The colour of skirting boards

The skirting board is the 7 to 15 cm strip that runs along the base of the wall. Its original function is protective: avoiding vacuum cleaner knocks, concealing the floor-to-wall junction. Its visual function is more subtle, it is what terminates or opens the room upward.

Four strategies coexist, each producing a different effect. The implicit rule, as with doors, is that white skirting boards by default are rarely the right choice, except in very specific contexts.

Strategy 1: white skirting. Reserve for rooms where the wall itself is white or very light. In a coloured room (sage green, teal, taupe), white skirting cuts abruptly and creates a low line that chops up the room. If you keep white skirtings, your walls must be white or cream.

Strategy 2: skirting in the wall colour. The most modern and elegant choice. The skirting merges with the wall, the room appears taller, and the eye sees continuity from floor to ceiling. Ideal in all coloured-wall rooms, and particularly in rooms with low ceilings (under 2.6 m).

Strategy 3: skirting slightly darker than the wall. Anchoring effect, the room has a solid visual "base". Wall in off-white, skirting in taupe. Wall in pale sage green, skirting in deep sage green. Classic English choice, works very well in living rooms and bedrooms, less so in hallways.

Strategy 4: skirting in the floor colour. The skirting merges with the parquet or tiles. Effect of a wider room, because the visual horizontal boundary disappears. Strategy mainly used in small rooms, or with dark oak flooring.

Special case: thin skirting. A skirting of 5 cm or less (Scandinavian skirting) can remain white in almost any context, because it is too discreet to create a disruptive line. Conversely, a tall skirting (12 cm or more) must be treated as an architectural element.

Farrow & Ball dedicates a complete guide section to skirting boards, recommending strategy 2 (wall colour) as the default for coloured rooms. Their often-cited combination: Elephants Breath on walls and skirtings, Strong White on ceiling.

Joseph Dirand uses strategy 3 (darker skirting) in his most architectural projects, to accentuate the structural reading of the room. The skirting is treated as a base, a kind of painted plinth.

Pierre Yovanovitch works strategy 2 exclusively, extending it sometimes to all the joinery (door frames, window frames) in the same shade as the wall. The room becomes a monolithic volume.