Please help with a poor window trimming job

last year

We are building a custom home and walked in today and saw our Master Bedroom windows trimmed out like this. The clipped miters look ridiculous. The trim is 3.5" wide but obviously makes the windows look ver crowded. Thankfully - the builder agrees and will retrim the windows and the entire room if we want something different from the rest of the house. (We'd rather keep it all the same).

Please share any suggestions you have. My initial thought is to trim the 3 lower windows as one and the top picture window by itself. But that will require smaller trim. (He thinks that only 2' will work in avoiding clipped miters.) I there a way to trim them all out as one? At this point I honestly don't even know what I'm suggesting. Please help - many thanks.

Featured Answer

chispa

last year

My comments won't help OP, but might help others who are in the design stage.

I don't know why people think they need to add transoms everywhere! Most of the time they don't look right or aren't designed correctly for the space, or the window scale/size is just off.

For both of the rooms shown I would have simply used 3 taller windows to fill the space. In the second photo, the strong black horizontal line from the transom becomes the dominant feature and is distracting.

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Comments (10)

PRO
PPF.
last year
That top window should have been installed lower like this. Then all 4 trimmed as one with no gaps between.

I don't see a clean way of fixing what's there now.
momof4doodles thanked PPF.
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
last year
I am cooking so you get a paper towel sketch.

Similar to what you have but one trim board between window openings.
momof4doodles thanked Mark Bischak, Architect
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etjost
last year
Remove trim and do a sheetrock return. I prefer the curved corners return.
PRO
HALLETT & Co.
last year
Assuming the trim is all flat stock make it all enough wider so it all ties together like the napkin sketch above.
momof4doodles thanked HALLETT & Co.
momof4doodles
Original Author
last year
Many thanks to each of you - I appreciate the insights.

I wish I would have had the aesthetic talent at install to have the sheetrock return and skip the trim - but I didn't. So all of the other windows are trimmed and there are a lot of them. (Example below.)

The trim (3.5" and throughout the entire house) isn't flat, but isn't heavily contoured either. Would it be a total design disaster to use flat trim in this room only in order to accomplish Mark's napkin sketch :)? Or, could it be a design compromise to mix the contoured and flat stock (contour picture framed around the 3 windows, with thinner flat stock between them, and then flat stock around the top window?

Thank you again - I appreciate the help.
thinkdesignlive
last year
What is your plan for window treatments?
PRO
HALLETT & Co.
last year
Can you post a photo that clearly shows the trim? In all your photos the lighting flattens the trim so we can’t see the profile.
PRO
PPF.
last year
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
last year
For any solution that would effect the outside of the house, consider the outside of the house in the decision making.