Window frame options. Wooden platbands for windows - carved patterns for framing windows

The use of carved platbands in the exterior of the house can transform any structure, even the most primitive in architecture. The very word "platbands" is based on the meaning "on the face". It is not surprising that with such decorations the house acquires recognition, unusualness, originality and completeness of the image.

Peculiarities

The platbands themselves have several functions. Decorative is just one of them. With the help of such elements, you can visually make a narrow house wider, and “increase in height” a low structure.

Thanks to such decorations, the gaps between the window frame and the wall are masked, which in turn leads to a decrease in the noise level from the street. In addition, dust and water do not penetrate into the cracks, and cold does not enter the house itself.

Using carved platbands, you can make the building nationally colorful and decorate it antique. It is important that the application of these elements is appropriate. Wooden architraves on a plastic window will look as strange as metal ones on a log house.

Kinds

Carved platbands for windows can be made of plastic, MDF, fiberboard, metal and wood.

The most familiar and common option are wooden. They look great, often striking with rich carvings, and can be restored. Maple, alder or birch, as well as pine are often chosen as the basis for creating figured elements. Such a tree cannot be called particularly resistant and durable, but it is easy to cut and inexpensive.

For the manufacture of small items, apple or cherry trees are often chosen.

Products made of beech, oak, larch or ash resist well the effects of precipitation and temperature changes, but these species are much more difficult to process.

There are several types of wooden platbands:

• Flat. There is no "decorative overtones" in them. Such models are used for only one purpose - closing the gaps at home in the most economical way.
• Shaped. Models have a convex surface. They may have protrusions and depressions in the form of cutout patterns. In such "frames" the windows look very elegant. Window shutters are often especially expressive.
• Curly. Such products are distinguished by their special individuality, originality of shapes and slotted elements. They can be fully called decorative elements of the house. To make these products, you need a vertical milling machine.

The problem with wooden architraves is that over the years the material can darken, crack or rot. To prevent this, periodically it is necessary to treat them with a protective varnish.

Metal platbands look no worse than wooden ones and organically fit into the appearance of the facade decorated with siding. The material allows you to decorate the product with complex patterns and combined colors. Such platbands are durable and mounted without much difficulty. But we should not forget that the metal is subject to corrosion, so you need to take measures so that traces of rust do not appear on the frame around the windows.

PVC windows are best decorated with plastic trim. Unlike wood, these can be made in any shape and color. They will not crack over the years, they will not rot, they will not be eaten by insects. The products are easy to install. They last a long time and do not require special care.

The only problem is that these products cannot be made on their own, and manufacturers do not offer options with a truly thin embossed thread.

The fibreboard allows you to make any drawings on it and is easy to process. That is why it is often used to decorate windows. So that such products do not absorb water over time and do not deteriorate, they must be laminated before use.

A material similar in structure is MDF - a finely dispersed fraction of a tree. In fact, this is an improved version of the DVP. This material can also be used for the manufacture of platbands; it can be processed no worse than fibreboard.

The carving itself also varies by type.

• slotted. It is created over the entire area of ​​the casing and resembles airy lace.
• Invoice. In this case, openwork elements are superimposed on a solid base, to which they are glued or nailed. With this approach, thinner, lighter and clearer ornaments are obtained than when using blind threads (not through).

Platbands also differ in the type of installation.

• Overhead they are simply attached to the wall near the window and nailed without hats, or they sit on glue.
• Telescopic SG-shaped protrusions are inserted into the gaps between the window frame and the wall. Installing them is not as easy as overhead, but they provide more reliable isolation of the joint from external influences.

How to make and install?

To make wooden platbands with your own hands, you will need the following tools.

• drill and drills for it;
• electric jigsaw with a set of files;
• chisels;
• sandpaper;
• petal disk on a sandpaper drill;
• grinder;
• milling cutter

First you need to decide on the lace, which will be present on the platbands. People with talent and proper training can make the desired image on their own. Also on the Internet you can find a huge number of a wide variety of drawings.

The selected option must be transferred according to the template on the board. Sometimes the template has to be enlarged. The simplest thing is to make a printout of the desired size, transfer the diagram to cardboard and cut it out.

The thickness of the board with a slotted thread should be at least 3 centimeters. If the carving is overhead, you can use wood 1 centimeter thick to create an openwork.

Starting the process of creating slotted platbands, many people think about whether it is possible to create a pattern on several of them at the same time, stacking future products in a pile. After all, the drawing is the same.

A professional with the appropriate equipment can allow this solution to the problem. As for home craftsmen, they often have jigsaws of insufficient power. As a result, the process of processing several boards at the same time is very slow.

When the lines are straight, the file runs at an acceptable speed; in rounded areas, the process is too long. As a result of the "wholesale" approach, the gain in time is not as significant as we would like.

It should also be borne in mind that even high-quality saw blades deviate when processing wood of too large thickness. Therefore, sloppy cuts can turn out on the lower boards. Therefore, getting down to business, you need to think carefully about all the nuances of the process.

It is important to correctly position the pattern on a wooden blank. So that the platbands do not crack, the elements must “go” along the wood fiber.

First you need to cut the extra tree in certain places. Files are selected in such a way that the required hole in diameter is slightly larger than the width of the tool.

A file is installed in the slots obtained at the first stage, and all unnecessary is removed according to the intended pattern. It is necessary to act precisely, but given that they will look at the window frame from afar, small errors should not puzzle the master too much.

