With the shower/tub and floor tiles set, grouted and sealed, the bathroom finally started to feel like a finished space. Still, one missing detail kept the room looking incomplete: baseboards and trim. Before installing them, the floor and openings read like a work in progress.
At first I tried to salvage the existing window and door trim, including the linen closet and main door casings. It seemed like a good idea during demo, but most pieces were splintered, cracked or otherwise worn out. Since the floor used to have a tile border that met the old trim, I couldn’t avoid installing new baseboard anyway. So out came the old trim with a crowbar and hammer, leaving the window and door openings bare and ready for fresh casing.
After the grout had cured for 24 hours and the tile had been sealed a couple of times, reinstalling trim moved to the top of the to-do list. I borrowed my dad’s miter saw and gathered supplies. If there’s a theme in our projects, it’s “thanks to Dad for the tools.” I’ll admit I was excited to use the saw, and to do a little measuring and cutting — yes, I enjoy the math and the precision.
I measured each wall and each side of the doors and window. Then we went to the big-box store with samples of the old trim in hand so the new pieces would match the rest of the house. We chose the same style but slightly wider profiles for a crisper look. The store sells long lengths, but they also offer a cutting station. I spent about half an hour cutting each section down to manageable lengths, leaving a bit extra on each piece. To avoid chaos at the checkout, I labeled the backs of the boards with notes like “44 inches, back wall under window” or “35 inches, spare.” It made verifying quantities quick and painless.
Instead of walking through every single piece I installed, I’ll use the window trim as an example. After roughly cutting the pieces to length in the store, I marked the inside edge of each cut with a ballpoint pen so I could make the final miter cuts at home. Then I carried the pieces to the garage where the miter saw was set up and made the precise 45-degree cuts.
The miter saw is ideal for angled cuts so casings and trim meet neatly at corners. For someone new to the tool, it’s straightforward: swivel the saw base to the angle you need, lock it in place, align the trim against the fence and make the cut. Even with a laser guide available, I lowered the blade by hand to verify the contact point before firing the saw — a cautious but helpful habit.
Cutting and fitting each piece was manageable. I worked conservatively on initial cuts — it’s much easier to trim a little more than to try to add material back — and I fine-tuned lengths once pieces were dry-fit in the room. When the trim was ready, we used a low-tech but careful installation method: a small 10 oz hammer and finishing nails. We avoided a big nail gun to reduce the risk of damaging tile and to keep things simple and budget-friendly.
We drove each finishing nail most of the way in with the hammer, leaving a little of the head exposed, then used a nail set to recess the nail below the wood surface without marring the trim. We set the nails slightly below the wood so we could hide them with caulk later. The trim we bought was pre-primed (white primer, not a final paint), and we prefer to do paint and touch-ups after installation in one go rather than painting twice.
Once the window casing was installed it was almost perfect — a few small gaps and smudges remained from handling, but caulk and paint would take care of those. We used paintable white door, window and trim caulk to fill seams and nail holes, smoothing it with a finger and wiping away excess for a neat line. After the caulk dried, we applied a couple of coats of low-VOC white semi-gloss paint to finish the look.
The process for the linen closet and door trim was the same: measure, cut, fit, nail, caulk and paint. For baseboards along the walls and inside the linen closet we installed taller baseboard profiles and finished the floor joints with quarter-round shoe molding. The quarter-round was attached with construction adhesive and a few nails since I didn’t want to hammer too close to the marble tile. For outside corners on baseboard we used 45-degree bevel cuts, tilting the saw blade to create neat miter joints that meet cleanly.
Because the vanity needed to sit flush against the wall, we omitted baseboard where the vanity would go. We placed the vanity temporarily to determine its exact location, marked the walls and then installed baseboard up to that point so the cabinet could fit snugly against the wall and plumbing. To protect the floor while nailing, I kept a towel under the work area and continued to use the smaller hammer for control.
With all trim and quarter-round installed, a little caulk and two coats of paint later, the bathroom looked dramatically more finished. The whole trim installation took about five hours and made nearly as big a visual impact as the tile. Next steps were installing the toilet and building the vanity — the final touches before the room felt fully complete. If you’re doing similar work, it’s satisfying to see how trim, caulk and paint bring a space from “under construction” to “ready to use.”