Make your base moulding stand out, and for a price you can afford.

make a statement with your baseboards

Lets talk base molding. You see it in every house. Most builder grade homes like ours will have your small about 2 inch tall base moldings. While most people probably don't think twice about the height or thickness of their moldings, there is a lot that base moldings can bring to a room. 

The picture above, on the left, shows what is throughout our house. The picture on the right is what we are installing as we redo room to room.

When I first suggested the idea I'm about to share with you my husband thought I was a little crazy. So I made a sample and showed him.. He still wasn't on board.. I then took him to lowes and showed him some prefab molding that was basically the same profile. It was I believe $36 for a 15ft strip. He finally agreed that maybe my idea wasn't so bad. 

So here is how you get the look. 

Step 1

go to lowes or your local big box store. Buy a sheet of 4x8 mdf. Ours was 3/4 inch thick I believe. Have them rip it down to 4 inch wide strips.  so they will be 4 inches wide by 8ft long. One board of mdf did all of our bathroom which had tons of miters to it and almost all of our bedroom I think it was 36 dollars for the mdf.

step 2

CAREFULLY pull you existing baseboards and number them so you know where they went. remove old nails. You will be reusing these. (it also helps to score the wall near the base molding to keep from tearing up your drywall texture if it was previously painted or caulked.)

step 3 

 I cut as I installed. Meaning, I took the first piece of molding out and used that as my template for my mdf strip. Cut the mdf to the same size and miters that your original molding has. Make sure it fits. Since we are now moving the old molding 4 inches up the wall I did have a couple of places where the texture made the original molding to long.. just cut it to fit.

step 4

first after a dry fit. Nail your 4 inch strip of mdf down then your old molding ontop of that. 

step 5

caulk all your seams. Including where your old molding sits on top of your new mdf. 

Your finished product should look something like this... 

fill all your nail holes and lightly sand.. 

After painting your base boards will look like one solid piece.. 

Pretty nifty right? I personally feel like molding make a home feel complete and loved and paid attention to. That the small details matter. 

So there it is a peak at our bedroom baseboards and my Harley mans who refuses to leave my side or move for a photo. 

He's my little buddy. and no he's not sleeping with one eye open :) He lost his eye an a rather serious manner shortly after moving into our new home. A neighbors pit bull jumped the fence and attacked him.. a 8 ft privacy fence I might add.. The neighbor felt very bad and installed an electric fence. It was really horrible. But he has made a full recovery and is his normal happy tail wagging self again. 

So what do you think? Do molding matter?  Share your thoughts with me. I will be doing another tutorial with more pics I promise on how we trimmed out our drywall windows and door ways that had no previous molding soon. Until then Thanks for stopping by!

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