Rehab 4470 – Trimming the Windows and Plant Shelves

One of the easiest things that we do to dress up the inside of houses we work on is to wrap the windows which is essentially just adding trim around the windows and the sliding glass doors. It’s fast and adds a lot to the house and looks considerably better than the marble window sills that most houses in Florida have. We also always add trim to the plant shelves to add definition.

For windows you just need to break the caulk seal between the marble window and the wall (or window). Sometimes you can then pry the sill off. Most of the time I get the hammer out and break it into pieces. At one time I thought I’d be able to use the old sills or sell them – instead they took up valuable space in the garage. I install a new window sill out of finished pine. The new window sill is always 8” wider than the opening and 1” deeper than the old sill. I route an edge to give it a nicer look and cut out the portion of the sill that wraps around the sides of the window.

The sill is installed first using 2” brads followed by a piece of trim 1” shorter than the sill with the ends cut at 22.5 degrees. The fluted sides then go up next and are set back ¼ inch from the edge of the window. The top is a piece of molding that is as wide as the sides and cut at 22.5 degrees on the ends (occasionally we overlap it a ½ inch). Everything is nailed using 2” brads, then nails holes filled and caulked with white paintable caulk. At times there can be gaps between the new sill and the inside of the window because the window opening is not square. Small gaps can be caulked, larger gaps I use spackle and then sand it after it dries.

Most of the time the trim comes primed but the wood used for the sill never does and needs to be primed before the paint goes on. Otherwise the wood will soak up the paint differently than the other trim and not look good. For paint we use gloss white of high gloss ultra white and also paint the insides of the window opening. This gives it the look that we trimmed out the inside of the opening when all we did was paint it to match the trim.

The same concept can be used to trim out sliding glass doors. The only difference with sliders is we add an additional piece of wood across the top to give it a taller look. Other times we match the sliders to the nearby windows.

Obviously the bigger the window the more wood, trim, and paint needed. We estimate $50 -$75 a window and have found that it worth every penny. It really differentiates our house from all the others in the neighborhood and provides that wow effect that just adds to the overall look that we strive for. We want to the house to look better and different than the others.

BTW – the first time we trimmed out windows was our house years ago, one of the few times I did not learn something new on the job.