrow, half-round convex molding, when repeated forms reeding
  • Beading or bead — molding in the form of a row of half spherical beads, larger than pearling
  • Beak — Small fillet molding left on the edge of a larmier, which forms a canal, and makes a kind of pendant.
  • Bed molding — a narrow molding used at the junction of a wall and ceiling. Bed moldings can be either sprung or plain.
  • Bolection — a molding which is raised, projecting proud of the face frame. It is located at the intersection of the different surface levels between the frame and inset panel on a door or wood panel.
  • Cable molding — Convex molding carved in imitation of a twisted rope or cord, and used for decorative moldings of the Romanesque style in England, France and Spain and adapted for 18th century silver and furniture design
  • Cabled fluting or cable — Convex circular molding sunk in the concave fluting of a classic column, and rising about one-third of the height of the shaft
  • Casing — Final trim or finished frame around the top, and both sides of a door or window opening
  • Cartouche (French) — framed panel in the form of a scroll with an inscribed centre, or surrounded by compound moldings decorated with floral motifs
  • Cavetto — (Italian) cavare: "to hollow", concave, quarter-round molding sometimes employed in the place of the cymatium of a cornice.
  • Chair rail — horizontal molding placed part way up a wall to protect the surface from chair-backs, and used simply as decoration
  • Chamfer — bevelled edge connecting two adjacent surfaces
  • Chin-beak — Concave quarter-round molding. There are few examples of this in ancient buildings, but is common in more recent times.
  • Colonial — “Colonial” mouldings are very widely used in various places. This profile can be called “classic” as well since most of houses have it already build into kitchens, fireplaces, furniture, door and windows headers, columns and so on.
  • Corner guard — Used to protect the edge of the wall at an outside corner, or to cover a joint on an inside corner.
  • Cove molding or Coving — a concave-profile molding that is used at the junction of an interior wall and ceiling
  • Crown molding — a wide, sprung molding that is used at the junction of an interior wall and ceiling. General term for any molding at the top or "crowning" an architectural element.
  • Cyma — molding of double curvature, combining the convex ovolo and concave cavetto. When the concave part is uppermost, it is called a cyma recta but if the convex portion is at the top, it is called a Cyma reversa
  • Dentils — Small blocks spaced evenly along the bottom edge of the cornice
  • Drip cap — this is placed over a door or window opening to prevent water from flowing under the siding or across the glass
  • Echinus — Similar to the ovolo molding and found beneath the abacus of the Doric capital or decorated with the egg-and-dart pattern below the Ionic capital
  • Egg-and-dart — One of the most widely used classical molding with egg shapes alternating with V-shapes
  • Fillet — small, flat band separating two surfaces, or between the flutes of a column
  • Fluting — Vertical, half-round grooves cut into the surface of a column in regular intervals, each separated by a flat astragal. This ornament was used for all but the Tuscan order
  • Godroon or Gadroon — Ornamental band with the appearance of beading or reeding, especially frequent in silverwork and molding.
  • Guilloche — Interlocking curved bands in a repeating pattern often forming circles enriched with rosettes and found in Assyrian ornament, classical and Renaissance architecture.
  • Keel molding — with a sharp edge, resembling in cross-section the keel of a ship. It is common in the Early English and Decorated styles.
  • Ovolo — Simple, convex quarter-round molding that can also be enriched with the egg-and-dart or other pattern
  • Picture rail — Functional molding installed 7–9 feet above the floor from which framed pictures and paintings are hung using picture wire and picture rail hooks. Primarily seen in older homes with plaster walls
  • Rosette — Circular, floral decorative element found in Mesopotamian design and early Greek stele. Part of revival styles in architecture since the Renaissance.
  • Scotia — Concave molding with a lower edge projecting beyond the top and so used at the base of columns as a transition between two torus moldings with different diameters
  • Screen molding — this is a small molding that is used to hide the area where a screen is attached to the frame.
  • Shoe molding, toe molding or quarter-round — often used at the bottom of the baseboard to cover a small gap or uneven edge between the flooring and the baseboard.
  • Strapwork - Popular in England in 16th & 17th. centuries, used in plaster on ceilings, also sculpted in stone on exterior of buildings, e.g. around entrance doors.
  • Torus — Convex, semi-circular molding, larger than an astragal, often at the base of a column, which may be enriched with leaves or plaiting.
  • Trim molding — A general term used for moldings that are used to create added detail or cover up gaps. They can include corner moldings, cove moldings, rope moldings, quarter rounds, and accent moldings.