Paint it to match the baseboards. Otherwise it tends to look like your floors are are starting to climb up the walls. :o)

i've seen both, but i prefer matching to the white baseboard as it just looks like another layer of molding if your baseboards are substantial. if they're very small, then maybe the matching woodtone for the floor would be best. :)

no matter what you decide, you've got to be excited about the icemaker-inspired remodel!

good luck!

I'd match to the baseboards. Once the cord-around is installed, IMO, it's technically becomes part of the baseboard system. I'm sure matching to wood floor would be an interesting look, but I think if I saw a match to the floor...it would strike me as odd.

I agree - I would match to baseboards.

Match the baseboard.

IMO, it always looks odd when it matches the floor. It's actually part of the baseboard and that's the way it should look.

Well there you go...no need for me to answer because I agree with all of the above.

Baseboard.

I've never seen it done the other way. I think it would look weird.

I did it the other way - it looks weird.

Persnickity, that was hilarious. It does kind of look like the floors are climbing the walls!

Like mcps, I have also done it: the end result was one of those "things that make you go hmmmmm". It just didn't look right.

Or, as my brother who is from KY would say "that dog don't hunt".

Joanna

I found two gardenweb photos that will show you the difference, and perhaps help you with your decision.

quarter round matches floor (pic is on message 2)

quarter round matches baseboard (pic is on message 4)

Joanna

The quarter round is supposed to be part of the floor,NOT painted

Christophern, the hardwood floors sites I looked it indicated that it is truly a personal preference, not a rule, and that a painted quarter round to match the painted baseboard is a more traditional look than matching the floor.

IMO matching the quarter round to the floor instead of the baseboard makes the baseboard look skimpier. People pay a lot for that beefy baseboard, why shrink it visually? I also feel from a distance it gives a "floating" look that is not as nice. Whereas when it's part of the baseboard, it blends better.

I've had it both ways (both my choice). Matching the floor instead of the baseboard always felt odd to me, and I wouldn't do it again. But again, it's all personal preference, and when I did a google image search I found plenty of pics of both ways, so either choice has good plenty of company.

Joanna

I always thought quarter round just covered up a poor sloppy floor installation and pushed furniture to far off the wall (like book cases that you might want right up against the wall). There is no quarter round in my home.

The Jan/Feb 2009 issue of This Old House has a picture of 1/4 round on page 75 that is stained to match the pine floor. The baseboard is painted green. I agree with the majority of the other posters that this looks odd. If I had 1/4 round in my house, I'd paint it to match the baseboard.

Well now that barbie said it - when I talked to my contractor about re-doing my floors (with the weird looking quarter-round) he told me a proper installation doesn't need quarter round at all.

I have had it both ways. One reason I liked it stained to match the floor is that it never needed to be touched up. The last house had it painted and certain rooms always needed to be touched up because shoes and the vacume always hit into it. However, if you used "cheap" quarter round, it wont look good stained and you are better off painting it. Our current house the new molding was installed after the wood floors were installed and the baseboard molding sits on top of the floor, there is no need for quarter round.

My house is 56 years old. All of the rooms have the 1/4 round matching the floor except for 3 rooms where it's painted white to match the molding. I actually like the 1/4 round matching the floor better.

We just had our wood floors refinished and put in new shoe molding to match the wood floor. The old shoe was painted to match the baseboards and was so chipped and ugly from getting bumped into that we decided to go with the oak shoe to match the floor.

Someone on this forum showed me pictures of their shoe that matched the floor and that was what convinced me. My friend just had new hardwood put in her house and they did the same thing and it looks very nice.

We could debate a lot, but maybe I can help by referencing someone who trumps all of us when it comes to architecture and design: Thomas Jefferson.

The quarter rounds in the buildings on the campus he designed are white. They might not be original in my building, but we have an architecture office that makes sure everything here is in tune with his style.

BTW, if you have an open floorplan and the flooring changes from room to room, it also makes sense to keep the quarter rounds the same color as the baseboard.

