That's a great question. Hoping someone will have a more definitive answer for you, but I think this partially depends on style of the house and partially just on what you like. Doing a search for Victorian Baseboards, there seems to be a bit of variance, though none are small. http://www.houzz.com/victorian-baseboard

Hello homework911,

Yes, great question! Proportionally you'll want to keep a ratio of 15-20 with 18 being the optimal ratio. For example, given a ceiling height of 12' an applied baseboard with a height of 10" will look slightly large (ratio is 14) but a baseboard of 8" will appear proportional (ratio 18). For a given ceiling height of 9' an applied baseboard with a height of 8" will look overly large (ratio 13) but a baseboard with a height of 6" will appear accurate (ratio 18).

So, for your space, if you choose to place an 8" baseboard within a ceiling height of 8.5' then you will have an overly large baseboard. A more proportional, but still appearing large, baseboard height would be 6".

However, this is your house....install whatever baseboard height makes you feel happy :) You might try purchasing a 2 foot length of a few differing heights and placing them around the room to determine which really feels best to you.

Good luck with your decorating!

Elizabeth

What a great answer Cabell Design! I love the idea of buying a couple lengths of base and checking the height in the room.