How high to make my new baseboards?

13 years ago

Just finished painting the living room, (again!) and this time, I'm getting brand new baseboards to replace the old beat up 2 1/2" jobs that I just don't want to repaint. I looked at some molding profiles and don't know what to do. I'm going with something fairly simple, since I don't want too much bend to dust, but should I upgrade to a 4" or maybe a 5"? The baseboard will be in my entry, LR, DR, Kitchen, down the hall, and into the masterbedroom...I think.

I will only save about $60 overall by going with the 4" and the guy at the lumberyard says there's no reason to be worried about a bigger base, since so much wall gets covered with furniture, etc. But no reason for overkill either, right?

Red

Comments (9)

nanny2a
13 years ago
I'd go with the 4", and convert the rest of the rooms with the same, when you can, so they were all the same height.
both
13 years ago
I love base trim and am putting in 7 inch. So I would say go for the 5 inch.
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natal
13 years ago
2 1/2" is too small, no matter what your ceiling height.
Laurie
13 years ago
Red-
I like your wall color.

Last summer, we put in 6-1/2" baseboards and are very happy with it. If your choice is between 4" or 5", then I would say go for the 5".
-Laurie
juddgirl2
13 years ago
I love your wall color. My vote is for the 5" height.
redbazel
Original Author
13 years ago
Laurie, thanks for the photos of your 6 1/2" base. It certainly doesn't look too tall. I do have vaulted ceilings in LR, DR, and MBR, so the rooms look tall, although kitchen and hallway are standard 8'. Your base is just beautiful.

Juddgirl, thanks for the yes on the color. I don't have the room back together totally yet, as you can see from the back-wall photo. Color is Mourning Dove, a gray leaning to green from Martha Stewart. Never thought I would choose a color from the MS fandeck, but this one worked so well in the room and with the other colors in the house.

Red
loribee
13 years ago
5" and I love the wall color too! Can't wait to see it all together...
liriodendron
13 years ago
My prinicipal, first story, rooms are 8'9" high. My skirting boards are roughly twice the height as the width of the window and door casings in each room. In the main reception rooms the skirting boards are a hair under 12 inches tall. On the second floor, the same relationship between door casing and skirting prevails and they just under 9 inches high.

Stylistically, the profiles of the casings and the top edges of the skirting board are identical in an individual room, though vary somewhat from room to room downstairs. The second floor details are simpler than downstairs, and all the same in all but the most humble of rooms (storerooms, really).

Skirting board of this height in rooms of nice but not overly high by modern, or Southern, or two-story foyer-type house standards may seem like too much of a good thing. But I find that they lend a nice visual "weight" to the lower walls and having them match the door casing patterns makes for a visual unity and calmness. The larger rooms always had 12" high wall paper border above a picture hanging rail, but no formal cornice.

The trim is original to 1849/1850 when the house was built. The house style is a late-period, vernacular version of Greek Revival farmhouse built (and paid for) by a mature and prosperous couple to house their 40-ish bachelor son and his new, and quite young, bride. I suspect that the somewhat anachronistic. and the by-then a bit passe, style of this new house in '49-50 stems from the fact that it was chosen and erected by older folks in their taste, even if the bride who was to live there was much younger (almost young enough to be their granddaughter.)

I have often wondered if she chafed at having her house designed, and furnished, for her in such an old-fashioned style. Perhaps she was more mature than I was at her age, and perceptive, too, to the fact 150 years later these style differences would smooth out. Maybe a hundred years from now people will aspire to a mixed-up fin de siecle retro look of avocado appliances, black granite, with white subway tile and frameless shaker cabs. A combination of details that today would drive most of us into a renovating frenzy, or at least to the appliance store!
tracey_b
13 years ago
Our last house had 5.25" base molding (8' ceilings) and I loved it, so that would be my vote.

How high to make my new baseboards?

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nanny2a

both

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How high to make my new baseboards?

Comments (9)

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