If the product has a figured edge, it is also created using a jigsaw. When cutting too complex shapes, some places may turn out to be not very elegant. The situation will be corrected by further processing with a chisel. The finished look is given to products at such mandatory manufacturing stages as grinding, priming and painting.

The fastest way to grind is with a grinder. With an emery wheel on a drill, the procedure is already slower. Hand sanding is very time consuming. If you bring the appearance of flat surfaces to completion with a grinder, and go through small details manually with sandpaper, you can get the desired result without delaying the process of creating platbands.

A primer is needed so that the beauty of wood created by oneself is not subjected to dampness, exposure to the sun, fungus and wood-boring beetles. Any impregnation for external use is suitable. It is most convenient to lower the future casing for a few minutes into a container with an appropriate solution. Another option is to go over all the curls and slits with a brush.

For staining, you can use different compositions. It is convenient to use wood oil soaking into it. Such a coating will need to be updated only after a few years. Before re-treatment, you will need to clean the surface and remove dust from it. When choosing this method of protecting the product, you need to take into account that the oil is expensive, and the choice of colors is limited.

If you use opaque paints, you will need to repaint the platbands once a year. In order for the products to maintain a neat appearance, the old paint must be removed before applying the new one, the primer must be re-primed, and only then a fresh coat should be applied.

The last stage of work is the installation of platbands. They can be mounted on a wall or lining board, and only then - on the facade around the window.

• If you want to decorate your house with wooden architraves, you can purchase selected material that has undergone chamber drying. In such a chamber, moisture is removed from the wood in an accelerated mode, bringing its level to a maximum of 12 percent. Cracked and warped boards during drying are rejected, and only a high-quality product reaches the consumer. Therefore, buying it, you can not worry about the fate of future products.
• It is better to look for boards that have undergone special processing in hardware stores or at sawmills. In no case should specimens have large knots, resin residues or other traces of a negative property that may make themselves felt when creating a pattern. It is best to order boards, the width of which is 10-15 centimeters, and the thickness is 3-4.
• Before starting the actual creation of platbands, it makes sense to hone the skill of the carver and the skill of creating a specific pattern on cheap boards.

If you want to create not only beautiful, but also meaningful products, it is better to take into account the significance of some elements of the architraves design that have been featured on the facades of houses in the Russian style since ancient times - decorations on houses carried not only a decorative function, but also the function of a talisman.

When creating architraves, the owner of the house got the opportunity to express himself, conveying certain information to others. For example, the sun in the center of the upper part of the casing means energy and life. The snake as a decorative element represents fertility and wisdom. The cross, inscribed in the carved decor of the window frame, symbolizes the harmony of spiritual and material aspirations.

When it comes to window trims, the first thing that comes to mind is a wooden house in the village of my grandmother with carved window frames on the facades.

Sweet memories. From time immemorial, Russian wooden architecture has been famous for the variety of decorative wood carvings on the facades of buildings, and later on window casings.

Each region (province, county) had its own masters with their own style, which differed from the masters of the neighboring town.

"platband" - "on the face", decoration and functional part of the window on the facade of the building.

Today, lovers and connoisseurs of Russian architecture, enthusiasts who are not indifferent to the history of Russian architecture, traveling through the regions of Russia, photograph windows with various architraves (preserved or in a dilapidated state) so that descendants can see them. On the Internet you can find the sites of these people.

What are window trims? First of all, it is still a structural element of the window, closing the gap between the opening and the window frame, preventing dust from entering the room, protecting from precipitation, noise, and drafts.

But in the old days it was still a protection from the evil eye, in bizarre patterns, the magic spells of the pagans were encrypted, amulets in the form of various figures, they were only applied to the valances, piers, and later on the window frames. Patterns were passed down from generation to generation, repeated in embroideries on towels, clothes, new designs were invented.

Today, the platband has become more of a function of protecting the living space from external atmospheric influences and decorating facades. But the craftsmen still invest love and knowledge into the creation of the architraves, based on the experience of their ancestors.

Looking at some window you like, framed by a casing, you involuntarily compare it with the face of a Russian woman of past centuries. Even the upper decoration of the window is named the same as the female headdress - “kokoshnik”. The peasant woman had a more modest dress, and the noblewoman had a more refined kokoshnik, richly decorated with stones and embroidery.

The same thing happened with windows: various - simple and complex forms, with rich slotted carvings or very modest forms. The lower part of the window was decorated with a "towel", like a towel with bread and salt in women's hands.

Platbands were made from tree species resistant to atmospheric influences and temperature extremes.. Larch is the least susceptible to rotting, but this breed is not suitable for the manufacture of carved openwork overlays, as it is quite fragile. But linden is an excellent material for openwork decor, soft, pliable, but requires special impregnation and processing, as it easily absorbs moisture.

Oak wood is the most resistant to all atmospheric influences and temperature changes, but difficult to process. But having worked hard on this material, you will get a durable product that will be admired not only by your children, but also by your grandchildren.

At present, platbands are being made from wood, composite materials - laminated MDF or plywood, PVC, polyurethane and metal (aluminum, steel).

Wooden architraves the most environmentally friendly, elegant - a wonderful decoration of a log house, but less durable. However, with proper care, they will last a long time. Periodically, the platband must be treated with a fresh layer of waterproof varnish or paint.

MDF trims – this is a slab veneered with various types of wood, decorativeness lies in the color of a particular breed.

