Wainscoting a wall that has windows without casings. Is there a typical trim method?

Question

We're redoing our front room in our house. We're thinking of going with a 'seaside cottage' feel and installing some wainscoting on the walls about 2/3rds the way up.

The catch is that our house currently has doors with casings, but the windows are using a finished sheetrock return. They do have a stool, but not casings around the outside.

Is there a typical way to handle finishing wainscoting around a caseless window short of tearing out all the sheetrock and actually fully framing the windows?

I had two ideas:

1. Bring the wainscoting up around the windows but stop short 1" or so to the corner. Allow the sheetrock to be exposed around the window.

2. Do the same, but extend the wainscoting right to the corner, and then apply a small (easily removable) trim piece to cover the outside corner around the window.

Has anyone done/seen that type of finish detail? Any other typical solutions for this?

Answer 1

I would case the windows too. No need to tear out the sheetrock if it's sound - nail right up over it to the framing wood behind it at the corners. What you use to do this and how exactly is up to you, the functions of the windows, and the wainscoting. The wainscoting is going to add visual bulk and interest to the surface of the otherwise blank wall, and leaving a window in the same room as it uncased is going to make the window look naked and unfinished. I might take it a step further and suggest adding crown molding to the room as well, for the ceiling-wall corners are also going to look naked and unfinished with the heavy wainscoting present in the room. Wainscoting is part of a larger system and method of finishing a room that I don't think it can be divorced from without sacrificing harmony.

Answer 2

houzz.com

It appears to be just a matter of how you trim it out. You can do something detailed like in the photo or as simple as 1/4 round trim to cover the edge.

Answer 3

This is a long overdue answer to my own question.

I never did find an example elsewhere of handling this so I just went with my gut and ended up with this:

I pretty much added casing to the outside of the window that met up with the wainscoting and didn't do anything above. I think it would have looked good with full casing as well, but we didn't want to over-due the decorative aspect of this (as you can see it's a fairly plain wainscoting pattern to begin with). We think it looks fine--especially since it's usually covered by curtains anyways (alas, these aren't the prettiest windows to begin with...)

Here's a close-up:

I painted the inside sheetrock white to match the wainscoting and added a little return piece at the division between the white and wall color. You notice it up close if you're looking, but otherwise I think it worked out OK.

Answer 4

I didn't have pics of how I did the window area but here is pic which shows one method of edging: I would make an apron for under the window sill and for beside the window - experiment with widths that look good for the particular style of wainscot you are using. If it is stain grade wainscot - you should be able to pick up stock to make it out of.