Trimming out caseless windows

10 years ago

We live in a late-80s house that is a bit of a generic style. We're adding wainscoting to a few of the front room to give it a bit of a beach-cottage feel. The doors have casing, so that's easy to deal with. The windows and room openings, however, are all caseless (sheetrock returns). I actually don't mind the look, but am trying to figure out how to best trim the wainscoting around the windows.

The two options I've come up with:

1) Add window casing all around. I'd then paint the jambs to match the trim (since they are now sheetrock).

2) 'Wrap' the Wainscoting around the lower half of the window, leave the top half without casings.

I like the idea of #2. #1 would be easy but a) a bit more expensive/bit more work b) give the windows a very different look than the rest of the house. #2 would preserve partially the look throughout the house.

The catch is that I've never seen #2 been done before. Has anyone ever seen such a treatment? Any opinions on it? any other ides?

Featured Answer

Darrel Austin
Original Author

10 years ago

Mark: the doors are already fully trimmed. None of the windows in the house are trimmed. Not sure why they decided to do the doors and not the windows. If I do fully trim the windows I think it'd just be the front two rooms where the wainscoting will go, but not the rest of the house.

Fred: yes, that'd be the ideal solution. I'm not going to do that thought. Too much work for this house. It's an OK house, but not worth that much effort. :) I think I'm going to try #2. We have two windows in the front that we may eventually replace with french doors. So I'll give #2 a shot there and see how it looks. I'll post photos and get some opinions then.

Thanks everyone!

Comments (7)

PRO
Lampert Dias Architects, Inc.
10 years ago
I like #1 with window casing all around and painted to match.

I don't recall ever seeing #1, but I am good at visualizing and I don't like what I see.

Painted window casings all around the windows is a beautiful finished look that dresses up a house...........
PRO
User
10 years ago
I have seen chair rail wrap into a window opening and even though it adds a nice decorative element, it creates MAJOR problems when you decide to install blinds or shutters in the windows.
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Mark
10 years ago
Windows without casings will give you a contemporary look and if that is what you are after then it should look fine.
Russian River Studio · More Info
Darrel Austin
Original Author
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Mark, to clarify, i do have caseless windows now, though all the doors are fully trimmed out. I want to add wainscoting to the wall halfway up the windows. Do you think it makes sense to do that without adding full casings to the windows? (BTW, I love the sample photo and wish I could say the caseless windows in our house were an attempt at a modern look, but I have a hunch it was just a whole lot cheaper when they built it. :/ )

South East...good point. I wasn't planning on wrapping any of the trim over the jamb for that very reason.
Mark
10 years ago
I think because you fully trimmed out the doors that I would do the same for the windows, keep it uniform throughout the house.
User
10 years ago
Trying to nail casing over a metal sheetrock corner will create a ton of problems. It would be best to remove the metal corner and sheetrock from inside the window opening and put in a standard jamb.
Or just do #2 up to the window, but only if you have a stool that sticks out on the bottom of the window.