Plastic architraves made of PVC, not subject to decay, more often installed on plastic windows. Have a wide color spectrum resistant to ultraviolet. The color of the platband can be matched to the color of the plaster or siding that the house is sheathed with, or set to contrast with the facades.

Polyurethane architraves light and easy to use. Rounded windows can be framed with such a product, which is difficult to make from other materials.

Metal platbands or flashings installed to protect the mounting seam on the inside or outside of the window or door, connecting it with a profile box into a single whole.

According to the installation method, platbands are overhead and telescopic. The telescopic architraves have an L-shape, are made of wood, veneered MDF, a modern look of architraves. Its advantages lie in the method of installation - the absence of traces of fasteners (nails, screws), it fits tightly into the grooves of the window frame.

The platband installed on the window will become not only a functional element of decoration, but also a decorative component of your facade. Simple rectangular, carved or curvilinear arched window trims can be purchased from manufacturers or made with your own hands. But handmade products will become the hallmark of your home and increase your self-esteem.

Do-it-yourself window trim manufacturing and installation

You can make templates for platbands and the platbands themselves on your own. Owning any computer program for drawing, you can make and calculate any template, select the scale and print it on plain A4 paper. At the same time, it is not necessary to have any artistic skills, it is enough to find and upload a photo of a window with a pattern or a fragment of a picture that you like into the program and circle it, changing or copying it with accuracy, and then scale the scheme to fit your window sizes.

If you have several window sizes, then it is recommended to perform a scheme with an intermediate repeat, which can be repeated as many times as necessary. The diagram below shows how to do this.

Rapport can be repeated from the same elements or two fragments arranged alternately.

You can fasten with nails, screws or special synthetic glue. The horizontal and vertical parts are joined together more often at an angle of 45 °, having previously made cuts with a hacksaw using a miter box.

There are several ways to make wooden platbands.

The first way is a slotted platband - perhaps the most decorative and delicate. The platband made of light tones of wood or painted with white paint against a darker background of the facade looks very elegant and sophisticated, like Vologda lace. There is something mysterious and fabulous in such a casing.

The next manufacturing method is laid on thread. Individual cut out elements are superimposed (nailed or glued) onto a solid board. It creates a sense of volumetric pattern. Thus, you can decorate a simple platband.

The protruding part of the pattern is often painted in a contrasting color or shade. You can combine both types of thread in one product.

Existing, but already dilapidated architraves can be repaired by removing old elements that cannot be restored, replacing them with new ones. Peel off the old paint and paint with a fresh coat of moisture resistant woodwork paint or varnish.

Useful video

Fabulous beauty that has come down to us from time immemorial. It is visible to everyone on old, beautiful, logged houses, decorated with interesting carvings of architraves with openwork patterns and rich kokoshniks located on the roof, and delights many modern people. You can admire such beauty for a long time, but creating it yourself is a very difficult task. However, with a great and irresistible desire, you can make carved platbands for windows (patterns) with your own hands.

The problem of creating platbands from wood

The question is not that you need the skills of a real artist or imagination to create geometrically correct, interesting, ornate patterns. The problem is more that products made from natural materials, such as wood, are rather short-lived due to the influence of external factors. The disadvantage of wooden architraves and carving elements is that they are able to retain their original appearance for many decades if they are stored in dry rooms inside the house. And the humidity on the street will quickly provoke the tree to warp, crack and, possibly, even cause chips to appear in places where the carving is thin. Any paintwork is inferior to the effects of ultraviolet rays, and rain only exacerbates the overall picture.

This leads to the need to paint the product every year, constantly spending money on coating and spending a lot of time on labor. Not to mention the fact that you will have to repair or even replace such do-it-yourself carved templates for these products can be made from various materials.

Why You Shouldn't Use Wood

This moment can cause difficulties, but do not get upset ahead of time. There is always a way out, how best to create a cozy and pleasant atmosphere and improve the appearance of the building. Modern technologies have made it possible to create many materials that are more resistant to environmental influences.

At the same time, they can be found in abundance in all hardware stores. You can, for example, use flat iron instead of wood. With it, you can make durable and no less beautiful carved platbands for windows in this case, you need it in the same way as in the manufacture of this decor element from wood.

flat iron

Flat iron or sheet, as it is commonly called, given the factory classifications, is a thin tin, the thickness of which is approximately 0.4-0.7 millimeters. In the store you can find rolls of this material from 20 to 50 meters. The width of such a roll according to the standard is 1025 centimeters. It is customary to cover this material with various colors, and you can find both light and dark tin. In addition, each sheet of iron is covered with a protective film, which allows you to maintain the original characteristics during transportation and prevents scratches and dents.

Necessary materials

To independently make carved flat iron (templates can be seen in this article), you will need the following materials and tools:

• First, you need a flat sheet of iron (tin), which will have a standard width of just over a meter.
• Secondly, you need a roll of cheap wallpaper. They are used as an aid in making carved platbands for windows with your own hands. Stencils for wall decor and other patterns are applied specifically to the wallpaper, and only then to the material.
• A set of paper clips with which you can fix the templates. Their fixation will help to more accurately and evenly transfer the pattern with a pattern to the surface of the material from which do-it-yourself carved platbands will be made on the windows. Sketches for creating blanks can be found quite easily and are just as easy to use. In addition, they will be needed when you need to fix the finished parts with each other.
• Connecting brackets. It should be noted that their size should not exceed 4 millimeters.
• An ordinary pencil for drawing a pattern and the necessary notes.
• Eraser: after all, there is a possibility that the first time the pattern may not turn out perfectly even.
• A ruler to better measure all surfaces and determine the accuracy of patterns.

