In designing an attractive facade, particularly on the entrance design, you must know that the choice of trim is just as important as the selection of the front door. The fact is that choosing the right option can help make the house’s entry look even better for the neighbors, visitors, or even potential buyers.
One simple yet interesting fact you must know is that we can use a specific term to call the type of trim located around the front door or any other doors in the home design. It is a casing. If this word occurs somewhere in this article, you will know that it refers to the same thing, which is the trim itself.
If being asked about the front door trim’s actual functions, there are at least two things you must know. The most prominent one is, of course, that it gives a decorative touch to enhance the look of the entry.
The other is that it can hide the transition between the jamb of the door and the wall. You may already know that some flaws in this part might be visible and reduce the attractiveness of the entry if there is no trim.
For you who have not decided on the right casing to use in your house’s main entrance, this article is the right one for you to read further. Here, we will give you the 11 best front door trim ideas that you can count on to enhance the facade’s attractiveness.
Please read further to find out about all the styles. Of course, we will give an explanation and photos too to make everything even easier for you.
- Simple Mitered Front Door Casing for Simple Beauty
- Butted-Style Trim for Front Door: The Second Basic Option Available
- Simple to Extraordinary Front Door Trim by Adding Crown Decoration
- Wide Front Door Trim with Intricate Details
- Simple Front Door Trim with Complementary Look with the Window Casing
- Front Door Trim Variation: Sidelights for Extra Natural Light in the Interior
- Decorative Trim for Front Door with Transom and Sidelights
- Trim Ideas for Arched Front Door
- Front Door Trim That Becomes One with The Window Trim
- Unique Trim with Ripple Effect for Front Door
- Same Stain for Wooden Front Door and Trim
- Closing
Simple Mitered Front Door Casing for Simple Beauty
In this first idea, we want to talk specifically about one of the two most basic front door trim styles. The name of it is mitered.
This type of casing usually comes in three parts. Those include one header and two other side trims.
The name mitered comes from the angled joints that connect the three parts. If you look at the photo of a traditional entry above, you can see that the white trim has angled joints as the meeting point of each side of the header with the side trim.
The example you see in the picture looks quite simple, although it is not the simplest form. It has some recessed details that make it an even more beautiful pair for the stunning blue door.
While the name ‘mitered trim’ refers more to the angled joints, you must know that this front door casing comes in many design options. A lot of variations are available too.
Butted-Style Trim for Front Door: The Second Basic Option Available
Other than mitered, there is also another basic option called a butted-style. It has a similarity with the other one, in the way that it also has three parts, two sides, and one header.
The most noticeable difference is located in the fact that the joints between the parts are not angled. Its header is directly placed on top of the side trims.
Besides, it usually has a wider head. It is the one that arrests the most attention in the front door trim design. This reason uniquely makes it an even better choice for a high ceiling house instead of the low one.
This door trim option also comes in lots of choices of design. One of the most common variations is when the header obtains more decorations, such as intricate details or patterns, that can make the trim and the front door look way more attractive.
Let us talk a bit about the example that you can see in the photo above. It shows the main entrance of a farmhouse residence.
The front door trim that you can see here is in butted-style. We can say that it has the simplest design because no details or patterns can be seen on it.
However, it still comes with a small variation. As you can see, there is a small transom window above the front door, and it makes the shape of the trim follow the design.
Simple to Extraordinary Front Door Trim by Adding Crown Decoration
Now that you already know about the two most basic front door trim styles, we will show you some other ideas. Those will include the variations you can add to the casing to make it even more attractive.
The photo of a tall traditional double front door above shows a really good idea you can get inspired from. As you can see, the header of this entrance trim looks different.
A decorative front door casing feature like this is called a crown. It is a detail that is found quite often in Victorian-style homes. Although so, right now, it is used in many other designs too.
This molding type can significantly enhance the look of your front door trim. Besides, the fact that it is commonly wider than the side trims makes it easier to steal attention from anyone seeing the house’s facade.
Another interesting fact you must know is that even if you already got your front door trimmed, you can still add a crown to it. It is even better because this update can significantly change the look of the casing.
Let us go back to the photo above. This main entry’s trim design is even more special because it is made to match the existence of a large transom window above the door.
From the photo, we also know that the crown adds several inches of height to the trim. You can concern yourself with before choosing to add the decorative feature to the casing because it can reduce the space between the header and the ceiling. If you want a larger space, you should consider a shorter crown instead of the taller one.
Wide Front Door Trim with Intricate Details
Front door width is something that you can find in various options too. Choosing a wider choice, in this case, is another trick that you can do to make the facade even more attractive. Other than that, it can also change an ordinary entry into an extraordinary one.
To make the design even more awesome, you can choose a wider front door trim with an intricate design. The one shown in the photo is a really good example that you should check out.
This front door trim looks wider. As for the details, you can see that the molding details make it look like it has columns in the design. Another catchy element that we cannot miss is the double-crown detailing for the heading.
A choice like this is perfect to choose when you want to make the front door the center of attention in the facade. If you think about the same thing, it would be best to keep the window trim simpler. This way, the attention will go more to the door instead.
