I grew up in the South—Nashville, TN. These clients did too. While many things are a lot different here, the one that I constantly deal with here in Colorado is how plain all the trim carpentry is in this town compared to where I grew up. Any time something has a few profiles built up people start comparing it to historic homes in the area, when really it’s just a regional thing. When Southern ex-pats come to me and want some real trim, I make it happen.

This wainscoting was shop-built, a first for me. There wasn’t really a good spot to work on-site and this was a little too complicated to try to build on the wall. This is traditional frame and panel wainscoting, meaning there’s an actual panel in between each frame, not just drywall, and this panel moulding had to be cut at some extreme angles to conform to the steep stair pitch. Building it in my shop in sections made it possible to pull off a pretty complex and elegant design without wearing out my welcome. This was primed twice before delivery and hand-painted in place so the clients didn’t have to deal with paint sprayers and fumes, and we used Benjamin Moore Scuff-X for an incredibly tough-wearing paint job, especially for a water based alkalyd. They were using the grip rail on day one, which I call a win.