• Drill, the diameter of which will be 8 millimeters. It will be needed in order to create holes for the jigsaw. This will happen in those places where the upper carved platbands on the windows will be cut off. Templates, photos of which we could use as a basis for stencil blanks, we no longer need at this step.
• Drill, the diameter of which will not exceed 4 millimeters. With its help, holes will be created that are necessary in the place where the riveted joints of the parts will be.
• Hacksaw for metal.
• Sandpaper, and both fine and medium are useful. It is needed to eliminate the burrs that inevitably form during the work.
• Riveting machine (manual) and a hammer, preferably rubber. By means of these tools, the blanks will be straightened.

The subtleties of the process of manufacturing platbands from tin

Before proceeding with the creation of carved platbands for windows, high-quality window slopes should be made and installed. This is necessary for taking the correct dimensions and in order to make carved platbands on the windows with your own hands. Drawings can suggest how to do it correctly. This is done taking into account the protruding edges of the slopes entering the walls. After all dimensions have been taken, it is worth calculating the characteristics of future platbands. The standard width of this product is approximately 30 centimeters.

Next, you need to choose any smooth roll of wallpaper in order to make carved trim on the windows with your own hands from it (templates, of course). When a sample pattern is selected, three "patterns" will need to be prepared. One of them will be longer, it is needed for the side symmetrical parts, the second and third, respectively, will be shorter for the top and bottom of the window.

Create a template

The cut strips must be folded in half, and so that when drawing a sketch, the center of the pattern corresponds to the place of the fold. This manipulation will save time and reduce the likelihood of errors when creating a template.

The fact is that during the cutting of the pattern, both halves of the template will be immediately created, in other words, this will allow you to create perfectly even and regular carved trim on the windows with your own hands. In this case, pattern drawings will not be used as often as with a separate drawing of each part of the workpiece.

Workplace and materials

To create an ideal workplace for further work, you need to move two tables together, the height of which will be the same. Between the tables you need to leave a gap, which will be about 8 centimeters. This distance is necessary for the operation of an electric jigsaw. For the manufacture of platbands, metal of two colors is required. This combination is the easiest option. You can change this setting if you wish.

As an overlay top color, for example, choose white. It is on it that the patterns will be cut. As the second layer, you can choose a material of any color, since it will still not be visible, since it is used exclusively as a lining under the outer layer of the product, which is called carved window trim. We make templates with our own hands, we recall once again.

Creation of platbands from sheet iron

You need to take a sheet of flat iron and cut it into strips to create platbands of the desired width. You should turn the blanks of the upper overlay part face down, and also do a flip to the reverse side after securing the template with paper clips. After that, the openwork pattern is transferred to the material.

After the picture is displayed, you will need an electric drill with a drill with a diameter of 8 millimeters. It is necessary to drill through holes and start sawing the casing with a saw and a jigsaw. Next, you need to put the iron strip on the table, and it is important that it is located clearly in the center of the table. This will allow you to cut out the drawing clearly and evenly without compromising the overall picture.

Create a bottom blank

After the upper part has been cut out, you can proceed to the next step, which is responsible for creating the lower part, which will serve as a background. To do this, you also need to cut the material into strips with the necessary characteristics of width and length. At the same time, do not forget that the part will have a border, that is, the width of this pattern should exceed the indicators of external blanks. The ideal option in this case would be to increase the width by about five centimeters. We reverse the sheet so that the front side is on top. Next, you need to put the upper blank of the casing on this part, which is located face down and circle the outer edge along the edge of the pattern, taking into account the indent, and after that you can start cutting out the part.

Completion of work with blanks

After both blanks have been prepared, you need to remove the protective film from them and put them on top of each other. After that, the parts should be fixed with paper clips. Next, one or more holes should be made with a drill with a diameter of four millimeters. Using a manual riveting machine, you need to make a control coupling of parts, thereby preventing their divergence. Having carried out this action, you can start drilling and riveting the entire structure.

Everything - the product is completely ready for use. You can proceed to the next stage - install carved platbands on the windows with your own hands. We made templates for them earlier.

Installation of platbands

In order to carry out the installation of platbands, first you need to find a ladder or stepladder, along which you can get to the windows. To install products on a wooden wall, you will need:

• A hammer.
• Small nails, the length of which does not exceed six centimeters.
• Mounting syringe.
• Liquid silicone for mounting. At the same time, it must correspond to the color of the casing, or else be completely colorless. It will be needed to cover the gaps that have arisen.
• A small artistic brush, as well as paint that matches the color of the product, with the help of these tools, the nail heads will be painted so that they do not spoil the look of the architraves.

To carry out the installation of platbands on a wall, which consists of stone, you will need:

• Electric drill.
• Drill with a diameter of 4 mm with a pobedite tip.
• Screw plugs. If they are not available, you can cut wooden ones yourself and hammer them into holes.
• Mounting syringe.
• Liquid mounting silicone, the color of which will either match the color of the product, or it will be transparent so as not to spoil the appearance of the structure.
• A small art brush, as well as paint that matches the color scheme of the product. With the help of these tools, the nail heads will be painted so that they do not spoil the appearance of the product, which is called "carved window trim". Do-it-yourself templates can be postponed until the next occasion.

