I don’t know if you’ve ever tried designing anything, but the experience can be full of laugh-and-point comeuppances. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a two-dimensional graphic or a three-dimensional bookshelf; it’s fraught with the potential for oopses.

For example, my first attempt at graphics design was a business card I created for myself when I was starting out as an actor. I wanted a professional, yet handwritten look (can you already smell trouble?).

I printed my name in small letters and added contact details in a single chunk of text. I was going for impact! (I even spelled my name with an exclamation mark — egad).

My design would be the coolest business card EVER. I marched it over to my local printer. He cocked an eyebrow at me, but took my $45.

When I received my 500 cards in a tidy little box, I was so excited. Until I opened it. My design looked boring, cheap and stupid. No border, no colour, no style, no detail; just gauche and tacky.

I was drop-kicked by the thought that design is way harder than it looks. Now, after several decades of paying heed to the many elements that go into design, I’m starting to get a clue. Starting.

Detail therapy

Professional designers, I’ve discovered, use tricks to sweeten their designs. They add subtlety and details that tickle your visual cortex. They add emphasis, depth and rhythm that gives you a sense of satisfaction.

Pro woodworkers, for example, use trim in ways that feed the eye and give their furniture more presence. Authors write entire books dedicated to the tricks of adding trim to your home to create gorgeous effects.

My favourite reference book is an illustrated gem called Decorating with Architectural Trimwork by Jay Silber (Creative Homeowner, 2005). You’ll be freakishly inspired.

In the meantime, here are a few tips on getting started with trim.

Capped crusader

You can put a pretty edge in place using a border of plywood cap (or ‘ply cap’). For example, I used plywood cap to design a vintage-style chalkboard.

You can also employ ply cap in topping off wainscoting or building a picture frame. Plywood cap is milled with an indent (or ‘rabbet’) that allows you to plop it on top of a surface to provide a nice edge. You can glue and clamp ply cap in position in about 20 minutes for a quick trim job.

If you don’t own a mitre box or mitre saw, don’t worry. You don’t need to create 45-degree angle joints; just cut ply cap at 90 degrees and butt it up against rosette corner blocks.

This shortcut is so easy a child can do it (I would know because I built the chalkboard with my seven-year-old friend Andrew), and the rosettes add 19th-century charm.

A casing in point

Fluted casing is another type of trim that adds panache to furniture or home renovation projects. Its detailed surface features concave grooves on one side, and convex ridges on the other side, so you can choose to feature either side.

We used fluted casing as a ledge to hold chalk, but it looks beautiful in older homes when used for window or door trim.

By the way, a clever trick of Victorian carpenters was adding lots of layers of standard trim to make unique configurations in baseboard or door/window trim, giving the impression of custom-milled, uber-posh trimwork.

For baseboard, for example, they’d start with a plain piece of lumber, then run cap moulding on top of it, and add a strip of quarter-round long the floor, gradually adding detail until it looked elaborate and impressive.

But the true joy of trim may be found in ignoring convention. For example, my six-year-old friend Sarah made this stylin’ message centre with nothing more than a pile of trim cut-offs and some paint. Even Picasso would be impressed.