Base/Plinth Installation

Just prior to the hardwood floor installation, I had put in a temporary base/plinth design at the bottom of the new wraps I built at the entrance of the dining room.  Since I'm in between major projects, this made a great time to circle back and finish these wraps once and for all.  The temporary design is below.

 To dress up the wraps, I wanted a simple build-up design that added dimension where the wrap met the floor.  The possibilities here are endless.  I decided to keep the design in the theme I had with the other moulding I had put in throughout the home.  The first step was to put in a base/plinth that was higher than the baseboard yet shorter than the cut-out design.  I went with a sixth inch height.  I cut MDF to size on the table saw and mitered the edges on the compound miter saw.  MDF was a good choice for the blocks as MDF is stable (when not around water) and takes paint like a champ.  It produces alot of dust so be careful when cutting.  The mitered edges avoided my having to fill the rough/porous edges.  Below is the dry fit.

After the dry fit was good, I attached the blocks with an 18-guage pneumatic nail gun.  Senco is nailer  brand I prefer - typically used by the pros so it is good enough for me.

Next, I attached a shoe mould over the block to provide a simple transition to the wrap surface and re-attached/adjusted the base moulding.

Next, I tapped off the surrounding areas and painted the area.  When painting crucial projects like this, I go with the best paint possible.  That is, Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore.  The paints like Behr and Valspar provide great colors but the quality cannot compare.  Thus, when it matters most, I go with the good stuff.  In this case, I used Duration from Sherwin.  This is a paint/primer in-one mixture that is by far the best paint I have used in the past 15 years - no comparison.  This particular paint is exterior paint - yep - exterior paint.  You can use exterior paint on the interior...but never vise versa.  Don't make that mistake.

Cut/install the shoe moulding...and you have the finished product.