Window Trim ("Rustic Style")

Window trim is one of those funny architectural components that I never gave much thought to--yeah, yeah, windows have trim, whatever--until I realized that--wait a minute--I have to install some, right now, before I can proceed with the rainscreen and siding and all that. Oh no!

So online I went and executed a flurry of searches--"exterior window trim style," "window trim simple," "shou sugi ban window trim," "modern window trim"...

And pretty much realized that I could do whatever I wanted. Heck yes!

So I went with the good old "Pacific Northwest contemporary" + "rustic (wink, wink)" aesthetic and used simple, narrow sticks of shou sugi ban cedar to frame my windows. Inexpensive, easy to handle, no fuss.

But before I started the real work, I had to do some of the work that the window manufacturer neglected: filing off the vinyl seams. Each corner of each vinyl window is welded together, and one of the disadvantages of using the cheapest windows in the market (sigh...) is that those welds aren't clean. Each corner had a little wing of vinyl that would have held the trim pieces out away from the window--and they were uneven in size, to boot, so it wouldn't have even been feasible to work the flaw into my design. Vinyl is relatively soft and easy to file down, but it was a lot of filing and a lot of awkward angles...

Yeah, I cussed a lot. (I do have that part of carpentry down pat.) Hope the neighbor kids couldn't hear me!

Then the real work began. I ripped some cedar 2x to 1 3/8" to match the depth of the window casing, cut them to length, and shou sugi ban'ed them.

For the most part, I cut them so that 1) the top horizontal piece ran long and covered the tops of the vertical side pieces, and 2) the vertical side pieces ran long and covered the ends of the bottom horizontal piece. This is mainly a water drainage thing, so that any water that seeps between the trim and the window has a downward path to drain.

Nobody will notice, right?

Unfortunately, I forgot what I was doing and cut the vertical pieces short and the bottom horizontal piece long for the big 4'x4' window...

Finish carpentry is hard, guys!

The worst offender

 I quickly realized another mistake (and Dad reminded me of it... several times): cutting the pieces ahead of time. I really should have burned and scrubbed the whole sticks of cedar at a time, then measured and cut as I went. As it was, each piece was a fairly consistent 1/16-1/8" short because of inconsistencies in the window frames, shrinkage due to the burning and scrubbing, and who knows what else. This resulted in some gaps between the side pieces and the bottom horizontal piece.

However, it's not horribly noticeable to the untrained eye, since the background is black, too. Although now that I've told you about it... hmm...

Let's just forget about it, eh?

Forget about what? What were we talking about? Huh?

Good, good.

"Rustic," yes, good.

To top the window trim off, I installed drip cap flashing in a brown color that matches the wood. The flashing covers the top of the top piece of trim, so that any water draining onto the trim from the wall above is directed to the outside of the trim, rather than being allowed to seep behind the trim and into the relatively vulnerable window opening area. This flashing will be barely visible once the siding is installed around it--it'll all blend together, visually.

And finally, a note on fasteners. Western red cedar contains natural chemical compounds that interact badly with some metals, at least upon exposure to water. Stainless steel is the least reactive material that fasteners are typically made in, so it is the best material for nailing, stapling, screwing, or bolting through cedar. It's also the most expensive... boo. I used 3" ring-shank trim nails in stainless steel for this job. They were a bendy pain in the butt--predrilling the holes helps a lot--but they should hold up well without staining or discoloration. (Apparently, hot-dipped galvanized fasteners are also acceptable, but not as good.)

The windows are trimmed, but the door is yet to be installed. The door comes with its own trim--or "brick molding"--which I will pry off and replace with the same 1 1/2" x 1 3/8" shou sugi ban material as the windows. More on that later!