How to fit Architraves - A quick DIY guide.

Architraves can be found in a wide variety of historical buildings specifically in the framing of the door or any other rectangular opening or passageway within a home or historical monument. If you would like to give your home a more classical feel, or add accents to your doorways an architrave is a great way that you can change the look of any entranceway or hallway. Fitting architraves and making it look perfect the first time can take practice but luckily there are some tips that you can follow to avoid making mistakes that could damage your project.

What do you need?

Architrave materials, oval nails, wood glue, sandpaper and potentially safety glasses.

The first step that you will want to take is setting your square measurement for the Architrave about 6 mm from the inside of your doorframe. Be sure to mark some measurement lines all the way around your doorframe and then stand the first piece of the Architrave against your measurements. Matching your Architrave pieces against your measurements is a great way to make sure that it will fit in the doorframe correctly.

The second step that you will need to take is to trim down the Architrave and make adjustments as needed. You will need to have a fixed miter block down and a stable surface to cut the Architrave correctly. Make sure to measure out your Architrave to fit into the spaces that you marked and then simply cut out your measured pieces.

From here you can use the wood glue to fill in the space within the back of the Architrave and prepare to affix it to the wall and around the frame. Simply place the Architrave on the frame first to make sure that it still matches up with your measurements. From here you can use the oval nails to affix the Architrave to your frame. Make sure not to hammer the nails all the way in or you could risk cracking the wooden mouldings and the architrave or damaging the face with a hammer. Instead take the punch of the hammer and place it against the nail head to push the end of the nail in against the Architrave without damaging it.

Continue to surround the doorframe with Architrave by matching up new pieces of the Architrave against the ones that you have Artie affixed to the wall. This way you can mark the appropriate angles as well as make sure that all new pieces will fit into the doorframe correctly.

By continuing this process you can eventually fill in the doorframe with Architrave. You can also use fill and sandpaper to get rid of any marks that you may have made in the Architrave during the construction process.