Last summer, the homeowners of a project we were trying to wrap up made a request for a “simple, plaster look” on a pair of small, arch-top windows in their newly renovated second-story bathroom. We had built a number of arch-top windows (and interior doors) on their remodel and finished them off with either wood trim or tile returns. But the request for plaster returns proved to be a bit of a head scratcher—how were we going to make the transition from the drywall to the window without trim?
We briefly considered installing corner bead, but the windows had a tight radius that would have entailed making many cuts with snips to form the bead to the arch. Also, there would be some buildup of metal along the edge that could affect the bonding of the mud. Instead, we decided to install fiberglass reinforcing mesh around the window opening and key the joint compound into the mesh, similar to old-school lath-and-plaster work.
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