Baseboards

The previous owners installed wood baseboards themselves. There were some problems with them such as the mitered corners did not line up properly ( I don't think anywhere) and in one corner there was a 1/2 gap with no baseboard ( I assume they ran out of board). Another problem was that they did not use baseboard at all. They used door casing instead (a sad waste of real wood). The room has a cathedral ceiling and diminutive door casing does not cut it. They were also not installed securely and popping off the wall.

I installed slate baseboards. The slate ties in the slate around the fireplace, on the stair risers and around the skylight and window ledges. The slate is 4" high, much better than the small door casing. Another great thing about tile baseboards is it is easier to clean you can mop and bang the vacuum around recklessly ;-) and since the grout seals the bottom of the slate to the tile there are not any hiding places for things. Since their was a gap between the wood baseboards and the tile floor and at places with the textures walls I found lots of spiders behind them. In the corner joining the living room and kitchen I even found a dead mummified mouse.

The worst part of the whole process was cleaning the grout before sealing. There is still some grout dust lingering. I guess it will take several times vacuuming.

Some people may wonder about tile baseboards but they are great and really make a visual difference in a whole room view and everyone who has seem them in person likes them.

Before:

After: