Looking for easy DIY baseboards? Here’s a simple, creative project that you can finish in an afternoon. Sharing the step-by-step.

Have you ever seen anyone so happy in their whole life?

I can’t help it.

We are about to makeover this office to—wait for it—wait for it…

….blue and white.

Yep.

It’s the little things in life.

Remember the entire rug question post that you all helped with and you chimed in with a big opinion and helped me decide which rug was going where?

It inspired the makeover.

We are painting the room and the fireplace and I found the prettiest chairs that I’m covering the cushions and new blue and white curtains and we are adding wall-to-wall bookcases.

Whew. 

But the thing that I’m happiest about?

These easy, simple, life-changing DIY baseboards.

You’d be happy, too, if you saw this “before.” You probably never really noticed the baseboards in the room before because I did my very best to not point them out.

All the other baseboards in the house are high and Pinterest-worthy. Most of them are between 8″ to 10″ tall with molding on the top and the bottom. Amazing baseboards. Incredible baseboards. Baseboards that could hold their heads high at the national baseboard convention.

But the baseboards in this room?

They were full of shame.

Yikes.

They looked like this. Small. Not cute. Scuffed up from people dragging furniture along them.

No worries.

Baseboards like this are a afternoon away from looking like a superhero.

Here’s the step-by-step if you are interested in a DIY baseboard project.

Simple DIY Baseboards

Step 1: Remove the baseboards

Here’s a close-up of the before. These baseboards are about 4″ tall.

To remove them, we simply took a screwdriver and inserted it at the joints of where the baseboards attached and lightly tapped a hammer.

The baseboards came right off in long strips.

The key is to find your joints and start the removal process there.

Step 2: Cut and nail the new baseboards to the wall

Here’s a look at the new pine boards we used as the new baseboards.

This pine is 1″ x 8″ tall.

We just used inexpensive-grade pine. The key is to cover those knot holes when you paint with a full-coverage primer so the knots don’t bleed through (but I’m getting painting-ahead of myself).

We cut the boards to fit around the bottom of the room. We had to miter several corners because the room has a bay window. If your room is square, all you need to do is simple abut the boards to one another on the corners.

Step 3: Add 1/4″ round on the top of the board

I wanted the molding to have a finished look like the rest of the house.

Sometimes just a little piece of simple molding (like a 1/4″ round) can make the baseboards feel so much more finished.

The pine board is 1″ x 8″ so the 1/4 round fit perfectly on the top.

We cut the 1/4″ round to fit and then nailed it to the top of the pine board on the molding around the room.

You will need to miter the corners where the joints meet.

Step 4: Add 1/4″ round to the base of the board

After we added the 1/4″ round to the top of the board, the next step was to add it to the base of the pine board.

We cut the 1/4″ round to fit and then nailed it in front of the pine board around the room.

You will need to miter the corners where the joints meet.

Here’s what the finished molding looked like before we started painting.

Step 5: Paint primer and two coats of paint

You could use a small roller for a project like this, but we went old-school and used a paintbrush.

Quick tip: a 2″ angled painter’s brush is the perfect tool for a project like this. It has enough thickness to give you good coverage and the angle helps get in the corners.

Quick tip #2: MAKE SURE (I cannot stress this enough) to use a high-coverage primer on this project. DO NOT skimp on the primer if you are using pine boards. If you don’t, the knots will show through. This premium high-quality primer from Sherwin-Williams is one of the best ones on the market.

Here are our finished baseboards with one coat of primer and two coats of paint.

Here are the beautiful new baseboards.

And this weekend?

The rest of the project will begin.

I can’t wait to show you all the details and how this room is going to go from neutral to a little blue and white.

And no one is happier than me.

Well.

Except my baseboards. 🙂

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