This Minimalist Indiana Home Has ‘No Trim at All’

Minimalism in residential design is far from a new idea, but has become a dominant trend in our era of architecture. Maybe, when things start to feel chaotic in the world around us, coming home to a place that’s simple, clutter-free and calming starts to feel more appealing than ever. This kind of comfort was the goal when Elevation Home Builders took on the design and construction of a minimalist home near South Bend, Ind. — a home that needed to look ultra-modern, but feel warm and welcoming.

Their biggest design task? Figure out a way to complete the entire interior using zero trim, making this a project that needed incredibly precise measurements and innovative drywall beads and accessories. This, naturally, led them to Trim-Tex. Read on to see more from this trimless, minimalist home and hear from the home builders how they pulled it all off.

The project: ‘We asked about trim. She said, “I want no trim.”’

Brittainy and Aaron Gilliland of Elevation Home Building custom-designed this home alongside their client, to be showcased in the Builders Association of Elkhart County’s 2024 Parade of Homes. The three-bed, three-and-a-half-bath home was tailor-made for the client’s aesthetics and needs, including showstopping features like a fully glass pivot front entry door, an eight-foot-wide gas-strut window and a gorgeous, curved staircase. As both designers and builders, Brittainy and Aaron were there from beginning to end, tweaking every last detail to meet their high standards — including, or especially, the drywall finishing work.

“We are here at the house most days doing some kind of work or working alongside our subcontractors,” Brittainy tells us when we visited shortly before the Parade of Homes began. “This client had a very definite vision of what they wanted in their home. Very minimalist, kind of the Scandinavian look, that transitional style that we really haven't seen a lot in our area. When we were in our first design meeting, we had been talking about different elements that she wanted to bring in. We asked about trim. She said, ‘I want no trim.’ We had recently just seen a lot of Instagram videos from Trim-Tex, and we knew right away that it was the perfect place to put that product. It was just such a sleek look that we knew it was just a great partnership … I think it's going to be really interesting to see a home that has no trim at all — I think that that's the most unique thing about this house.”

The solutions: Architectural F Reveal Bead and Bullnose Corner Bead — ‘It just feels really warm and comforting’

When you go trimless, there are a few directions you can take with your drywall, but one of our favorites is to create a reveal effect just above the flooring in lieu of baseboards. This is exactly what Elevation chose to do with their home design, using Trim-Tex’s Architectural F Reveal Bead to run along the bases of all their walls and around all their doors, forming one, continuous reveal detail.

The initial prep work for this look may be involved — requiring precise cuts on and/or hanging of each sheet of drywall to keep the reveal consistent, and miter cuts where two beads meet around an corner — but the actual installation of this kind of bead is as simple as any other standard vinyl drywall accessory (spray adhesive and half-inch staples, applied every six to eight inches). And, once completed, the final effect is impressive: walls seem to float above floorboards, and doors are given an accent that’s both eye-catching and subtle at the same time.

Meanwhile, for most corners, the designers and homeowner settled on the broad curve of a 1 ½” Jumbo Bullnose Corner Bead. For many ultra-modern designers, where interiors are all about sharp, straightforward angles, this choice may seem like a counterintuitive one in theory. But in practice, the rounded edges work to complement other elements, like the curved staircase, to create a unique charm all its own.

“A lot of this home, it's the composition of straight edges and curved lines,” Brittainy says. “[Bullnose Corner Bead] was a perfect product to bring in to marry those two, sometimes opposing design styles, to show that you can have both very straight edges, clean lines — but then bringing in those soft curves can just really warm a place up, keep it from looking too harsh, too sterile. Especially in this house, where we've got these very large areas of bullnose and curves, again, it really just softens a home and makes it just feels really warm and comforting.”

Other Trim-Tex solutions used throughout this stunning home include Bullnose 3-Way Outside Molded Corner accessories to make it easy to finish areas where three 1 ½” Jumbo Bullnosed corners meet (like the corners of the fireplace’s raised hearth); Tear Away L Beads where their drywall butted up against their windows; sharp-profile Rigid Corner Bead for areas like the outside corners of window returns; and more.

By thinking outside the box — and by finding the right partners who could help them realize their minimalist vision — Elevation Home Building were able to take this home’s interior to the next level for their client. But, for Aaron and Brittainy, the secret of their success isn’t just knowing all the hot new trends for interior design. It’s all about being willing to try new things and push their own boundaries to create something truly special.

“We try to set ourselves apart a little bit by saying yes,” Brittainy told us. “When clients have different ideas or new thoughts — things that maybe haven't been done or a lot of other people aren't doing — we try our best to set ourselves apart, and say ‘yes,’ and be willing to try. We have great partners and subcontractors that we work with, like our drywall crew, who, when we brought this idea to them, they said, ‘Yes, let's do it.’ That means a lot to us, to have partners that are willing to try new things so we can be innovative, and again, just bring exciting new things to our little corner of Indiana.”

Thank you to the crew at Elevation Home Building for inviting us to be a part of this project. You can learn more about them and their work here. These beads are just the tip of the iceberg for ways Trim-Tex can help you execute your own, unique vision. Hit the button below to request a free digital catalog to discover them all.

This Minimalist Indiana Home Has ‘No Trim at All’

The project: ‘We asked about trim. She said, “I want no trim.”’

The solutions: Architectural F Reveal Bead and Bullnose Corner Bead — ‘It just feels really warm and comforting’

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