Bathroom part 6: Baseboards!

Recently I read on a website that you aren't supposed to pain your trim dark colors because it makes your space look small. I looked at my baseboards and shrugged - I like my deep, dark baseboards!

It turns out that installing baseboards is actually pretty easy?? Getting the cuts right was probably the hardest part - one of them has a gap that's a little too big to close up with caulk, but. To put baseboards on the bathroom walls, I used two 1x4s and one 1x2 to run along the tub. I bought finishing nails and what I thought were the correct size nail sets (I was wrong!). I needed my circular saw and my sander. I patched a few rougher places with some plastic wood, and then cut the boards down to size. This is where it definitely would have been beneficial to have like, a proper workshop instead of my makeshift shop in my garage. I got the long run and the shortest run perfect! I sanded everything down.

I set the baseboards in the bathroom - if you watch tutorials, they want you to use a level and all that. I could have done that, I guess, but . . . sounded like work. I started with the long run. I used two finishing nails at each stud point, one high and one low. I hammered them in as flush as I could, which it turns out is pretty darn flush. When I went to do the mid-length run, I ended up having to cut it in half so I could get the pieces in behind the toilet. This run was probably the hardest to install: the break in the run was not on a stud, so the pieces wanted to wiggle. The shortest run (door trim to vanity) was also the easiest. Once everything was nailed in, I caulked the seams. In retrospect, I probably didn't need to caulk the seam where the boards met the vanity.

White dog + deep green paint= a problem waiting to happen

Once the caulk dried, I taped everything off, and painted. I used Behr Marquee in semi-gloss, color thermal, which is a deep blue green. I thought I had some left over paint from painting the bathroom walls, and I was going to do touchups with it - but it turns out I don't! The messiness is mostly bleed from the textured walls - it makes taping hard. 

I also chose to paint the door trim - I don't care for the trim itself and I am planning on changing it out, but I wanted to see if I liked it painted. I do - but I think I don't want to paint the trim elsewhere in the house.

The only thing I didn't do was the trim piece that runs along the bathtub. The reason it ABSOLUTELY needed a trim piece is because when the new tub is narrower than the old tub and there's about a 1/2inch gap between the tub and the edge of the tile. The trim piece is needed to cover that edge. And it was a dad project!

Whenever my parents come to visit me, they want to do projects! If I don't have a project prepared, they will make a project. And so - on their January 2022 visit, I had dad paint a piece trim and attach it. It was MAGIC how much more finished everything looked once that was in place. Thanks dad!