Baseboards: Paint or Stain?
Baseboards: Paint or Stain?
Baseboards are sometimes overlooked as a key design element of your home. Here at The Moulding Company in Santa Clara, we understand that baseboards add a beautiful finishing touch to your home. Since baseboards are low to the floor and are usually understated, it’s often easy to forget their importance in providing clean lines in your home and contributing to the overall feel of a room.
Running around the perimeter of the room where the wall meets the floor, baseboards make for a great finishing touch along any type of flooring and help protect the bottom edge of the wall from furniture legs and other potential damage. While both paint and stain can provide a clean, finished look for any room, settling on the right one for you requires taking into consideration the overall aesthetic of the room, versatility, and budget. The Moulding Company has compiled some information below to help you select the right finish for your baseboards.
Painted baseboards
Painted baseboards have a wide range of benefits that make them a popular choice among homeowners, including:
- Easy application: Painting baseboards is quicker and easier than staining baseboards because they can be painted after installation. You can quickly take care of painting baseboards at the same time you’re painting the rest of the room, making for easy cleanup. Stained baseboards, on the other hand, need to be treated and stained before installation in an already painted room, resulting in a more time-consuming process.
- Versatility: An advantage of painted baseboards is that you can easily change the color as desired. Maybe you want to experiment with a brighter pop of color in your room or maybe you’d like to switch from a color to classic white. All you have to do is cover the baseboards with a coat or two of fresh paint and you’ll have a totally new look.
- Cost: Painted baseboards are a less expensive investment both in materials and labor. If you’re planning to paint your baseboards, you can select manufactured materials like medium-density fiberboard (MDF) or plastic mouldings without sacrificing appearance. If you want to stain your baseboards, you’ll need to go with a wood material for beautiful results.
Stained baseboards
Stained baseboards have long been a staple of homes throughout the U.S. due to their classic, natural look. Some of the many benefits of stained baseboards include:
- Timeless appearance: Although the appearance of stained baseboards is more difficult to change than painted baseboards, the good news is that you will likely never tire of this timeless, natural look. Woodwork has been a staple of interior home design for centuries and shows little likelihood of ever going out of style. Wood baseboards will go well with nearly any room design, allowing you to switch up paint colors and interior decorating without worrying about having to change your baseboards.
- Durability: Stained baseboards hold up better over time than painted ones, showing less of the daily wear and tear than paint. Stained wood hides defects, and the stain penetrates deeper into the wood than paint, making it more difficult to scratch off.
If you’re interested in installing or upgrading the baseboards in your home, our team at The Moulding Company can provide more information on how to get started. For beautiful baseboards, call The Moulding Company!