Post 14: Dining Room Part 2 -- Window Frame

I've decided that I'm not the best at posting on the blog regularly, but when we get into projects like our dining room that take so much time, I figure blog posts are better late than never!  So here's where we left off -- wallpaper in the dining room was off the walls, which meant we had started a project we couldn't back out of.

The next thing on our list was to frame in the window.  Here's what it looked like before we got started:

First off, I want to give full credit to to Remodelando la Casa and her window-framing tutorial you can find here.  She has great instructions that we followed pretty closely.  Here's what we did:

First, we took down the apron (see below for window terminology).  We did this because the width of the window would be bigger once we framed it in, so we would need a wider base.

We used a crowbar and a hammer to pry the old apron away from the window.

Next, we scored the stool to get ready to pull it away from the window.

Alan used the crowbar to pull the stool up and off of the window frame.

Using the old stool as a stencil, we cut a new stool that was a little wider on each side to provide a base for the new side casings.  We cut this out with the jigsaw.  Alan used the miter saw to cut a new apron and then installed both pieces with his nail gun.  We had to take down the chair rail molding on either side of the window to make room for the new side casing.  We did this the same way that we took down the apron.

Next, we cut the two side casings and nailed them on the right and left sides of the window.  When we did this, we left about a quarter inch from the drywall edge of the window so that it would be a little smoother transition.  We used the same size wood that we used for the side casing for the head casing and then used half round molding to hide the seam between both pieces.

Finally, we cut crown molding and nailed it at the top of the frame for a finished look.

Voila!  What do you think?

We still had a long way to go, but we were very excited about the difference the trim made on the window!

Here, we'll show you how we add our special touch with a beadboard ceiling!