Door opening is level, ceiling above it is not, how to trim out?

13 years ago

I have a doorway that is level on top, but the ceiling a few inches above it is not level, and it's very obvious. Is there a way to fake it out a little to make it look better? I was thinking of lifting up the one side of the casing to offset the difference a little and match it to the ceiling, but it would show if someone was looking through the door into the ceiling in the next room, that ceiling has tiles so the lines of those tiles will show that the door frame is off... any ideas?

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User

13 years ago

What can be done depends on the trim.

Plain rounded over door trim with no detail can be cut at an angle to more closely match the ceiling slant. That requires also cutting the vertical side. it is not easy.

Does not work for trim with any detail as the tapering is revealed in the changed details.

Adding a piece of tapered custom cut wood above the regular trim might work. Especially if the trim is painted. Reason being is because adding shows up at the miter joint. There is wood above it that does not match the joint line. Paimting can conceal that line.

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Comments (6)

gzec
13 years ago
You need to cheat somewhere. Choose where the least impact will be. Most people won't notice it. You will and most carpenters will.
Unless you want to fix the ceiling!
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brickeyee
13 years ago
Keep in mind that taper on narrow areas is far more noticeable, and the closer the area is to your eyes the more noticeable.

If the area above the door is 8 inches wide, a 1/2 inch of taper would not be as noticeable as even a small change in the reveal from the door casing trim to the door jamb top of 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch across the door width.

It it is an old house, just leave it alone.
sierraeast
13 years ago
How involved would it be just to re-set the door/jambs straight? Sounds like you are re-casing anyhow.
sierraeast
13 years ago
Got it backwards. The door is already level on top. DOY! Outside of putting in a level drop ceiling, leave it be as the brick stated.
cantgetmynailsclean
Original Author
13 years ago
Gee whiz, I wonder what happened, I responded a few days ago and I just popped on to see if there was any more replies, and I see my response isn't there. Ugh! Anyway, thank you all for your advise. The door had a big, thick, dark colored casing and since taking that off, the difference isn't as noticeable as it was before. I'm toying with the idea of ripping out the ceiling tile in the next room (it's a very small mudroom) but am afraid of what may be up there so I don't know if I will!