Window sills

We've just moved into a new house and I have a problem I've never had before. Many of the windows are set low, with the sills about six inches above the floor. These aren't real sills, of wood or stone, but just drywall, like the walls.

I have two dogs, collies, who love to look out these windows. While collies are not big droolers, they do still drool, particularly when it's warm. Since this is the windy desert, there's also dust on the sills, which turns into mud when wetted. So you can imagine what my sills look like, dotted with circles of dried mud.

The sills, like the walls, are painted with flat interior paint (Frazee) and I have to scrub harder than I'd like to clean them up. I worry that the paint is going to wear off and that I'm going to end up with exposed drywall. I'm also worried about blue stains from window cleaner on my white paint.

Can I paint these sills with gloss, semi-gloss, satin, or eggshell paint and have them be easier to clean and more stain-resistant? Which finish would be a good compromise between easy cleaning and not looking too different?

Should I get real sills, maybe marble or Corian, installed in the long run? I spent most of my career working in a gov't facility that had stone sills and I like the look, but I didn't have to maintain them or pay for them.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Shafer
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Choose your poison. The simplest solution is to paint the sill with a good semi-gloss paint and repaint as necessary to keep it from wearing into the drywall (choose the same color as the wall or a contrasting color). A much better solution is to install real sills of whatever material you choose. Wood sills are easy to install, just cut the wood (solid or plywood), preferably with a nice routed edge, nail them down, calk the wood to drywall contacts, and paint, preferably with an oil base enamel. A step up would be solid wood sills of oak, maple, mahogany, etc. with a natural finish. Corian might work ok, but stone would probably look out of place in your house.

Reply to
George E. Cawthon

I had the same thing. Using semigloss acrylic paint made them easier to clean, but on most of the windows I bought 3/4 inch wooden sill at Home Depot, fitted so that when I added trim around the openings, the sill still stood proud of the trim. Once the wooden sill is primed and painted, it is pretty durable. I've also used granite scrap from countertops to make sills, with rolled fronts. Much more work, and more costly, but very stable and good looking.

Reply to
Roger

My fireplace is faced with black stone (marble, I think), but I think that would be too much contrast to the white walls, windows, and tile. That's why I was thinking of that white Corian that looks like the kind of marble the Taj Mahal is made of, with a big grain to it. Or real white marble, since most of the cost is labor anyway.

I'll drop by Frazee and get the semi-gloss for now. Maybe I'll talk to the stone folks who did my fireplace.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Shafer

I'll get the semi-gloss for now and look into actual sills this fall, when we come back for the winter. If I used wood, I'd probably go with light maple to match my cabinets, but I'm not sure how that would look. The mopboards and other woodwork, what little there is, is all painted.

I have white tile floors and a fireplace faced with black marble. The windows are white and the walls are slightly off-white (Swiss coffee, naturally). I was thinking white marble or that white Corian that mimics marble with a big grain. Maybe I'll talk to the folks who did my fireplace.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Shafer

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