Decking the walls...

I have been so busy this week that my art room has been put on the back burner. It is so annoying because I have no place to work. I'm seeing all these wonderful ideas in blogland and can't even try anything. Well I could spread everything out on the dining room table and work...that is until little man (my 5yr old) realizes that Mommy has her fun stuff out! OH BOY!!

Even though I've been busy, I've managed to take a few pictures of my baseboard installation. If any of you have ever tried to install baseboard, you know it can be very tricky getting the inside corners to match up without leaving a large gap especially if your walls aren't straight. I'd like to show you a little technique to help alleviate gaps in your trim.

Start in the corner of the room and place the straight edge of the baseboard against the corner wall. Don't forget to mitter the opposite end of the trim (see picture at the bottom of this post). I'll explain why in a moment.

So once you have this corner piece installed, you are going to mitter the joining piece of trim that will be installed on the opposite wall. When you mitter the end make sure to cut the 45 degree angle to where the inside of the trim is exposed (see above picture).

Next you will be using a coping saw to remove the exposed wood edge. Be careful and trim the exposed wood making sure to stay on the outside edge of the trim face. If you look close, you can see that the outside edge of my trim is white. By the way...I'm right handed and its very difficult to pretend I'm cutting a piece of wood with my left hand...while my right hand is attempting to take a picture!!! Hubby was simply looking at me mumbling "you're not right!!" A little help here!!! :)

I know your probably scratching your head right now wondering why I just went through all that trouble cutting off that little chunk of wood...Well this is why....

Isn't it SWEET!!! A perfectly matched corner with little gap. This makes caulking much easier!!

Earlier in this post I had said not forget to mitter the opposite end of the trim. The reasons for this little step:

#1: it helps to disguise the seam when two pieces of trim are matched up and

#2: because it allows for movement due to settling. Have you ever seen a house where someone had placed two straight cut trim pieces up together and there was a huge gap between them? Yap I think we've all seen that at one point. Mittering helps give the trim a way to move without creating a large noticeable gap.

Well I hope this helped. I know I didn't use all the professional terminology...but hey I showed you the technique. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Talk to ya soon!