During the construction of our Florida coastal farmhouse I got so overwhelmed with design decisions. I think it’s pretty common with custom house building because every single last detail requires a decision. And it’s draining sometimes. When it came time to choosing our trim work I needed a guide; the options were endless. My research on trim and baseboard options yielded the 7% and 50% rules.

I was seeing homes on Pinterest and instagram that baseboards commonly ranged from 4 inches and up to 10 inches. I was like, “what the heck makes sense and is going to look good in my house?” I found that many designers use a 7% rule in deciding baseboard height, meaning the baseboard should be roughly 7% of total wall height for optimal scale and visual appeal. This was the concrete advice I was needing. The math was 7% of 120 inches (our walls are generally 10 ft tall except we do have a two story staircase and living room) which equals 8.4 inches. Therefore, we used 8” baseboards throughout our home. I love the way they frame our rooms, not too large that they detract and not so small that they get lost in decor.

Also, we chose a daily standard craftsman style trim design to frame our doors and windows. Using the 50% rule (trim should be 50% size of your baseboards) we did 4 inch trim around doors and windows with a large 8” header on top. If we had chosen picture frame trim design, for example, the math would be 4 inches on all sides. I hope that makes sense!

Of course the bottom line is that with anything in life (but especially building your own custom home), you can be creative and choose any size and style of trim design that suits your taste and budget! The rules serve more as a guide for people who desire to use them.

Thank you for being here and I always love to hear from you in comments, DMs, or emails 💚

Love and sunshine,

Summer