Installing Trim and Casing
Posted by Wayne
At this point in the kitchen project everything major was completed. All that was left was to install baseboard trim, casing around the sliding glass door and pantry, trim the vinyl window, cut and install the wood floor thresholds, and replace and bring out the electrical outlets to be flush with the newly installed backsplash.
Installing trim is pretty straight forward, but requires accurate measuring and great attention to detail to end up with a seamless final product.
Before I could start on the actual trim and casing work, I had to build out the sliding glass door to be flush with the interior wall.
I needed 3 pieces of wood (top and both sides) that I wouldn’t be able to find pre-cut, so I borrowed my Dad’s table saw and bought two 8 foot two-by-fours which I cut lengthwise down to the exact size I needed.
I then held all of the pieces in place to check the dimensions.
Before I nailed the pieces into place, I painted the edge that would be exposed white to match the door and the trim I’d be installing later. I wouldn’t want to paint these after they were in place. I used 3 coats and some light sanding between coats. Once the final coat was dry, I nailed the pieces into place with 2 inch nails using my small nail gun.
Once I had the pieces secured, I started the trim process with the casing around the door and the pantry. The case molding is slightly different and more ornate than the baseboard trim. I ran the casing all the way down to the floor on each side so the baseboard trim could butt up against it for a seamless fit. I cut all the pieces with a power mitre saw.
Getting the 45 degree angles at the top of the casing to match up perfectly is nearly impossible, but as long as you’re very close you can fill any small gaps in with caulk before a coat of paint and you can’t tell that it isn’t perfect.
Once I had all of the casing and baseboard trim installed, it looked good, but it was far from perfect. There were plenty small gaps in the casing and at the top of the baseboard trim against the wall. I filled in every gap and space I could find with a small bead of caulk, pushed it in with my finger, and then wiped it down with a wet sponge until it was perfectly smooth. I’ve blogged about this caulking method previously which you can read about by clicking here.
This extra time caulking made the trim absolutely perfect. The baseboard trim looks like it’s part of the wall and the case molding is seamless, including the pieces that I had installed around the sliding glass door at the beginning of this post.
I filled in all of the small nail holes in the trim and casing with white wood putty and gave all of the trim a couple quick and careful coats of white paint. The trim comes primed white, but it’s a little dull and needed some brightening. My final step was to pre-paint and install white quarter-round around the entire base of the kitchen. The quarter-round covered the slight gap between the hardwood flooring and the baseboard trim. Once again I had to fill in the nail holes and give them a quick touch up with paint.
The trim was the last major improvement in the kitchen and it made a HUGE difference. It looks fantastic.
Leave a Reply