Simple Front Door Trim with Complementary Look with the Window Casing
We have a very simple trick that you can do to deal with the confusion in choosing the right trim for the front door. In this case, you must consider the window casings too.
We are trying to say that it will be very easy for you to pick the door trim by making sure that it has a highly similar or even the same look as the window casings. In other words, all the casings look complementary for one another.
You can see the photo as an example of this idea. As you can see, the front door trim in the home exterior has the same style and even width as the window casings. If you look closely, it is even the same with the baseboard too.
A clear complementary visual is the one that you can see from this exterior design. The idea is very simple, but it can still make the facade look very attractive.
Front Door Trim Variation: Sidelights for Extra Natural Light in the Interior
In this next idea, we are not going to focus on how the choice of front door trim can affect the house’s facade visual. Instead, we will also talk about how it can affect the interior of the house, particularly if it is the one that is not too bright because of the lack of natural light from outside.
The front door casing idea that we will talk about in this subheading comes with sidelights, just like what you can see in the photo. It is a design variation you can consider if the inside of your house is quite dark at day.
This front door trim is available in so many design variations, from the simplest to the most intricate one. An example is available in the photo.
This coastal exterior design has a simple-looking white trim that is also a perfect match for the blue door with a glass window feature on the upper part. The best thing about this trim is that it also becomes a transition area between the very contrast blue entrance and beige wall siding.
As you can see, the design is made to match the existence of sidelights on both sides. This way, more natural sunlight can enter to brighten up the house at day time.
Decorative Trim for Front Door with Transom and Sidelights
Front door design often comes not only with sidelights but also transom. It is perfect for an even more extra amount of natural light to enter the house.
For an entrance design like this, of course, the type of trim that you need must match all of the sidelights and transom features. You can also choose something decorative to create an even more attractive visual.
If you need an example, the photo above is the one. The trim of this black farmhouse front door is just amazing.
The thing that caught our attention first is none other but the dimensions. You may notice that its size and width are not small ones. It is not randomly chosen but fitted to the overall size of the door with the extra window features it has.
The next interesting thing about this front door trim is the decorative design. This butted-style trim looks like pillars with a crowned header.
Trim Ideas for Arched Front Door
Some front doors are arched-style. If you also have this one at home, it means that the type of trim you must choose is the one made with an arched shape too.
The simplest example is shown in the photo above. The blue arched traditional front door is paired simply but nicely with an arched trim that does not have any decorative details. It is just a plain option, but it does not mean that it looks bad.
When you see a trim design like this, you may think that you cannot have many design variations. The fact is not like that.
Much arched trim also comes with decorative and even intricate patterns. Some of it even have crowns, although that header must be modified to make the design possible.
Front Door Trim That Becomes One with The Window Trim
Some facades are not that spacious, so that the window must be installed right next to the front door. If you have something like this in your house’s exterior design, we have a suggestion for the trim you must choose for the entrance.
The option that we meant previously is the front door trim connecting the front door and the window next to it. You can take a look at the photo to know how it looks.
As you can see, because of the white trim, it looks like the dark front door, and the window is in unity. At the same time, the trim also becomes an excellent transition area that separates the entrance and the shingle wall siding.
Unique Trim with Ripple Effect for Front Door
Do you know water ripples? There is a front door trim styling that is inspired by it.
Let us call it a trim with a ripple effect. Please take a look at the photo to recognize how it looks.
To get the special effect, usually, the door trims are built by using outward direction, started from the inside of the jamb. The size of this trim is various, depending on the dimensions of the front door.
Originally, it is commonly found in old houses, such as the ones with colonial revival-styling or even Victorian homes. Although, right now, this trim is used in more various residences, including the one you can see in the contemporary house in the photo above.
Same Stain for Wooden Front Door and Trim
The last but not least trim idea that we want to suggest you choose is the one that has the same stained color as the one used on the front door. This can be the right option to pick when you want to create a uniform look in the facade.
When you are interested in this idea, you must consider coloring the window trim with the same staining. It will make the uniform look even better.
The photo of an arched front door that you can see in the picture is a good one that we found. As you can see, it is not only the shape of the trim that follows the front door design but also the color. It looks even better because the hardwood flooring inside the house also has a highly similar visual.
Closing
Those are the 11 front door trim ideas based on the styling you can consider when designing your house’s facade. From all the examples that we showed you, there are many options available for making the front view of your home attractive.
While there are quite a lot of trim styles suitable for the front door, as we already listed for you in this article, you must know that you can consider some other things when about to pick the right trim for the main entrance of the house.
We already mentioned some of the points above. For example, in many cases, people usually choose the other trim or molding before installing the one for the front door.
We want to say here that it will be much easier and effective when you choose something that matches with other trim that you have installed earlier in the exterior, including window casing, baseboard, crown molding, etc.
Other than that, it is also important to keep the front door trim to match the home exterior style. For example, choosing an intricate trim with crown molding can be an excellent choice for a Victorian-style facade.
If you are not sure about your choice, you can always consult an expert to determine the answer. You can do it not only by directly contacting a local designer or architect but also by talking about everything to a molding specialist who will surely know what to do.