It’s all about that baseboard

Now that a lot of the big things in the house are finished, we’ve been focusing on the detail work. Boring and nitpicky, but it has to be done.

Right from the start, I knew I wanted to keep the trim work simple. For the baseboards, I envisioned something plain and square, but with a little bit of detail to keep them from being boring. Luckily, there’s no shortage of inspiration pictures out there, and when I came across this baseboard, we had a winner.

Source

Of course, when I showed Brian the picture, his reaction was “I can make that.” ARGH! Is there anything the man can’t make?! Anyway, yes, as it turns out, he can make it. And I have to admit, he came up with a genius way of doing it. Don’t ask me why or how this idea occurred to him, but he took a piece of shiplap, cut off the bottom 1-1/2 inches, and then put the 1-1/2” strip on top of the wider strip. Voila, groove. Then he angled off the top edge of the thin strip, and plain and square baseboard with a touch of detail done!

All the trim in the house is Delicate White, which is a PPG Pittsburgh Paint colour that I’ve had colour-matched to Benjamin Moore paint. I’m using Advance in a satin finish on the baseboards and all the other trim. It’s a bit finicky to work with, but once you get the hang of it, the painting goes quickly and you end up with a really nice and durable finish.

If you’re installing new baseboards, take my word for it, paint them before they’re installed. It makes life so much easier. Once the baseboards are in, you just need to fill the nail holes and then paint a quick coat or two to finish them off. And here’s a tip for getting a clean line between the baseboard and the floor…

Cutting in without taping off the floor takes forever and if you’re anything like me, you’ll get paint on the floor no matter how careful you are. Taping off the floor is pretty much guaranteed to end up being a mess, because no matter how careful you are, paint will find a way to seep under the tape in places. So here’s what to do – tape off the floor, but bring the tiniest bit of the edge of the tape up onto the baseboard. Like this:

Then roll or brush on your paint without worrying about getting it on the floor (the wider tape you use, the better!)

As soon as you finish painting, pull up the tape. And voila, perfect clean line!

Of course, you have to paint your baseboards before they’re installed to do this, otherwise you’ll end up with a noticeable line where the tape came up onto the baseboard.

I’m really happy with how the baseboards have turned out. I just wish they were all done!

OK, off to do more priming and painting!