The final stage of work

It is necessary to fit the trims close to the edges of the window slopes that protrude, and fix them to the wall. After that, you need to eliminate all the cracks and irregularities using silicone. After bringing the product into an aesthetic appearance, the work can be safely considered completed.

Based on the information above, it is immediately clear that it is quite possible to create carved platbands for windows with your own hands. Templates - simple or complex - can be found or also made by yourself. Therefore, using even minimal skills and imagination, it is quite possible to ennoble the appearance of the building without spending a lot of money and time.

If inside the house you can allow a variety of interior design options, then outside the possibilities are significantly limited. In addition to the original color of the wall painting or the material with which it can be finished, it is difficult to come up with something else. In the old days, this issue was solved with the help of platbands on the windows, which served as a real decoration of any house, showed the mastery of the owner or master creator. This tradition has survived to this day, although it has partially changed.

Peculiarities

Platbands were traditionally used in wooden houses. They helped decorate the windows and effectively complement the composition of the facade. With the help of such elements, you can visually enlarge the window opening or reduce it. Initially, great importance was attached to the design of the house, each owner sought to show the individuality of his building.

With the help of platbands, you can achieve a different effect.

• Visual decoration of the house, giving it a special flavor and charm, the ability to distinguish it from a number of standard ones.
• Giving the window a different shape with the help of platbands of different configurations, sizes and patterns. A small window can be made large using openwork designs.
• Creation of a holistic composition of all elements of the facade. Using the same platbands on windows and doors allows you to complete the design of the house.

With the help of platbands, you can protect window openings from the negative influence of environmental factors. The seam between the frame and the house may have small gaps in which moisture enters during rain, and dirt clogs with strong winds. All this contributes to the development of harmful microorganisms that destroy wood. Therefore, the frame begins to let air through, which significantly reduces its thermal insulation qualities.

The platbands cover the very gap and do not allow moisture or dirt to get to it. In addition to the obvious advantages of platbands, there are also negative factors. It is also worth knowing about them when planning the installation of such details on the windows of a wooden house. These include several factors.

• Active reaction of decorative elements to weather conditions, which contributes to the deterioration of the material. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to treat the products with a special substance, which significantly increases the service life of the casing.
• The need for constant care. Platbands need to be painted or varnished annually. If this is not done, then the product begins to crack. As a result, instead of decoration, it will only spoil the appearance of the house.
• When planning the manufacture of platbands, you need to choose the right material for them. If this is not done, then it is unlikely that the desired effect will be achieved. If it is difficult to cope with such a task alone, it is better to enlist the support of a professional.

Now there are products made from modern materials that can have the most diverse appearance. At the same time, caring for them is much easier. They are not affected by the environment, they are not afraid of moisture and even cold. They do not crack over time and reliably serve for many years. For connoisseurs of aesthetics, this is not the best option. But for those who want to decorate their home, diversify the appearance of the facade, this is what you need. It is such a product that will create the necessary appearance, while not requiring increased attention.

Kinds

The species diversity of platbands is enormous. It also lies in the drawings that are applied to the tree, the shape of the product itself. In addition, modern technologies make it possible to create window decorative elements from a wide variety of materials.

If we talk about the appearance and patterns, then there are several types.

• slotted through which you can create elegant and beautiful images.
• openwork, which are distinguished by bizarre shapes that can distinguish the hand of the master from other options. They look like a continuous canvas on which they create a pattern.
• carved, able to create a unique appearance and protect the window opening.
• Overhead, which have a complex shape design, since the carved element is superimposed on the plate. Such products can be created separately or as a decoration for existing platbands. In this way, it is convenient to update existing decorative elements.
• Simple, which have a smooth surface. They don't have any patterns. The shape of such elements can be different (with rounded edges, even, narrow and wide).

When choosing a material for a platband, it is important to understand that it should serve as protection for the window, and therefore you should not rush to buy material without knowing its features.

The most popular decorative platbands are made of wood. They fit beautifully into the design of the facade of a wooden house, so they still do not lose their relevance. In order for such parts to serve as long as possible and correctly perform the tasks assigned to it, they must be properly processed.

If such processing is done, the tree will not rot, moisture will not damage it. In order for wooden architraves to remain beautiful for a long time and decorate the house, it is best to open them with varnish. To date, there is an alternative option that can replace varnish. This is a wax based product. Both options preserve the appearance of the tree, give it a more elegant look, significantly extending the service life of the architraves.

In addition to wood, there are also decorative products for windows made of other materials.

MDF

The MDF panel has a laminated finish. Usually such platbands have the form of a plank with a pattern for natural wood. There can be quite a lot of colors and textures, you can easily choose a frame for the window opening of any wooden house.

Plastic panels

Products made of plastic panels are considered the most modern, because they are easy and convenient to care for. This option can be chosen by those people who do not have time to take care of their own home, but they want to see a beautiful building that they can admire. Most often, plastic platbands are used for metal-plastic windows. However, recent trends have shown that they are well combined with wooden structures, fully fulfilling their task.

Polyurethane

Polyurethane platbands can also be used on windows in wooden homesteads. They are light weight and deformable, which makes it possible to bend them in the right direction. Installing such elements is quite simple, and the terms of their operation will please anyone.

