I’m remodeling a 40 year old home, and will be replacing all the baseboards. In the living room, I’ll be putting in a 5″ baseboard molding with a shoe molding, but the rest of the house will have a simple 3″ baseboard. What’s the best, and most attractive, way to transition from the 5″ to 3″ baseboard? The change happens along a single wall in one area, and there’s no natural feature to break it up, such as a door. Thanks!
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Listeners write in about power tool batteries, replacing sheathing behind brick, and rebuilding a pressure-treated deck.
Featured Video
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
there's no natural feature to break it up, such as a door
Is there a space you can treat as a cased opening (the case work--trim-- for adoor with no door)? Sometimes, the best answer is to "create" the feature.
If you have an outside corner where the change is, and no other detail, you could just wrap the wider base, say, 4 1/2" around the corner. This would "mimic" door trim. Youe would then need to return the taller base, then butt (and scribe as needed) the shorter base to that finished edge.
Thanks for the suggestions. The livingroom runs right into the kitchen, which has a lower ceiling and would look weird with the larger molding, which is where I wanted to change types. The rest of the house also has the lower ceilings, and I'm having to pinch every penny, so I was going to go with the less expensive molding where it wouldn't be a feature. The whole house is without door casings, the plaster is just rounded into the door frame, which is why I resisted casing in the change between the kitchen and living room, but that may be the best way to go. My plans at the doors are to end the molding an inch or so back with a angled cut, which is how they originally had it.
My plans at the doors are to end the molding an inch or so back with a angled cut, which is how they originally had it.
Oh no!!!!! Not an angled cut. Return it! You'll like it sooo much better.View Image
There's nothing to return it to, the plaster curves around over 1" at a very sharp angle, and the door frame itself barely sticks out of the plaster for the door to hinge to. My choice is either an angled cut to end it, or simply leaving a straight end, either way, there's no choice but to end it in mid air, as there's nothing to attach it to. The angle of the plaster is both too acute and too inconsistant to try and curve the molding around it. Even if I could do that, the door frame doesn't stick out far enough, and the baseboard would keep the door from closing or opening.
Beth,
Sure wish there was a picture you could post.
I wish I had a photo, too. I'll try to do a better job of explaining, if that doesn't work, I"ll try to borrow a digital camera. First off, there is no door casing. The door frame is buried in rounded plaster. The wall plaster rounds over, and the door frame only sticks out of the rounded plaster about 1/2". With no door casing, my choices are to try and fit the baseboard to the round plaster, no thanks. I could return the baseboard to the wall, which would normally be a good suggestion but I tried it and it looks stupid, because everything else is rounded, and then there's this straight break. Or, I can do what the original builder did, which was to ease the molding at an angle so that it blended smoothly into the curve of the plaster, as it goes around the wall. That might be horrifying elsewhere, but here in new mexico, the land of thick adobe walls and rounded corners, its not so bad. By the way, I decided to just bite the bullet, and put the 4.5" baseboard throughout the whole house. There was just no way that the transition was going to look good otherwise. I can't afford it, but what are credit cards for.
Jim Rockford of 'Rockford Files' used them to open doorlocks.
May I suggest you round the return instead of making a straight angled cut, I think that goes better with the adobe walls and rounded corners.
Tom
sounds like the LR is open to another "room"...
so the "best way" would be to have matching trim thru out.
why not have the 5" in that common area....then stick the cheap stuff in a more private area?
Jeff
Buck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite
sounds like the LR is open to another "room"...
so the "best way" would be to have matching trim thru out.
why not have the 5" in that common area....then stick the cheap stuff in a more private area?
Jeff
Yep, that's the way to go.
I have taken a storebought or homemade plinthblock and ripped it to 1-2". It is then nailed on and used as a transition between extreme basebd heights. I like to make it a little taller than the larger basebd.
This trick is good to use where a stairboard skirt meets the basebd also.
Question: Why go so cheap on the rest of the base? rg
The plith block is a good suggestion but in your application I think I'd add a caseing alongside adding jamb molding where the transition happens and go from there.
Be transformed
andy
In his first interview since the stroke, Ram Dass, 66, spoke with great difficulty about how his brush with death has changed his ideas about aging, and how the recent loss of two old friends, Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg, has convinced him that now, more than ever, is the time to ``Be Here Now.''
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
return it just means cut an outside corner at your stopping point and cap it with another short outside corner piece that terminates into the wall- no open end grain- no cavity where the back of the trim is plowed- much neater look. I would run the five inch into the kitchen and terminate at one end of the cabinets- pick up the three inch at the other end. Unless there is a change in floor height a plinth block is gonna stick out like a hooker in sunday school.
Ohh ...sure....
Now ya gotta go an' insult Hookers!
Yer just looking for a fight, ain't ya!
JeffBuck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite
Your friends sure do catch it.