It's the little things...

I truly think that it is the small details that will really make a home pop. Over the six years that we have lived in this house, we have been converting the baseboard from a dark, 70s walnut over to white. Other than the kitchen which has oak baseboard (apparently changed when the old cabinets were replaced with the current oak cabinets). We have put new flooring in our living room, dining room, front entryway, back entry and 1/2 bath, and back room. Take a look see at the way my rooms flow into each other and the different baseboard. Ouch!

I finally decided I couldn't take it any more so I donned my baseboard thinking cap and started tearing off the old baseboard.

In many cases, as you can kind of see in the above pictures, lots of the boards were just falling apart anyway and when I removed it, came apart in my hands. So, I hand to cut and miter new baseboard and quarter round but in some cases, I could just paint what was there and put it back up. Oh, well it's still not quite as easy as it sounds, you have to pull all the old nails, paint a bazillion coats of paint, let it dry REAL good (did I say R E A L good) cause even when you think it's dry, it smudges paint on the floor or your nice pants or something. Needless to say, in some ways it was pretty easy and I was pretty proud of myself, there were certain areas that were FRUSTRATING! The cut would be right but the pieces wouldn't butt together. Or, the pieces would fit but the flooring transition between rooms was different and so the baseboard was crooked. Yikes.

Well I am almost done and have learned tons. Probably the biggest thing I've learned is I won't do this kind of DIY again for a reeeeeeal long time. Very tedious. But, despite some of the rough transitions and corners, I think it looks a ton better and makes the rooms flow better as well. So, while this isn't one of those "WOW" transformations, it has a huge impact.

Joining up this week with Works for me Wednesday at We are that Family

Transformation Thursday at Shabby Chic Cottage

Strut Your Stuff Thursday at Somewhat Simple

Thrifty Thursday at Tales from Bloggeritaville