We are renovating an old Brooklyn coop, redoing some door surrounds and baseboards. Nothing is level. Floor slopes toward the river, is parrallel to ceiling, and doorways are all varieties of parallelogram. When replacing door surrounds, do we go with plumb and level, or make the new wood trim correspond to the individual doors, or strike a compromise halfway between?
Thanks for any input, Annabz
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Difficult call. If major visual elements are tilted and you throw something in plumb and level the combination will look odd and make both appear wrong. Usually the best call is to know where plumb and level is and, using a helper with a good eye, work toward it while knowing that you won't, in the majority of cases, actually be able to get there.
A good job is the one that looks right in the context of the room rather what the level says. Tweak it, as a nod to the absolute rule of the level, to minimize obvious tilted conditions but let the room, as veiwed from the longest sight line, rule the day.But then again I'm just an electrician who does a bit of wood working on the side. Still I do think about, have to think about, this when I add boxes to an existing structure. It is all a judgement call.