We've decided to upgrade our window trim to the beefy simplicity of Craftsman style. Since we will eventually replace all the windows in the house, the new one we added to the closet is a good place to start with this style, to see if we like it.

There are a multitude of variations in the Craftsman style to be found on the web, but all with common elements. There is no fancy scrollwork, edging, or overly decorative molding; it is made up of wide, flat stock, with wider trim parts at the top and bottom, extending slightly beyond the vertical side pieces.

I came up with my version after reviewing a bunch of photos online. I adjusted it slightly to accommodate wood I thought I could easily find at one of my local home improvement centers.  As always, I sketched it out and made my shopping list in a Moleskine notebook to take with me.

I slightly adjusted my design again at Home Depot as I picked out pine boards. I chose "select" grade, nice, clean quality wood but more expensive than warped the stuff with knots in it. Although I'll eventually paint it, I didn't want to take any chances with imperfections screwing up the finish. I overbought a little bit and will have some leftover material for the next project. I figure the wood for this window ran about 75 bucks.

I did have to include the interior trim pieces that may not be required for existing windows. Next time, I think I'll use less expensive MDF for some of the parts and get the cost down. I could also reduce the cost by cutting, planing, and jointing rough stock from the lumber yard or woodworking store, but that would take more time.

This is an easy project, a nice upgrade that beginners can tackle. It can even be done with hand tools (but I love power tools waaaay too much to give them up).

Picking up where I left off after the window install, there was gooshed-out and dried-up Great Stuff insulating foam that needed to be trimmed and cleaned up. A razor knife made quick work of it. I had to be a little careful not to cut through the flashing tape.

I'd bought 1 x 4 boards to frame this inner part. I poked around on the internet for a while and never did figure out what the heck you call it. I'll just call it "inner trim" eh? You might not have to do this step on an existing window, but I'd added this one  from scratch, so it was just rough framing covered with flashing tape and Great Stuff residue.

Of course a 1 x 4 board (actually about  3/4" thick x 3 1/2" wide) was too big and a 1 x 3 board would have been too small. I had to get an new width to rip it down to and make it juuuuust right. I measured from the face of the drywall to the window frame and backed up  1/16 of an inch, to leave a gap for movement. I'll caulk that later.

Before I ripped the boards to width, I chopped them to length with the Miter Saw, making them much easier to handle on the table saw.  It took simple, straight 90 degree cuts. Piece of cake.

I ripped about a half inch off the width from the boards on the table saw. It was a pretty narrow lane, so I used a push stick to pass the hungry blade with my tender, juicy fingers. I generally set a goal of finishing a project with the exact same amount of fingers I started with. I just like to challenge myself a little.

Keeping a good count of all the fingers,I installed the base piece first, making sure it was nice and level. A finish nailer locked it in. I tried to keep the nail holes to a minimum, hiding several at the ends where they'd be covered with the vertical pieces. The top went in the same way,.. only higher.

The sides fit snugly into place. One had to shimmed slightly to keep everything square. I'm not sure what caused it; my opening was square and level on the exterior after I'd blown through the wall and framed it up. (Check it out here if you missed it). Maybe a 2 x 4 was warped. 

With the inner trim nailed in place, I scribed a line around the whole frame with a combination square, one of the handiest little tools in my nail apron. I'd be attaching the outer trim (?)

 against that line, giving a slight, decorative reveal. Craftsman style is not ornate with decorative routed edges, but even though it's beautifully simple, you can give it some nice depth with this stepped detail. 

I used a full-width scrap of 1 x 4 to mark the wall where the trim would lay. 

From that, I was able to grab a measurement for the "stool". It's the wider, thicker anchoring base element of the design. I'd run it 1 inch beyond the side trim and use it as the foundation to build the rest of the trim assembly from. 

I used a 2 x 2 square-stock piece of the select pine, cut to length for the stool. Two inch finishing nails were a little to short, but they were all I had. Although they sink in substantially, I'd forgotten to consider the thickness of the drywall at the bottom. I'd have liked a slightly longer nail, considering this would be a protruding piece at the most accessible point of the frame, in a rambunctious little girl's room. 

One of the nice things about pneumatic nail guns, is that they have a depth selector. You can spin a little dial and punch a more air behind the nail, driving it deeper into the wood. I hit it from several angles using the full-depth setting and got the thing nailed in there, nice and snug. 

With the Stool in, as a solid base, I attached full width 1 x 4's at the sides, for "casings". These, wide boards covered up the ragged drywall edge, my blue painter's tape remnants, and the screw heads I'd left behind after attaching the drywall to my new, in-wall framing. 

At the top, I made a design choice. Many Craftsman style windows have a "fillet" which essentially mirror's the stool below and sits atop the casing. 

I'd laid it out like that on the garage floor, but with the materials and sizes I was using, I just didn't like the look. I skipped over the fillet and measured for a "head casing", giving it just a half inch more width than the edges of the side casing.

This head casing was a larger board, a big, bad 1 x 6. I'd seen some designs where it was a thicker stock, than the casings, but that's another leap upwards in material cost, and not easily found at the local home center. I like this look, just fine, but a 1 1/2" thick piece would look really nice too.

I topped off with another 2 x 2, the cap or crown.  It matched the stool below, a half inch wider than the head casing , and a full inch wider than the vertical side casings.

The very last piece was the apron , another 1 x 4. It balances out the whole assembly beautifully.

Done.

So how easy was that?!!!

I cannot express how incredibly quick and simple this project is. It probably took 2 hours tops. All the cuts are 90 degrees and the wood is simply butt jointed against the other pieces. I used some serious power tools, but the exact same thing could have been done with hand tools to get the same results. It would take a hand saw, a level, a combination square, and a hammer. Maybe those rip cuts on the inner trim would be difficult without a table saw, but they could be done with a router, a planer, or a jointer if you had one.

It can be done much less expensively too. I am going to try the next one using MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) which costs around a third of the price. It's just less tough, not something I'm going to install in my sweet little warlord's bedroom closet. (Why install a window in a closet anyway? The whole weird thing started here )

All I have left on this phase is to fill the nail holes, sand the edges slightly, calk the seams, prime and paint. There is a ton more to come in the overall closet remodel, plus I still have to install exterior trim. 

So if you just skimmed through this post and want the cheat sheet, here are the parts of my take on the widow trim, using wood easily available at local home centers.

Components of a Craftsman Style Window Trim:

What do you think?