Kuiken Brothers Classical Moulding Comparison

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Kuiken Brothers Classical Moulding was designed with careful thought and consideration of the architectural details and dimensions to ensure that we were bringing back the shapes and forms of American Craftsmen from over 200 years ago. In fact, the use of moulding as a design element dates back to ancient Greece and Rome. Crown moulding has been a part of the building tradition since Greek craftsmen influenced Roman architecture in the 2nd century BC and versions of their moulding are still in use today. They are considered to be the building blocks of interior ornamentation.

Kuiken Brothers Classical Moulding Molding Crown Casing Base (24)

Almost all mouldings sold today are replicated from profiles that were handcrafted on-site by craftsmen more than 200+ years ago. Many of these original craftsmen studied and understood proper scale and proportion and the ancient orders of Greek and Roman architecture.

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Let’s use the photo above to see how Cost and Replication for Mass Production attempts have impacted the overall design of the profile on the left, and how Kuiken Brothers Classical Moulding profile (right) now offers customers a look that is truly custom looking and handcrafted like they were over 200 years ago.

Cost: In the picture above, the moulding on the left is a standard, everyday casing that has been in production for years. Over time the corners have become slightly rounded and the overall thickness has been reduced, likely to allow the mill to cut from thinner piece of lumber, keeping the raw material costs and ultimately the retail price down.

Replication: Additions and renovations require the installer to replicate existing mouldings. Often times this would be done at a custom mill. In order to reproduce the moulding, the profile would be to taken off of the wall, traced on a piece of paper, faxed (or even snail mail!) it to a mill, and ask the mill to replicate it. When mouldings go through these phases of reproduction, they inevitable lose the original crispness that was once handcrafted. Edges are rounded off, beads are no longer perfectly round, beaded planes are filled in and not as deep. One must also factor in the layers of paint that may be on top of the original moulding. Layers of paint can impact the original shape and character/ lines of the moulding once it is traced by the replicator.

Kuiken Brothers Classical Moulding (5)

The casing on the right (pictured installed above) was milled from poplar, using a new CAD file drawn for Kuiken Brothers’ Classical Moulding Collection. The profile is milled to the exact specification of the CAD drawing, ensuring that it retains the crisp details and strong shadow lines of it’s original design. (CAD Drawings can be found on www.kuikenbrothers.com/classical)

In 2010, Kuiken Brothers, announced one of the largest launches of classical American moulding products ever in the United States. The KB Classical Moulding Collection catalog includes sixty-six, in-stock, historically-inspired moulding profiles, and represents classic American moulding profiles designed nearly 200 years ago. The products are categorized by architectural style (Early American, Georgian, Colonial Revival, Federal, Greek Revival, and Traditional Revival) to show which crown, casing and base mouldings go together.

Until the launch of the Classical Moulding Collection, many of these profiles were available only through custom production runs, and coordinating design elements was difficult and time-consuming. Now that they are in-stock, we invite you to request a a free catalog which will help to simplify the Classical Moulding selection process.

KB Entire Classical Mouldings Collection

Kuiken Brothers offers on-line CAD files for architects and designers to incorporate detail into their blueprints. Free moulding samples are available so designers and their clients can match them to existing mouldings or see how they will actually look before installation.

If you would like more information on Kuiken Brothers Classical Moulding Collection, please give us a call or fill out the Kuiken Brothers Contact Us Form. We will contact you right away and look forward to working with you on your next moulding project!


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