It was seem like busy-work to paint shoe molding. With a fresh coat of paint, it can raise the level of craftsmanship in a space by creating a crisp bright border to the flooring.
Why isn’t primer enough?
One way flooring contractors–who install flooring, not much else to be fair–arrive at their price is that they’ll install the 1/4-round molding required to cover the necessary gaps needed for Luxury Vinyl Plank but they won’t paint it.
The nail holes are caulked.
And when they leave, it’s shiny and nice.
But without painted shoe molding, primed 1/4-round molding, over time, is a dirt magnet. The difference between the surfaces of caulk and primer will eventually show up. Primer isn’t enough.
Will anyone ever notice that it’s painted?
So… 90+ % of it is behind the couch? Yup.
But in a remodel of this quality for a client both with an eye and a sense of proportion, that wasn’t good enough.
How do we paint shoe molding?
So, we pre-paint the 1/4-round molding with two coats of Sherwin-Williams high gloss trim paint to match the existing trim.
Then, after shooting the 1/4-round to the base, we did fill those holes with caulk, then we came back around with the mighty 3/4-inch Richard trim brush and tighten up those blemishes behind the couches. Smooth as high gloss through and through.
So why paint shoe molding? Because it finishes the job, and you’ll notice it. Even if most of it is stuck behind furniture.