PVC

PVC products are considered the most common today. You can find varieties of such platbands in white and a wide variety of color variations. Install the product from the side of the street, it can easily cope with any weather conditions. The advantages are the abundance of colors and shapes that can be given to such a material.

Styrofoam

Styrofoam can also be used as a material for the manufacture of platbands. For this purpose, a dense variation is suitable, which will not differ in the same strength as a metal casing. This is the reason why such products are not used in countries with high seismic activity, where even the slightest vibrations of the earth's crust would crack the windows. The color of such decorative elements is white, but with the help of paint you can change it by choosing the right one for the estate.

Metal

There are also metal platbands, which of all are considered the highest quality in terms of protecting the window from environmental influences. For their production, metal sheets with a small thickness are required, which makes it possible to manufacture structures of various shapes. The advantage of this option over the same plastic is the resistance of the material to mechanical damage. This makes the service life longer.

To give a fresh and interesting look, iron products can be painted, and the appearance of the house will immediately change. The popularity of this type of product is also created with the help of a price that is quite low, taking into account all the positive qualities of the material.

To install metal products, it is extremely important to measure the window correctly in order to install them without much difficulty. If there is a desire to install unusual metal trim, you can order carved items that will look interesting on the facade of the house.

Inside, you can also provide something similar to create a holistic image of the building on each side. Usually the outer and inner casings are quite different from each other. It has to do with their functions. Facade decorative elements should combine aesthetics and quality. Otherwise, they would hardly have been used to decorate the premises.

Sketches

The use of platbands on the windows of a wooden house should give the building a complete look, make it more beautiful. Therefore, simple glossy panels are unlikely to be able to fully cope with such a task. It is best to pick up carved elements or make them yourself.

With a complete lack of skills in working with wood, it is better to choose the first option. But for lovers of manual labor and original products, the ideal solution would be to work according to a sketch.

The first step is to decide on the choice of the pattern that will be on the casing. To do this, you can use books, the Internet. You can come up with a sketch yourself. As soon as the ideal option is found, you need to enlarge it to natural scale and print it. All patterns must be cut out and accurately transferred to cardboard, with which the main work will already be. A piece of cardboard should correspond to one part of the casing.

It must be placed on a piece of wood and circled with a pencil drawing, which will continue to cut. In order to choose the right pattern on the casing, it is worth making a drawing of the whole house using all the decorative elements. If the finished version turned out beautiful, and all parts are in harmony with each other, then the idea was chosen correctly, you can proceed to its implementation.

For some houses, simple architraves are suitable (for example, if the estate was envisaged in the minimalist style during construction).

If you want to create something grandiose and beautiful, you need to choose wide planks and start creating. For the manufacture of good architraves, it is best to choose pine (especially those planks where there are practically no knots). As tools that are useful in the process, you need to have a soft-start jigsaw to manually cut out all the necessary details. In addition, it will be useful:

• feather drill with a diameter of 12 mm;
• screwdriver;
• Sander.

The active process of working on window trims begins immediately after the entire drawing has been transferred to the future product. First, they take on the inside of the pattern, making openwork details. To make the process more convenient, using a drill, you need to make several holes in the board, which will be located on the outline of the picture. Sawing the pattern itself is done using an electric jigsaw, which is inserted into the finished hole. Then they simply lead along the contour, cutting out the necessary part.

Once the inside of the drawing is ready, you can proceed to the outside. It is necessary to make two files (at the beginning and at the end of the product) to make it easier to navigate the work.

It is important to make sawing in one motion, without stopping, so that the finished casing turns out to be as curly as possible. Such a sequence of actions is inherent in each detail in the overall design of the platband on the window leaf.

The resulting product is far from what it should be. Therefore, you need to use a grinder, clean up all the bumps and roughness. Only after this stage, part of the structure is treated with special solutions. After that, it can be ready to be used or painted for a more original look.

How to do it yourself?

Making architraves for a wooden house with your own hands is much more interesting than the banal purchase of such elements in a store, because you can choose the pattern that will meet the spirit of the owners themselves and emphasize the design of the facade desired by the residents of the house.

You can choose from a variety of options.

• flat cornice. In this case, the architraves symbolize the wealth and style of the house. They are used for beautiful and elegant buildings, made in a simple style.
• Arched finish. The platbands, which are complemented by an arch on top, will be an ideal addition to window openings that do not have a standard rectangular shape, but a rounded upper part.
• With patterns and carvings. Platbands of such a plan will be able to give the house elegance, make it unusual and beautiful.
• With the use of hanging elements. These are the details that complement the product after it is completed. In this way, you can add what could not be done initially. The use of hinged parts makes the design voluminous and more interesting.

If you are going to make platbands yourself, you need to choose the right material for the future product. It is important to choose a color based on the color of each component of the house, to find the perfect option for decorating this product. You can take advantage of the offers that are in hardware stores and buy a ready-made version, which is much easier and faster. Installation of such a platband will be easier, since it already provides all the necessary fasteners, as well as ease of installation.

If there is a firm intention to do everything yourself, there are several options for making beautiful platbands.

• slotted option- a product in which there is an internal pattern and a beautiful border. Traditionally, such a casing has a white or light color, it is attached to buildings with a contrasting shade of walls.
• Laid on thread type created by cutting out individual elements and gluing them or nailing them onto a solid wooden canvas, which will serve as a casing. This design option makes the pattern voluminous and at the same time airy. With the help of such overlays, you can decorate any platband.