My desk:
{{!gwi}}

Another area in the same building:

Wow, I don't think any of my threads have gotten this many posts before - LOL!

I like it better matching the baseboard, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't breaking some kind of rule :). Now I like no quarter round best, but I don't think we will be removing all the baseboard in the LR and kitchen, putting in the flooring and then reinstalling the baseboard, esp since they're just freshly painted. Besides, I don't know if the ins co would allow that in the cost, anyway. The one estimate I have so far from the restoration co did not include touching the baseboards, just the quarter round.

Thanks for all the advice!!! The ins adjuster is coming Friday, so hopefully I can get everything straight soon.

Just chiming in to agree that the quarter round (or toe molding or shoe molding, whatever it's called in your area) should always be the same colour as the baseboards. They should be painted or varnished in the same manner as the baseboard molding as they are actually part of that assembly and are not part of the floor.

I found out recently that there's a difference between quarter round and shoe moulding. Quarter round is symmetrical -- if you took a round pole and cut it lengthwise in four pieces, you'd get quarter round, hence the name. Shoe mould, on the other hand, is more elongated, so it doesn't stick out from the baseboard as far as quarter round. Where as a piece of quarter round might be, say, 1/2" x 1/2", a piece of shoe mould would be something like 1/4" deep by 1/2" tall. Not a big deal, but it does have a different look, and they tell me that both are permissible.

You are right, no moulding is best and cleanest. We just had our wood floors re-done and took the quarter round off, but it has to stay in the kitchen because the gaps between tile and wall are too big. It's my firm belief that the purpose of quarter round is to "hide a multitude of sins." lol

The flooring forum has a couple of pros who will know the answer to this for sure.

It's my firm belief that the purpose of quarter round is to "hide a multitude of sins."

I just wish I could get some for the closet my skeletons are in :-)

Joanna

We just put HW floors in at the beginning of Sept. I didn't want to put quarter round or shoe, but we really had no choice. The base molding wouldn't cover the gap that we were told to leave for the expansion. So we ended up choosing the shoe molding and painted it white. We felt like it was more part of the baseboard than the floor.

I LOVE it now. I think that it adds more dimension to the molding. We went with the shoe b/c we didn't want it to stick out too much and we liked the look of the molding not being symmetrical like the quarter round. I am attaching a pic - hope you can see it ok.

Ruth

It's definitely a personal preference now a days. Back in Thomas Jefferson's day you'd never have seen a stained shoe molding with a painted baseboard.

As others have said there are no rules. My house has the shoe molding matching the floor and I prefer it since I don't have to worry about scuff marks from the vacuum and my GD's toys bumping into it.
My baseboards are fairly high so the molding doesn't make them look any shorter.
If your home has a narrow hallway or small rooms, I think using molding the same color as the floor will give the appearance of a wider area.
Older homes (with uneven floors) will probably look best with the molding matching the floor since it will help hide any irregularities.

There are several factors to consider when making the decision of which finish to go with.

Joanna, lol, me too!

I think annz hit it on the head -- it depends on the situation, whether you want to make the floor look wider or not.

Our builder caulked under the quarter round -- way too heavily in fact, which we need to get corrected. But if it's a normal thing to caulk, it's going to be a lot less noticeable if the quarter round matches the baseboard.

That's another point I had not thought of bigdoglover......caulk! I can see how white molding would need caulk in order to hide the 'seam' where it butts up to the baseboard.
I've never seen stained molding caulked and since the molding is usually replaced when hardwood is refinished, caulking would make removal more difficult.

