I wanted hand planed moldings to my bathroom – actually they were a big
part of the design from the start. I actually started the whole project
by planing the first moldings, the story can be found at
http://www.sihistin.fi/en/woodwork/moldings.html
Starting from the material: I use pine, as slowly grown as I can find,
free of knots and cross-grain. Here is an example of what I mean:
Also the grain orientation is very important. The main direction of the
moled surface should be perpendicular to the growth rings. Otherwise
some of the growth rings tend to “peel” off the surface when planing.
On first picture the correct grain orientation is shown at left, wrong
at right. On second picture the same moldings from the front: the right
way on top, wrong way on bottom. The difference is even bigger when
looking the surface closer.
The first molding is really really simple: I just needed a shot
molding to copy the idea of paneling used around the window. I could
have modified it from the paneling itself, but this was actually faster
than filling the groove on the panel etc.
I started by planing a groove to the middle of the profile just for a
reference mark. The profile is OK when the reference mark just
disappears. I use a #45 with a V-shaped cutter for the reference marks.
Next I just rounded the corners with an appropriate hollow. Last
picture is from the finished paneling: it seems like the paneling
continues around the corner. I had to start the paneling from the
corner and continue to both directions from that on to get the effect.
The same molding is also used on the bottom of the paneling on the
ceiling.
The molding between shower glass and wall paneling is pretty much
the same, except for the double beads on the sides and 45° cuts on
backside for fitting to the corner. I used a lot of beads on the
bathroom as they seemed to fit nicely to the beaded T&G paneling on
the walls.
The architrave was a bit different than usual. Instead of just
using the same molding to frame the whole door, the top of the
architrave continues around the room on top of the paneling. I first
made a few sketches with 3 and 4 beads and decided to go for 3.
As you can see from the pictures, I did not have proper timber for this
and the end result left a lot to be desired. I had tu use a bucketful
of putty to get the architraves decent before painting.
First I planed the triple beads with a #45 and bevelled the edges with a #98.
Then I made a shallow bevel from the beaded part towards the edges and
rounded the edges with a hollow. On the end result you see that the
architrave is almost flush with the paneling.
I planed the skirting boards already when making the big moldings, but
the ends of the skirting boards were a slight problem as the architrave
was almost flush with the paneling. So I ended up rounding the ends of
skirting boards. This was done with a plane on the lower part and
several in-cannel gouges and small files on the molding.
Rounding the end of a molding isn’t that common, the big molding on top of the paneling was done in a more traditional way.
First I glued a piece of wood to the panel rabbet to be able to cut the
molding profile to the end of the molding. On the same picture there is
the first try of cutting the profile.
Next I drew the profile to the end of the molding and used a coping
saw to get rid of most of the excess wood. And finally finished the
profile with small files.
The mitres on the corner were a bit challenging, but ended up well.
I just carved the profile to the side of second piece and that was it.
The front of the windowsill was done in a similar way. There is also a
small molding between the paneling and windowsill to prevent water
entering behind the panel and the end of it was carved as well.
All in all, it’s fairly simple. Of course you must have the proper
tools, but you can do a lot with a few hollows and rounds, a couple of
beads and a #45.
Finally, a few pictures of moldings and tools used to create them.
The ”teak floor” was also framed and I used a jack plane –sized molding plane to thin down the frames.
All in all, it was fun and definitely worth it, although building the
bathroom took about a year. I prefer to think about it as building a
room-sized piece of furniture
Pekka