If the house already has carved platbands, but they require repair, you can remove all or part of the structure and restore it. If there is no way to repair some part, you can remove it completely, replace it with a new one. If there is a need to make completely new designs on the windows, you need to prepare all the necessary equipment, which includes:

• jigsaw;
• plane;
• grinder;
• cutter;
• sandpaper;
• strips with a section of 30x100 mm.

This is what will be needed to create simple platbands. To start work, it is necessary to process all future details with a planer, and then use a cutter to give them a finished look. In order for the product to have a presentable appearance, it is sanded with sandpaper. This is the simplest option for making platbands, which does not require great skills and abilities. If you want to make something original and beautiful, you should choose a carved type of product. For such work, you need to add curly chisels to the main inventory.

For the manufacture of the platband, you can use two technologies (normal and overhead). In the first variant, the drawing is cut out on the plank of the casing itself. In the second, it is made on an additional bar, which is then attached over the main element.

For the first attempts at woodcarving, it is better to choose the simplest options for the pattern so that you can easily deal with them.

If the platband is made by an overhead option, then the work process will go in the following sequence:

• processing planks with a planer;
• preparation of overhead strips with a thickness of at least 10 cm;
• the formation of the future drawing on cardboard and its cutting;
• transferring the pattern from the stencil to the overhead bar;
• a drill needs to make holes throughout the pattern;
• with the help of a chisel, you need to finish all the carved elements;
• polishing the finished lining;
• fixing the lining on the platband with glue or self-tapping screws;
• collection of each detail of the platband;
• installation of the finished structure on the window opening.

Installation of finished structures on the window can be carried out using nails, screws or glue. Most often, platbands are placed on the sides and top of the window, sometimes there are lower parts of the structure. In order to properly and aesthetically join the edges of each part, they need to be cut at an angle of 45 degrees with a hacksaw or miter box. If the wall is concrete, dowels and screws are needed for reliable fastening.

To beautifully decorate the window of a country house, you need to know not only basic information, but also some nuances, without which it may not be possible to create a truly wonderful piece of handicraft. These moments include several factors.

• When choosing boards for the manufacture of platbands, it is better to give preference to those options whose thickness will be 3-4 cm. It is much more difficult to work with thicker materials, especially to perform curly cutting.
• Starting the work on the carving of architraves for the first time, it is worth taking a simple pattern and polishing it, after which you can try something more complex and interesting.
• In addition to the thickness of the wood for the platbands, it is worth taking care of the correct selection of its width, because the main purpose of these elements is not so much to decorate, but to protect the window.

The platband should cover the opening between the wall and the window frame.

• When planning to cut any patterns, it is worth positioning them correctly on the board so that they go along the grain of the tree, and not across.
• When choosing a pattern for the first attempts at carving architraves, it is worth looking at something large with convex shapes, which will not be difficult to do, and the result will please with its beauty. If you choose a small ornament, in case of an unsuccessful outcome, the casing will look sloppy. This will spoil the impression of the external facade of the house.

Making platbands on the facade of the house is a long process and requires perseverance. Therefore, it is worthwhile to clearly assess your strengths before taking on work. Choosing the right material, the right pattern, its successful implementation in life is only half the battle. This is followed by a no less time-consuming process of processing platbands so that they serve for a long time, while performing their functions with high quality.

The final stage of work with these decorative elements is their installation. At each stage there is a specific choice, the result of all work depends on the correctness of its adoption.

Beautiful examples

When planning the manufacture or purchase of platbands for a wooden house, you should choose the option that is best suited for a particular building.

With the help of the Internet and other sources of information, you can see sketches of drawings, ready-made works, which will give food for thought.

For buildings made of log cabins, carved architraves simply suggest themselves for decorating window openings. Making them yourself is not at all a whim or an attempt to save money, because there are very few really good woodcarvers now.

Required minimum tool

The manufacture of platbands, unlike artistic wood carving, involves the repeated execution of the same type of operations, resulting in a fairly primitive repeating pattern. Therefore, most of the work is done with an electric tool: this not only increases the processing speed, but also achieves uniform quality in different areas.

1 - jigsaw; 2 - drill; 3 - belt grinder; 4 - vibration grinder; 5 - manual router

The main work is done with a jigsaw and a drill. The tool must be reliable and of high quality, capable of being in continuous use for a long time. For cleaning and grinding products, it is better to use an electric grinder, at least the simplest belt grinder. Fast finishing of the relief is possible using vibration-type machines.

If you intend to add additional fine details to the edges of your product, you can not do without a router. Descents, chamfers and a figured border can also be done manually, but only with a variety of chisels, cutters and specific skills in working with wood.

How to choose wood

For platbands, hardwoods are best suited: oak, birch, ash, maple, alder. Since the thickness of the finished product is relatively small (30-45 mm), hard rocks will be less prone to rotting and drying out, therefore, they will retain their appearance longer.

If you plan to decorate carved platbands with flat-relief elements with many small details, you should give preference to softer rocks with a fine texture pattern. Suitable linden, poplar, aspen, walnut and spruce.

Wood for platbands should be selected and, preferably, chamber dried, with a moisture content not higher than 12%. It is not allowed to have traces of warping or other pronounced defects, large branches. Ideally, you should immediately order calibrated boards with a width of 100-150 mm and a thickness of 30-40 mm.

The length of the blanks should be sufficient to completely cover the window opening horizontally and vertically with an overlap in each direction by 1.5 board widths. It is important that you initially calculate the number of blanks needed and, in addition to them, purchase a few more boards of the cheapest breed for training and carving skills.