We just installed prefinished Bella Wood, left a 3/4" gap for expansion, and put the base boards back on with no problem. No need for shoe moulding. I suggest you get a look at your base moulding on the new flooring before making any decision about the shoe moulding or quarter round. You may not need it.

bigdoglover, I have never heard of putting caulk under a quarter round. How horrible that will be to try to remove that quarter round without tearing up the baseboard and leaving gook on the floor. I hope he used something that is easy to remove. You need to find him and have him shot. LOL

Brutuses, you should see it (it's still in three of the bathrooms) -- the bead of caulking (basically ON THE FLOOR) is at least 1/4" wide. I made them fix it in one room but had to fight about it because the builder's rep just acted as thought it was the most normal thing in the world, and was probably put there to cover up a gap in the tile! The painter got it off very easily with something, and they promised to come back and do the rest, but have not. You're right, I need to hunt that guy down! They did it on the hardwood too but it disappeared when we had them refinished. Makes me so mad. The builder did several rather quirky things.

Roorezzi, your floors look beautiful as does the baseboard and quarter round. It does not look like there is any caulking under the quarter round. Is there?

annz -- and now that you mention it, it would be ridiculous to caulk a wood quarter round since it is obviously a different material. Who thinks of these things till it's time to do them! Now I'm really wondering if we need to have the painter caulk under the baseboard on the newly finished wood floors... what do you think? I may go over and ask the floor guys.

I just posted my question over on the flooring forum. Here's the link in case what they have to say is helpful to anyone on this thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: Caulking between baseboard and hardwood floor

My head is spinning, I too have wood floors, we removed all of the baseboard and quarter round. We purchased oak baseboard and quarter round and plan to install it when the weather breaks. I would like to stain it all but a little darker than the floors. DH says white paint which I don't like because I'd be constantly touching it up. Does anyone have both stained floors and stained baseboard/quarter with the baseboard being a different shade than the floor (or am I crazy)? If so would you mind posting a pic?

roorezzi, your hardwood floors are beautiful! What wood species are your floors, what width, and what stain? I love white baseboards and shoe molding that is painted white with beautiful flooring.

I was having an issue about this myself. Our flooring sub was appalled that we put in our base before we put in the flooring - he does excellent work and doesn't "need" the shoe moulding if he is allowed to install in the right order ;-)

However, we were doing a wall finish that could not be done without the trim in place so we made the trade-off. I actually thought I made a mistake but now the flooring is finished and the shoe is in and there was an unexpected benefit - we have a couple of floor to ceiling windows that were hard to trim out - they look really sharp with the shoe moulding and it looks better than I thought elsewhere as well.

I am rule breaker though!

when we had our carpet ripped out and laminate installed the installer removed the baseboards and ran the laminate to the wall. Put the baseboards back on. It looks neater than having a quarter round molding. If I had to have a quarter round I'd want it to match the baseboards so it wouldn't be as obvious.

I'd probably do it like Newhomebuilder (link)...she has stained shoe, painted baseboards. It's just beautiful!

Here is a link that might be useful: Newhomebuilder

Update: I picked Bruce Ameican Home Walnut laminate and went w/ painted white shoe molding, not quarter-round. I thought about removing the baseboards. But this laminate can be removed and re-installed to replace any damage, and if it was run underneath the baseboard, I figured that would be trouble.

I had a dilemma deciding what to do in front of the front door (painted or stained) and went w/ the painted there, too. It looks strange to me because you can see the black from the weatherstripping on the bottom of the door between the white door and the white molding, but I'm hoping that soon I won't even notice. I'm still looking for rugs, so if I get a thicker rug there, hopefully it will distract my eye.

ok here's a question I have a galley kitchen and recently installed laminate flooring. We had a rubber toe kick running along the cabinets which we had to remove to install the floor. We replaced it with a similar stained color and grain to our cabinets and put up stained quarter round. On the other end of the kitchen is the eating area with white baseboards should I countinue the stain quarter round or would it be ok to go with white. Really didn't have much choice in the cabinet area because white would definately not go.

I would rather it match the baseboard...

BUT I chose not to match the baseboard and to match the floor.

Having had it painted once before, I was SICK of the dust and dirt that sits right on the painted shoe...and from all of the dings, etc.

I don't think it looks too weird...don't mind the naked window and cat toys