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:
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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.
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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?
Best Answer
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.