Master Bathroom Trim

This page describes one of the phases of the multi-year Master Bathroom Remodeling Project.

Table saw setup for slotting curved baseboard.

Slotting curved baseboard in progress.

Finished slots for curved baseboard pieces.

Painting trim pieces

Story

After completing all the mahogany wood work for the Bathroom Remodel Project, I thought I might not need to add any trim elements to the border areas. Living with it in that state for 2.5 years, I eventually decided that it would look much better with trim pieces.

Sink area before trim.

Before trim view.

Shelf area before trim.

There were four different areas needing trim, each with their own complications:

Recessed Sink Area - Main area around the sinks and vanity, which are curved and need to be stepped on the reverse size in order to sit flush.
Shelf Area - Most straightforward part, though have curved pieces.
Curved Area - Need to create a custom curved piece of wood to match the contours above the doorway to the toilet and shower area
Tricky Intersection - Where the curved area meets the sink area is all sorts of intricate.

Recessed Sink Area

Templates for refining sink area curved trim.

When cutting the curved trim pieces, I would be making perfect circular arcs. However, the existing curves of the wall are not perfect, and there needed to be some stepping of the rear side so the trim would sit flush against the wall and flush against the decorative wood slats. Since I needed some precision here, I made some templates out of old political campaign signs which I could more easily mark and adjust.

To cut the arcs for the sink area curved trim pieces (and later the shelf area curved pieces), I used a special (custom made) jig with special router attachment. I original made this jig when making the curved mirror trim pieces and re-used it for this project. See Wood Slats for Sink Recess Project Page.

Router extension for use in curve cutting jig.

Layout of sink area curved trim piece.

Sink area curved trim pieces, router attachment, arc cutting jig.

Rough cut of curved sink area trim piece.

Sink area curved trim pieces, rough cut.

Initial cut for steps on sink area curved trim pieces.

In order to cover up the wall board, the end of the slats and have the trim overlap to face of the slats, I would need to cut two steps into the rear of the trim. This was a bit tricky to cut, but much more tricky to measure the depth and width of the needed steps. The dimensions needed were not even across the wall and slats from one area to the next. I had to measure the gaps at many points, then find a good average to use since I did not want get involved with any crazy, wavy contouring.

Final stepping detail on sink area curved trim pieces.

Intricate stepping of sink area trim.

All sink area curved pieces before final cutting.

The straight trim pieces for the ceiling area were not straightforward because they required something ticker than the stock 3/4" pieces I had. This required gluing two pieces together to create stock that was big enough to cover the gap between the wall board and wood slats. All I really needed was 1 inch thickness, so two 3/4" glued would give plenty of leeway.

Preparing to glue for short thicker trim pieces.

Clamped wood to make thicker trim pieces.

Clamped glued pieces for short thicker trim.

Shelf Area

The only complication for the shelf area trim were thje rounded trim pieces. However, by this time, having done this for the mirror trim a couple years before and then more recently for the recessed sink area trim, I had the jig and experience to make this relatively simple.

Shelf trim dimensions drawing

Layout for shelf curved trim pieces.

Curved Trim

Doorway area in curved wall

Our bathroom (since we moved in) has an interesting curved wall. This is adjacent to a threshold / doorway that goes to a separate toilet and shower area. That area also has a wood slat ceiling, but since it is lower than the main bathroom ceiling, the ends of the slats show. Since all the other trim was aimed at covering the ends of the slats, I would need trim across the exposed section of the slats.

Using a router to cut the curve was not an option for two reasons: this is not a smooth circular arc and I would need a massively big piece of wood with lots of waste. May solution was to cut a lot of thin, bendable pieces of mahogany, then glue them together while they were in the bent position. To match the precise, non-uniform curve of the wall, I would glue them against that wall with some custom made clamps.

Custom clamp for shaping curved trim.

Slats to be combined to make curved trim.

Raw blocks for curved trim custom clamps.

Curved trim piece from slats with first clamp.

Curved trim piece from slats with all clamps.

Curved trim after gluing.

Tricky Intersection

Tricky intersection closeup without trim.

I had the recessed area trim all done and the curved wall area trim all done, but these are adjacent to one another. I could stop the wall area trim before the sink area trim, but this would have looked strange like the trim was prematurely stopping. A much more elegant look would be for the trim to flow into one another. While this was much more elegant looking in theory, in practice it was very complicated and because of this complication, wound up being a very unsatisfactory result. I think it looks better than if I would have not had them connect, but I had to do a Frankenstein-like assembly of a few pieces and I was not able to make this look smooth enough even with a heavy application of wood filler.