Blog>Ideas>Trending skirting board ideas for your 2025 project
Last updated: 27 February 2024
Trending skirting board ideas for your 2025 project
Don’t let rotten or outdated skirting boards ruin a well-styled room. Whether classic, bold, contemporary or minimalist is your bag, we’ve got a skirting board for you.
The TikTokers and Instagrammers of the world are ‘board’ of their old-fashioned, overly-glossed, bland white skirting boards of yesteryear and showing us how it's done. It’s hard not to be impressed with these trending skirting board ideas.
You might not have the time, skill, or even interest to upcycle or replace your old skirting boards. But, a joiner or builder can definitely carry out your interior design vision for you.
Carry on reading to find the perfect skirting board design for your home.
Should I replace my skirting boards?
Although skirting boards are usually the last thought in a house renovation, they should be on your home renovation list.
Updating your skirting boards to reflect your home's interior design can make a big difference to the overall finish.
Whether you’re after a white, elaborate, and decorative skirting board for a period home or a slim, crisp-edged modern design - a new skirting board can add personality to any room.
If you suffer from rising or mould in your home, replacing your skirting boards should be priority.
Check out this skirting board fitting cost guide before you contact a tradesperson with your skirting board ideas.
Modern skirting board ideas
1. Simple skirting boards
Discreet, simple skirting board blend in discreetly with a minimalist interior design scheme. Some of the most modern skirting board ideas are centred around;
Simple angles
Steps
Rounds or lines
Grooved skirting
Although white can be considered an outdated skirting board colour, it never fails when paired with white walls in a clean and contemporary home.
2. Short skirting boards
Choose shorter, uncomplicated skirting boards for smaller homes with shorter ceilings. Overall, it gives the effect of a taller ceiling height.
3. Shadow gaps
Shadow gaps are an architect's obsession as they remove the need for skirting boards. This skirting board trend leaves tiny spaces between the base of the wall and the floor.
Because houses move, this gap is essential to allow the movement between walls and floors. Ideally, this style of skirting board needs to be planned in advance.
Shadow gap skirting boards look clean and impressive, and a lack of skirting boards is gaining popularity.
If you’re doing a renovation and can’t plan for this, you can have a professional builder install recessed skirting that lies flush with the wall for a clean, sleek look.
Painted Skirting Board Ideas
Plain white skirting boards that tend to yellow over time are soon becoming a thing of the past. The opportunities for painted skirting board ideas are endless.
Before you break open the paint, ensure you know how to paint skirting boards.
Try out some of these popular colour choices for painted skirting boards.
1. Go bold or go home
When exploring painted skirting board ideas, use a colour tone sympathetic to your walls. If your walls are dark, match this with the same or similar dark-coloured skirting board for a luxurious feel.
2. Painted skirting for period homes
For sympathetically renovated period homes, don't rip out any period-style skirting boards that are still in good or excellent condition. Or, perhaps your new home has white contemporary skirting boards that you want to brighten up.
Get creative and improve your skirting boards with a lick of paint.
Choose dark colours or black for skirting boards and door frames to add drama and intensity. Black also pairs well with most paint colours and wallpapers. Add some matching home décor pieces to intensify that period look.
3. Match your walls to your skirting
Make smaller rooms appear larger by creating cohesion between walls and skirting boards. Take your paint to the floor for a stunning effect like the wall below.
4. Keep it light
Instead of bold colours, some homeowners prefer blending their walls and skirting boards with lighter neutral or pastel shades. This works well for period properties like old farmhouses and cottages, where light is scarce.
5. Colour drench your home
Colour drenching is a new skirting board trend. As the name suggests, you paint everything in the same colour. Colour drenches your walls, ceilings, skirting boards, door frames, doors, and even radiators for a stunning and bold effect.
Popular colour schemes for living rooms include yellow and blue for a bold effect. This might be out of your comfort zone, but the results can be mesmerising.
6. Don’t forget your wall panelling
Wall panelling looks stunning in white, but choosing a bold colour wall panelling instead of skirting boards is an eye-catching interior design choice. Forest green, dark red, and violet look stunning paired with pale pink.
Most commonly, medium-density fibreboard (MDF) is used for wall panelling in hallways, living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms because it creates an architectural, textured vibe.
If you'd like to know more, check out this wall panelling cost guide.
Other skirting board ideas
Bathroom skirting boards
Matching tiled skirting to your bathroom's aesthetic is the perfect finishing touch for a newly renovated bathroom. Pair marbled floor tiles with matching marbled skirting board tiles and white walls for a hotel luxury feel.
We always recommend having a professional tiler install your new tiles during a bathroom refit.
For a smooth, continuous look, tile from the ceiling to the floor or from the middle of the wall down. Tiled skirting also won’t require any priming, painting, or waterproofing and isn't as susceptible to damp mould.
If you'd like to discover other popular tiled skirting board trends, read the article here.
Porcelain or ceramic bathroom tiles?
Although porcelain and ceramic tiles are stylish skirting board options, porcelain tiles work better in bathrooms. Less porous than ceramic tiles, porcelain tiles are well-equipped to deal with the dampness of bathrooms and kitchens.
However, porcelain tiles are usually more expensive and heavier than ceramic, so you may prefer to choose a ceramic bathroom tile. Luckily, both porcelain and ceramic tiles are durable, with high-quality finishes that come in many designs to suit any bathroom.
Stair skirt board ideas
Turning skirting boards into a wall panelling feature is becoming an increasingly popular choice in modern and period homes. Wall panelling hides unsightly joins and protects your walls from scuffs and damage.
Try Wainscoting instead of skirt boards, a process that uses wood panelling fitted to the lower section of the wall. It can also be used to hide electrics, pipes or insulation.
Take inspiration from your wallpaper
When you're drawing a blank over how to decorate your skirting boards, take inspiration from your wallpaper and paint your skirting board in a complementary colour.
Match your flooring to your skirting
Another top modern design idea is choosing a skirting board that is sympathetic to your flooring. This technique works exceptionally well with medium to dark oak flooring.
But, you can match your skirting boards with any wooden flooring. Install matching door frames for a truly contemporary feel.
If you like the look below, this is skirting board tiles completed by a Checkatrade tradesperson, another trend that people are choosing instead of the typical wood skirting.
Skirting board heating - alternative to radiators
With underfloor heating and other alternative heating sources on the rise, planning a renovation is the perfect time to consider skirting board heating.
Underfloor heating can be expensive, whereas skirting board heating are much more affordable.
Wet and dry skirting heating systems are both popular choices. Wet skirting board heating uses pipes behind the skirting boards to heat a room. In contrast, ‘dry’ or electric skirting board heating uses cables feeding an electric thermostat.
If you’d like to learn more, check out our skirting board heating cost guide.
Before you dive in with your skirting board refit or upcycle, research as much as possible to choose a skirting board design that matches the overall aesthetic of your house.
Ensuring you choose the correct height of the skirting board is also essential to match the proportions of your home. If you’re unsure where to start, check out this handy article or click the link below to find a trusted tradesperson perfect for redesigning your skirting boards.
See the tradespeople we've checked and recommend for your job
More Ideas
See the tradespeople we've checked and recommend for your job