In the right mould: Skirting boards, architraves, cornices and sills

Kya deLongchamps shows how to treat your home's skirting boards, architraves, cornices and windowsills

This simple slow skirting typical of the 1960s contemporary home, perfectly suits this mid-century-inspired space of today. File picture

Moulding includes skirting boards, architraves, cornices, and even windowsills. These are largely decorative, second-fix elements today, but this architectural joinery was originally developed to guard more fragile materials from damage, staining, and wear. This was especially important where different kinds of surfacing met, at the junction between floors and walls. 

The quality of wet plastering varied wildly in the 1700s and 1800s. Socially mobile householders wanted to put on the best show possible. As wood panelling disappeared from interior walls, moulding remained as its essential protective adornment, refining a rough wet-plastering job.

Visually, moulding smartens transitions, and this typical second-fix carpentry can still be as understated or overstated as you like. Think about the elegance of a Victorian or Edwardian ceiling trimmed out in a beautiful cornice, or an elaborate transom topping the architrave on a panelled Georgian door. 

Skirting at the base of the walls, performed as an insulator and a guard against vermin sliding in from behind gaps in the boards or plaster.

In grand houses moulding signalled status and wealth with grandly built-up skirting fashioned onsite in deep ornamental runs, matched to a heavy icing of plasterwork by Italian stucco workers.

A truly great house would include some plaster mouldings rather than timber, echoing the external architecture. Their skirting might even run to marble panels in the hall.

Usually, for period homes, the higher the ceiling, the higher the skirting and deeper the architrave. Extra trims can be used to build up a skirting board.

We’ve largely dispensed with dado rails (used to stop chairs hitting the wall and damaging plaster) and picture rails (used to suspend artwork from wires and waxed string without the need to put in a nail). They are not a practical necessity (there’s no structural help here, even from the architrave) — but this nostalgic period detail is expected in even some brand-new three-bed semi-Ds.

Challenged by shadow gaps and other architectural gymnastics to push back their presence, skirting and architrave have lasted the distance of four centuries. Looks aside, it still does two little jobs. Firstly, it stops the vacuum cleaner head from dinging the wall in any busy family home. The Italians charmingly refer to this as “battiscopa”, or “where the broom belts the wall”.

Secondly, it makes a cleaner line for swallowing up the edge of a carpet. Carpet installers despise shadow gaps when they have to cope with them.

PROPORTIONS

Skirting is very useful for adding discreet but pleasing symmetry and proportion to your home. Most skirting will suit the traditional recipe of one-eighth of the ceiling height. In general, a higher ceiling equals higher skirting. There’s no reason you cannot choose something skinnier or deeper, or in some cases dispense with skirting altogether. Products in 120mm to 250mm in soft, hardwood and MDF (primed or raw) are available off-the-shelf. Anything under 145mm is relatively low.

A dedicated supplier can make runs of skirting and architrave to suit any design and scale. Specialist suppliers can reproduce surviving antique moulding. Going as lofty as 300mm is a real trophy board, but you may find some magnificent, handsome skirting in a very special renovation project.

Save it where you can, as it’s an important element in the overall archive of the house.

To improve an existing low skirting, experiment with adding a slender timber dado-rail of the same depth to increase its overall height.

DESIGN

We have clung to traditional styles of skirting and architrave, and they come in a good choice of stepped, chamfered, and rounded profiles, often a combination of both in geometric mix-ups.

Interpretations of bullnose (also termed pencil-round) and pretty ogee profiles (S-shaped at the top) are still extremely popular, and it’s surprising to go into newly built, contemporary designed houses and still find panelled doors and elegant period skirting and architrave chosen for their comforting familiarity. You will find variations on these designs, some sitting out, some tapering back to the wall — the choice is yours.

Paring this further down to say a flat board with a half-round bead at the top edge (known as a Torus profile) creates an unfussed moulding with a little more art deco in it. These slightly more modernist designs can be worn in any era of room without a problem. Torus boards are a developer favourite, as they stride somewhere between period and modern.

They have a skinny top edge and are easy to repaint and clean as they only have one deep groove to cope with. Round top edges, Burford, Lamb’s Tongue, squared-off skirting and what is termed Ovolo (based on the Italian for egg (uovo) is decidedly more modern, with a flatter top section than Bullnose or Ogee. Less ostentatious choices are good alternatives if you want the skirting and architraves to sit quietly and politely in a modern room.

PRACTICALITIES

You can choose fancier, higher and deeper moulding profiles for your principal living areas and say master bedrooms and go with simple styles elsewhere if you prefer. This social hierarchy with moulding is centuries old. Take the advice of your architect to get a good balance.

Does the design of skirting and architrave have to match? Not necessarily, but their thickness must match in the same space. Scribing skirting boards is one of the most maddening tasks for a DIY installer, and it’s even more complex if the design and thickness of the moulding is not cohesive.

Keep in mind that any flat-top skirting will collect dust, whereas a rounded or chamfered board will shake it off. The more elaborate the skirting, the flatter the paint finish, and the harder it will be to wipe down.

The price point will depend on materials and a bit of sweat equity. MDF resists bowing and can be set in place on a flat wall with grip-fix, no nails necessary; from €4.50-€10 per metre primed or veneer/foil-wrap. Beading about half of that, with deals on multi-packs.

Real timber skirting will take nailing with something like bright ovals and adhesive. Ask a carpenter for their experience.

This statement period skirting, architrave, door and radiator are brought together in Annie Sloan Knightsbridge Green (Satin), standing boldly on Piranesi Pink wall paint.

The cheapest choice? Softwood skirting bought unpainted and sanded (primed, sanded, painted, and painted again by you in your garden kneelers); €3.50-€7.50 per metre in 2.4m-5.4m lengths depending on design and height.

If you want the skirting and architrave to all but disappear, paint them the same colour as the surrounding wall in a matt or eggshell.

Satin finishes have surpassed gloss as a classic texture choice and are robust against typical slings and arrows of domestic life. With softwood with knots, ensure you use a knotting agent prior to any painting, or retained sap will bleed through the paintwork, ruining the final finish over time.

NO SKIRT

There are alternatives to standard wood skirting. Some flooring choices will offer skirting as an accessory to perfectly match say engineered wood flooring. Tiles can be edged in tiles. Keep in mind that typical skirting masks that essential expansion gap that keeps the wood floor stable.

If you have old lumpy, bumpy stone or brick walls, in fact, any walling you want to show off — it’s possible to dispense with skirting, floor the room in wood, and edge it with cork. This will expand and contract to allow for changes in humidity and temperature and seal the edges effectively.

Shadow gaps, where the base of the wall is slightly recessed, involve the construction of the whole wall — always get professional input.