Baseboard & Beyond

Thank you, Glen, for fabricating, installing, and painting the icehouse baseboard. There’s always something that slips through the cracks during a remodel. In our case it was the understated trim that borders the perimeter of the room, transitioning from the handsome homegrown flooring to the shiplap walls.

The first photo (above) shows the southeast corner of the vestibule prior to installation of the baseboard. Unfinished and ragged. Breathtaking floor. Beautiful wall. But these two elements exist adjacent to one another without coalescing. It’s confusing. It’s incomplete. And it’s unattractive.

This next photograph not only illustrates the first phase of progress from a page of notes with dimensions into a cut list and then into a “quiver“ of bespoke baseboard sections, ready to install. it also offers a telling glimpse into the way that Glen approaches a project. Meticulous. Detail oriented. Organized. Some dive directly into a project and figure it out as they go. Glen takes the time to suss out the scope of work beforehand, to solve problems in advance, and to execute with a minimum of mess. This last perk ranks high when undertaking a task in a finished space like the icehouse.

Today’s post is intended 1) as a thank you note to Glen for successful completion of this project, 2) as a showcase of his process, and 3) as a sort of mini meditation on baseboard, a moment of mindful reflection on how this inconspicuous band of trim helps define, frame, and order interior design. It’s a critical if often overlooked (or at least under celebrated) transition elements that punches well above its weight.

The woodwork is joined, the discrete elements have coalesced, and the paint has dried. Integration. Cohesion. Hurrah!

[…]

Like pieces of a three-dimensional puzzle finding their companions, the intricate borders, contours, and profiles fuse into a whole. (Source: Coving Complete)

Baseboard is a bordering and transition trim. Sure, it tidies the transition from floor-to-wall efficiently, eliminating unsightly discrepancies and covering expansion joints. It’s also a practical means of tidying up a difficult to clean corner that might otherwise prove an attractive catch-all for dust and grime. 

But it’s also a critical way for defining and accentuating, for highlighting and framing. 

So much
depends upon
a border
enfolding,
a frame
defining,... (Source: Enclosure)

As in landscaping where hardscape and softscape interact according to subtle systems of order and boundaries, sight lines, environments, baseboard trim is one of several design elements within a structure that help organize the visual experience. 

Here’s to hedging,
handsomely edging
with evergreen
shrubbery and trees.
Bordering, bounding,
framing, and screening,… (Source:”Hegemony of Hedges” via Hedging)

No hedging inside the icehouse, but the baseboard trim now completed by Glen, provides the missing border conjoining floor and wall. Corners and returns are especially appealing to the eye, accentuating the changes in angles while drawing attention to the poetry of planes that contributes to the character and complexity of this otherwise understated space.

Glen, I thank you!