Making templates and stencils

Almost any wood carving begins with drawing a pattern on a workpiece according to a pre-made template or stencil. There are plenty of threading schemes in the network, the main difficulty comes down to transferring lines to the part accurately and without distortion. We will warn you right away: do not chase the high complexity of the drawing. A set of even the most primitive elements in the correct sequence and with well-chosen indents takes its modesty and quality of processing.

The first option for marking is the manufacture of a small piece of plastic or solid sheet material, on which a single element of a repeating pattern is applied. Such a template is successively applied to the workpiece and outlined in pencil.

It is also possible to produce a single template. You need to take a strip of paper of the appropriate width, fold it with an accordion several times, and then cut out the pattern according to the principle of a Christmas tree garland. The resulting tape must be glued onto cardboard or LMDF, and then cut out the desired shapes. This method is welcomed with a significant amount of work.

The resulting stencil is subsequently simply superimposed on the board and outlined with a soft pencil. Ideally, saturated, but precise cut lines and boundaries for further processing should remain. When marking out the details, it is also necessary to take into account the layout of the pattern so that the platbands form a solid and complete contour, and the repeating pattern is not interrupted out of place.

Through hole selection

The first step is to trim the edges of the workpiece and select holes in the center. With the edges, everything is simple: we cut out the excess with a jigsaw, stepping back from the marking line 1-1.5 mm outward for further processing. To cut out figures in the center of the plane, we drill a part at the very line of each cutout, then select the inner contour with a jigsaw.

For making large holes, it is reasonable to use core drills. In this case, it is necessary to mark on the template not the contours, but the centers of the circles in which the centering drill bit of the crown will be installed. A similar technique can also be used in the manufacture of oval holes or elements with small rounding radii: a complex bend is drilled with the appropriate radius, and everything else is cut out with a jigsaw.

When the excess parts of the workpiece are sawn out, the cut edges must be carefully processed with a rasp and then sandpaper. It is recommended to use bars of square, round and rounded profiles, on which sandpaper is stuffed. This way you are less likely to "collapse" the edges and you can get right angles on each edge.

Rectangular edges look rather rough, so they are smoothed out with chamfers and slopes of different profiles. The easiest way to diversify the product is to walk along the outer and inner contours of the casing with a figured cutter. But manual processing options are also possible:

• to chamfer, walk along straight edges with a chip, keeping the angle of inclination of the handle to the part constant;
• a semicircular convex descent can also be made with chips, changing the slope of the blade, or use a concave cutter for this;
• concave semicircular pairing is performed with a chisel or a cutter with a rounded edge. Such elements must be cut out in stages, removing small chips layer by layer and carefully controlling the depth of the tool and the tilt of the handle;
• if the descent has a complex profile with several convex, concave and straight elements, this profile is divided into several stages and cut in strict sequence, starting from the widest outer part and ending with the deepest and shallowest tier.

Blind carving: we apply a relief

When you're done with shaping, it's a good idea to diversify the remaining flat pieces with simple ornaments or floral designs. Here are the simplest ways to work:

1. A groove (branch, furrow) is made with a narrow chisel or cutter with a square, triangular or concave blade shape. The carving is carried out strictly along the line, the relief is selected with small chips and then polished.
2. Sheet - several small grooves that imitate veins cut with a circular knife. From the center between the veins to each of them, small notches are made with a semicircular chisel, imitating the body of a leaf, then an external contour is drawn with a thin cutter.
3. The flat areas adjacent to the descent can be diversified with a blind carving of a small ornament. For example, cut two grooves from the edge, forming a triangle with it, and punch an asterisk in the center with a notch.

Wood processing and installation of architraves

Due to the carved elements, the wooden product has a large surface shape, due to which it is more susceptible to aging. Therefore, wood should be treated in a special way.

First of all, carvings for placement on the facade should be soaked in an antiseptic composition for 5-8 hours, for which you can dig a small trench in the ground and put a plastic film there to temporarily equip the bath. After soaking, the parts are dried for several days stacked with linings after 30-40 cm.

When the wood has dried, it must be carefully sanded, achieving smoothness and finally eliminating all traces of sawing and carving. The protective composition is selected in accordance with the type of facade finish, it can be either alkyd enamel or polyurethane varnish, tinted or transparent.

Finally, for the correct installation of the platbands, the window opening should be framed with a flat rail 10-15 mm thick and so wide that its outer edge is not visible through the carved pattern along the platband contour. The purpose of this plank is to eliminate the remaining irregularities in the wall and provide a solid base for the carved element to be attached to. Often this rail is painted in a color that contrasts with the coating of the casing itself for greater expressiveness of the pattern.

Platbands can be attached with straight and oblique trimming, depending on the type and density of the pattern. Oblique trimming is performed with a 45° cut on each side, while the cutting line must pass through identical sections of the pattern and not cross the figures cut inside.

With a straight cut, a horizontal element is placed between two vertical ones. Their upper edge should be 1-2 cm above the crossbar if the cut end is straight. It is also possible to manufacture on the edge of the thread according to the general scheme, if during the manufacturing process the fitting and precise fitting of the trims is carried out. The very fastening of the platbands is elementary - for it they use ordinary ruffed nails without a hat. It is only important that the nail pierces the casing and the lath, protruding at least 5 mm from the inside.