We did quarter round to match the cabinets in the kitchen and baseboard for other walls. A question came up a while ago about quarter rounds where cabs meet the floor and several people preferred to not have any molding where the cabs meet the floor.

Thanks Suzanne! The picture helps and it looks good. The flooring guy said that I have to have it around the cabinets for expansion of the wood. If I put in new baseboards afterwards, I don't need it? I'm new to this so I have no idea!

I'd match the shoe molding to the toe kick, not the floor, but either way will be fine. We don't have shoe molding in our kitchen next to the cabinets, but our floor went in first, so there's no need. In your case, it won't make a difference in the long run, since once it's in, no matter what you choose, you'll never think about the shoe molding again!

I think he means that if you don't put molding of some sort at the base of the cabs, there will be a gap between where the wood ends and the cabs begin as wood expands and contracts a little with the weather. Same where the floor meets the walls. I'm not sure what you mean by putting in new baseboards after.? Where we have the white baseboard along the walls, we could have quarter round instead, but it wouldn't be my first choice. If he's suggesting quarter round for those walls, I wouldn't let him do it as you'll just have to rip it up to put in proper baseboards. Also, look at this wall where baseboard and quarter round meet. The baseboard went in first and the quarter round is butted up to it. Doing it the quarter round first would have made the baseboard install unnecessarily tricky.

Our floor guy didn't do either the baseboards or the quarter round. He did the floor and we did the trim. If you have a GC he could do the trim. You'll want cab trim that matches, so you may have to order it and that takes a while. And, yes, stained trim for the stained cabs and painted for the painted cabs. Baseboard is usually painted a trim color before installation, so that is a whole other job.

We also did our floor after all the cabs were in. In our case it was because it turned out that the footprint of the old cabs was larger than the new ones, so we had a 1-2" gap between the flooring and the cabs - not a good look. It works. The other way would be easier, but hey, who needs easy?

Wow, so much to think about. I appreciate your thoughtful responses.

The flooring guy says for sure my cabinet people should do it, my cab guy says it is the flooring companies responsibility so they should take care It. My DH says I should take care of it, I'm ready to go to bed and sleep through the rest of it!

Has anyone else noticed that these renovations have tentacles which extend into all other areas of the house?

I got my wood floor several years before I got my cabs painted. I don't care for quarter-round, so I got toe kicks to match the floor. I had intended to leave them unpainted, but failed to communicate that and they were painted to match the cabs. I think I prefer it that way, so it ended well.

My quarter round matches the floor, installed by the flooring guy. The photo shows the kitchen cabinets, we also have a dark stained vanity in the powder room with the same floor and quarter round. They both look good.

Here are a couple pictures of how we did it. Painted to match the cabinets and stained to match the island. We have white base boards through out the house and the base(quarter round) is the same painted white to match the trim/base boards. The only place we did it the same color as the floor is in front of exterior doors.

1pandora

If you don't care for 3/4 round, check out shoe molding which has a more elegant, less bulky shape.

Thanks for the info and the photos. It's after 1pm and the installers are just now arriving.......I was told they'd be here at 8:30am.......

The shoe molding is nice and I think that's what they have in mind.

Baltomom, I think you're right!

The pictures are really helpful! I think I like the shoe matching the cabinets. There's an argument for the shoe matching the floor too. Very confusing.

I like to match shoe to the cabinets or the floor baseboard, keeping things on the same plane; ie, the flooring is a horizontal element and doesn't ride up the wall or cabinetry. Otherwise, it distorts the proportions of what it's covering and things can look chopped off or floating.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Sat, Jul 27, 13 at 17:34

How did it go?
Ours matched the cabinets.