"I really think little things like trim really make a huge difference into turning a regular house into something specia"

It sure does. I would go for it. Make sure you don't just frame the whole thing like a picture frame or it may look 'off'. Put a sill at the bottom. Painting the interior to match is a good idea.

We framed out the windows in our last house and it was pretty easy to do. Just remember painters puddy is a do it yourselferes bestfriend. I did wood framing on the living room windows in that house and did a overlay of wood casings as well. We left the driewall in the bedroom windows and framed around it and used lots of painters puddy to make it look right. Then painted and they looked great.

I'm not trying to hijack you post but I'll be watching the replies with great interest.

I have the exact kind of windows you are talking about. They are just cut-outs with white bottom trim and the top ones don't have any sill. When I think of adding molding, I wonder how hard that would be with the sill already in place. This is why they are still bare after a year. Don't want to make a costly mistake.

Like you, I'm not thrilled with our kind of windows.

You said you have "plantation blinds" on the windows. Do you mean plantation shutters? Because the plantation shutters do frame the window.

Parma, I love your windows! I wouldn't touch the upper ones, but the others are so pretty I don't know what I'd do with them if they were mine!

I think I would start looking for pics of simular windows to see how they look done in different ways. I am really suprised there haven,t been more response to this thread. Mayby you would get more hits if you ask for people to post pics of how they trimmed out their windows.

Last night I went to Lowe's to look at the trim available. I found some pieces made in stain-grade and paint-grade wood. Due to the sils at the bottom, I am limited to 2&1/4 inch size (anything larger would jut out past the sil). In the stain grade wood, I found a fluted style. In the paint grade, I found a type that is basically the same as is used in the doors throughout the house. The fluted style is more than twice the cost of the casing-style.

Although I think the fluted is prettier, I think I'm going to go with the other type for continuity with the doors and the cheaper price. I also bought one of those little plastic mitre boxes with the saw. I think these cuts will be easy enough for even me to make. Can anyone recommend a link to something that explains step by step the process for measuring and cutting the wood properly? Also, does anyone think I need to get some type of thin wood sheeting to place on the portion of the casing that is perpendicular to the actual window, or will painting everything the same color sufficiently mask that?

Didn't get a chance to take any pics last night, but tonight I'll try to do 'before' and 'after' shots if I am successful in trimming out my "guinea pig" window.

I think you'll like what you do. I put woven bamboo shades in one room and really like them. We did the Top Down kind so we have the option of having light but still having privacy. I got them at JustBlinds.com, and was happier with those than the ones I got at JC Penney. They sent free samples of the different weaves, which was really helpful.

I think it would be fairly easy to just frame it. All you will need to do is cut the casing at 45 degree angles -- of course you know that the short part of the angles would go at the corners of the window, so that's where you'd measure -- and put them together, then putty or caulk the cracks, and paint. If your house is anything like mine, the windows won't be square and that's where the problem will come in so you will probably have to fudge somewhere. This means if you don't have the casing, you will be fudging either over the open space of the window, or onto the wall. I am not a carpenter but my brother is and I've watched him closely, and I THINK this is a big reason for putting casing. That way you just have a little more "reveal" of the casing where you have to fudge. Once it's painted it's fine. My house is just a housefull of fudges, all done by so-called professional carpenters, lol.

If you were concerned about not messing up the wood, you could make a construction paper mock-up first, put it place an dmake sure it's cut perfectly, and then use it to know where to cut the real trim. It will probably be time-consuming.

I have one of those plastic mitre boxes and your trim could not be any wider than the depth of the little box, or it won't work. That means you will have to have fairly narrow trim.

For about $100 you can get an electric mitre saw, don't know if that's within reason for you.

If I were you I would trim out one window, putty it up, paint it and the inside where the casing would be, and see how it looks.

Not sure about the thin board as casing. It would probably have raw plywood edges... which would show. Measure the depth of your window and see if you can get a ready-made board that width. If not, and you go to a real lumber yard, not a big box store, they may rip it (cut it lengthwise) to the right width for you for a small fee. It seems to me that if you can nail on trim, you can nail some casing inside the window. I do not think special joints would be required, just install top and bottom, then but left and right up to them. Again putty and paint. Again, after the kind of work I've seen in this house that has passed as professional, I think that just a few basic skills and a lot of putty/caulking would be just fine for something like that.

You might go over to the forum that deals with these things and ask them what they think.

Best wishes on your project!

I have done a lot of mitering. I have a heavy wood miterbox, it was pretty cheap and has the advantage that you can C-clamp it down to your work table, which believe me, you WILL want to do. I canÂt see using a plastic one unless you canÂt find anything else.

NowÂhaving done a lot of mitering, I can say this. You can rent a miter saw from most places like Home Depot of LoweÂs, that can be set easily to do your 45 degree angles. ItÂs not expensive. Doing it by hand is tedious at best, and maddening at worst. If you are not experienced and tilt your hand saw just a little, your angle will no longer be 45 degrees. My husband will gladly saw anything if I ask him, but he always tilts, even with me there (ostensibly to hold onto the other end of the wood) to constantly straighten the saw. If I have to miter now I do it myself.

Recently we borrowed a co-workerÂs "Chop" saw because we were doing a wood floor and all the baseboards. We could not believe how much easier it was! Set the angle in a second, and get a perfect 45 degrees. While we had it I measured and mitered in advance all the wood for half a dozen projects that had been put on the back burner. From now on if I have more than 4 angles to miter, IÂm going out to rent a saw. To save on rental time, measure everything in advance and be ready to cut, cut, cut.

FWIW: I donÂt think you need the inside perpendicular trim at all. Just paint the inside the same color as your new molding, and no one will know itÂs drywall and not wood. Save yourself a headache, it will not be worth the added effort.

This may not be for everyone, but I recently was at a home where the inside of the windows and about 2" of outside flat wall were painted white and along the edge of the white paint they had a narrow strip of moulding painted in the same white.
They did the same thing around the doorways and above the narrow baseboards. It really was a good way to "fake" wider trimwork.

Hmmmm...that's always a possibility. I never heard of that one before.

Mona, I've heard of what you said above the baseboards, which makes sense because there's already the heft of a baseboard there. Did it look really good around windows, though?

It's not a look for everyone, particularly if you're into wide trimwork.

It didn't look bad, but different. I really didn't notice what had been done until it was pointed out to me. And after my initial curiousity for a closer look, it wasn't something that I kept looking and staring at because I thought it was weird or cheap.

Let me point out that the molding did have some dimension to it with greater depth on the outside and shallower on the inside. Sort of like a picture frame and only about 1 1/2" wide.

It was an effective way to outline the windows and give them some depth particularly since the wall color had good contrast against the white trim paint. I think it worked because the trim was only 2" away from the window with a narrow strip of wall painted to match the trim. Any more wall space than that would make it look cheesey.

No one there said it was ugly and instead we were commenting on how interesting it was. I suggest trying it down the side of one window to see what you think. It's an inexpensive trial that would be easy to undo.

Very interesting Mona, thanks for the details.
BDL