Skirting boards are typically painted in a satin finish, slightly more durable and more easily cleaned than matt wall paint.

@sonia - that’s true. I think you can get the neatness from the beading at the edges for wooden floors. My dilemma is whether to keep them or get rid of them. The floors will be either wood or marble tiles.

Sometimes the plastering isn’t neat right down to the edge of floor.

Agreed, Daisy. That was the original purpose of skirting, to hide those flaws and any gaps. It’s more of an aesthetics dilemma, the walls will be done to standard. I like the seamless floating look of no skirting but it can look clinical..

why not add a marbled skirting around the walls to match the flooring, if you lay wood floors you will need an expansion gap and skirting would cover this, if tiles no matter how good the tiler is it will always look better with a matching skirting fitted around the walls.

Many thanks MBH, I had no idea this existed in marble but it sounds appealing.. I think I now want marble skirting! 😁 If I go for wood though, what do you think about herringbone vs straight planks in terms of wanting to make a space look bigger?

All down to personal taste but I would have herring bone as it adds another dimension to the floor rather than just long straight lines. It would also give a wow factor! There would be more cost involved though as there will be more wastage and it will take longer to lay.

Thanks MBH ! I’m inclined to agree with you. But! I have seen some beautiful long and wide ish flooring which looks so elegant. Unfortunately for me, that’s usually in big spaces. I do know about the annoying wastage issue with herringbone but if I go for wood it’s likely to be that.