I need to fix some woodworking trim, but can’t figure out the best way to do it – for that matter, I can���t even think of a so-so way. How about some help?

This is one of those DIY chores all us woodworkers get stuck with around the house. If you’re like me, you tend to put these tasks on your Yeah I’ll Get To That Real Soon list, and hope nobody notices when you just ignore it for as long as possible.

A year or so ago we had the carpeting in our bathrooms removed, (geez, who carpets bathrooms?) and replaced with a nice vinyl flooring that was a better fit for those rooms. We love the new floors, but as you can see from the photo below, there’s a problem.

Yep, the original builders installed carpet first, then trim. With the carpet gone, there’s a 1/2" gap all around. Now, this is easy to fix on the straight runs of baseboard by just pin-nailing some shoe molding in place (which I did right after we got the floor put in; I’ve removed the small piece here for the photo). But what to do with the door frames?

I’ve been struggling to come up with a way to do it for a year and putting it off because I can’t think of a way to fix it that would look good and not become a major project. But I can’t stand it any longer.

The best I can think of is to buy molding that matches the door trim, cut some 1/2" pieces, then glue them into the gap. A bit of filler and some paint might make it disappear. But the thing of it is, is that the above photo shows just one spot like this – our master bathroom has a total of eight of them, and the other smaller bathroom has four. That sounds like either a major project, or a major pain, if it even works.

I thought about plinths on the sides, but that’s a major task, too, and it still leaves under the doorjamb where I’d need to cut 1/2" slivers and try to blend them in.

OK, so I’m asking advice here. How would you fix this without turning it into a major production?

A.J.