Kuiken wants to streamline the moulding selection process
Kuiken Brothers Company has rolled out a new online tool that will help streamline the moulding selection process for its customers.
The Moulding Design Guide models itself after architectural pattern books from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The resource features detailed interior elevation drawings of over 40 moulding combinations, including full room packages, cornice combinations and mantle designs.
The combinations featured in Moulding Design Guide draw heavily on Kuiken's Classical Moulding Collection, spanning architectural styles like Early American, Georgian, Federal, Colonial Revival, Greek Revival and Traditional Revival.
In a statement released by Kuiken, the company expounded on the Design Guide's historical roots and its fulfillment of a long-standing demand in the industry.
"The origin of pattern books can be traced back to first-century Roman architect Vitruvius in his Ten Books on Architecture, which explained architectural orders for entablatures, entranceways and columns," said the company. "16th Century Italian architect Andrea Palladio wrote architectural books that inspired Europeans and Americans on home and building design elements. This set a precedent for American craftsmen, who had access to many different pattern books that detailed drawings for whole house styles and interior architectural how-to illustrations for field fabrication and installation. Just prior to the Twentieth Century, industrialization created a need for affordable housing for the growing working class, replacing traditional pattern books with whole house mail-order catalogs from companies such as Sears, Roebuck & Co., and Montgomery Ward. Until the launch of Kuiken Brothers Moulding Design Guide, there has been a large void of accessible millwork pattern books for builders, remodelers, architects and designers."