How to Install Molding and Trim on Arched Windows
You may have noticed… and I’ve mentioned it a time or two… that I love molding. Nice thick sculpted molding just adds joy to my life and my home. A well-trimmed window is just easy on the eyes, you know? So when Jill shared at a recent link party how she installed trim on her arched windows… well, I swooned.
If you’re wanting to update the look of your home, dressing up the window and door trim is a relatively inexpensive and easy update. A fresh coat of paint works wonders on unpainted wood trim:
Or you can add extra molding for a thicker trim, like I love!
Or, if you’re happy with the trim, you can always try a new window treatment, I suppose… although that’s not near as much fun! (Check out 50 of our favorite window coverings — the first 25, and the second 25.)
And now, here’s Jill. You might remember her from her fabulous custom DIY range hood. Give her a warm welcome! She’s here to dish on how she trimmed her curved entryway windows:
How to Trim Arched Windows
by Jill from The Rozy Home
Hi everyone! It’s Jill from the Rozy Home! I, too, am a remodelaholic. For the last three years I have been working non-stop on my home. Last year I spent a large amount of time, effort and, yes, money, on my foyer. After all, the foyer is the first thing you see when you enter a home. After adding board and batten (and then converting it to picture frame moulding) I decided that I needed to do something about my poor, naked windows.
That happens a lot around the Rozy Home. I make one area beautiful and then have to fix something next to it because it stands out like a sore thumb! Because the windows were arched, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I started by trimming the lower half of the windows.
Pretty rough, right? Needless to say, they didn’t stay like that long. I scoured the internet trying to figure out how to trim the arches when I stumbled across a local craftsman who could make the arches for me. Within a few days, I had the arches in hand and went about adding them.
This is how they stayed for a couple of months. You see, dealing with arches is/was one of the most stressful projects I have done. The curves and lining everything up drove me batty! But after converting the board and batten to picture frame moulding, I had to update the windows. I’ve already replaced the trim in most of the house and wanted to make the trim in the foyer coordinate. Since I already had flat stock trim up, I needed to get creative. One day, while walking the aisles of Lowes, I can across EverTrue trim. It is a flexible trim so I thought it would work perfectly. I picked some up and took them home. Once I got home, I tried to recreate the pattern on the trim throughout the rest of the house.
Much to my surprise, all I needed to do was liquid nail (glue) two pieces together and I was able to recreate one side of the current trim.
Here is a side-by-side of the flat stock with and without the EverTrue trim:
After gluing all the pieces, I glued them to the interior side of the flat stock trim. Next I glued a single piece to the exterior side.
For the arches, I had to nail the trim on. The angles/bending made it impossible to glue on. After a day of letting the glue dry completely, I began working on the corner of the arches. For this, I grabbed some old moulding I had in the garage and created a cornice-type piece.
Although I loved the look, the exterior side felt a little unbalanced. My solution? Head back to Lowe’s where I purchased more EverTrue, but this time I bought lattice. I glued it on the exterior edge of the trim and that did it. The trim was balanced!
Here is the final product:
As far as the cost… The EverTrue trim was around $2.50 per 10 foot piece and I used about 30 pieces (for doors at window). The lattice was $5.00 per 10 foot piece and I used 10 – 15. If memory serves, the total cost was a little over $100. Not bad for trimming out 5 windows and two doors in a room with 15 foot ceilings!
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Wow, Jill — I love it! Makes my heart go pitter patter looking at your gorgeous entry and all that molding 🙂
Head on over to The Rozy Home to see more of Jill’s fabulous DIYs and her beautiful home.
Lorene has been behind the scenes here at Remodelaholic for more than a decade! She believes that planning projects and actually completing them are two different hobbies, but that doesn't stop her from planning at least a dozen projects at any given time. She spends her free time creating memories with her husband and 5 kids, traveling as far as she can afford, and partaking of books in any form available.
Thanks Cass! Trim is one of my obsessions! It just adds so much drama!!! Thanks for featuring me!
Jill great job on the trim and you are welcome for the feature!
This is beautiful yet this tutorial doesn’t show anything in regards to putting trim on the curve of the window other than saying you had them custom made with no information of who, cost, how to find someone or even how you put them up or what information you may need to gather for your custom maker. Could you add that?? Or send it to me?? I have arches EVERYWHERE and was thrilled to see this but it didn’t help in the arch department.
Torrie – I totally missed this comment!!! I was in Europe when this hit so I just overlooked it. I’m so sorry! As far as the arches, it was a local craftsman I found when googling “arch trim Austin Texas” (I live in the Austin area). The cost was around $240 total if memory serves me right (I have a memory of $80/window). As far as adding them, I literally just nailed them on following the arch of the window. I will say that I had to find the angle where the arch and “straight” trim met on the corners. That was the part I HATED. Yes, HATED. It’s really the reason I had to walk away from it for a bit. I have two arched windows in my dining room and I’m seriously considering doing squared out trim around them. I don’t know if I have the patience to do arches again.Oh and as far as what to give the custom guy, he walked me through gathering the measurements. Hope this helps! If not, feel free to email me at jill@therozyhome.com.
Hi Jill. Does Evertrue advertise the trim as flexible? Trying to find online. WOULD LOVE TO beef up small arch over my door inside and outside. How wide is the trim?
Hi. Luv luv luv ur remodel. What is the color of paint in entryway??
Just wow! Love it so much…