I’ve seen several people ask the question ‘how do I finish my baseboard when the wall ends in an open space?’ or, something similar in various FB groups, so, as I walked thru the hall into the living room the other day, I snapped a few pictures and thought I would share how I finish off baseboard and trim in those situations.

I have always taken the board and made a mitered cut as if you are going for an outside corner, but the end will be flush to the other wall or surface instead of coming out longer to make the actual corner. Basically, you are ending your trim with the outside edge vs. measuring to the inside edge even though it’s an outside corner. Then, to cap it off, you make the miter cut on another piece in the opposite direction, again, like you are working with an outside corner. After you have the opposite side cut, simply cut your mitered end off straight. Obviously, this becomes a very small piece to work with, so you do have to be careful and you have to cut the angle first, then the straight cut.

To install, I just used a small amount of wood glue. The piece is really too thin to use nails or brads and would just split if I tried.

As you can see, ours is not painted yet, but I thought that may be more helpful to see exactly how it’s cut. It’s on my list of ‘miles of trim to paint’:) Hopefully this helps or gives you at least an option to finishing off trim or baseboards when you have an unusual end point.