We have them in the home we bought. I will attach a photo that shows them. We have them leading into the living room from the entryway, between the living room and kitchen and between the kitchen and dining room. I personally do not like them because I LOVE white moldings and trim. It makes it hard to transition colors from one room to another. I have seen arches with molding but I am sure that is expensive!

That being said, many comment on how pretty they are when they visit, so I may be in the minority.

I'm with Parkview. Much rather have a cased opening than an arch.

We had lots of archways in the home we just sold....nada in the home we are now building.

To be appropriate, it really should depend on the architectural character and style of one's house. For example, arched openings make sense in masonry walls, in various styles of Spanish architecture, etc.

They make no sense at all in Internatinal School, mid-century moderns, shingle style, craftsman and the like.

So consider the design of your house and not how to "decorate" a passage way.

Good luck on your project.

I love archways; but, no, we will not have any in our house. We don't have "the right spot" for such a thing.

My builder proposed putting them in my home, but I declined. To me, they are fitting for Spanish or desert-inspired homes.

"Much rather have a cased opening than an arch."

You can case an arch.
There are a number of places selling the materials for specific sizes and shapes, or you can have one custom made to any shape you want.

We had planned to do two archways in the foyer area of our new build, but the framers did not frame it as so. I am so glad they didn't. I thought I needed them to break up some of the straight lines we have going on, but they would have been expensive to trim out like the rest of our openings $3000, said our trim carpenter. I realize now that the curves don't need to come from the structure, rather the furnishings and decor. Our archways would have proven to be a problem with hanging height for the lights and such, too. Good luck with your decision.

We have them in our 1919 Craftsman and they are original. They are broader horizontally than the ones shown above, though. But no, not in our 21st century house!

We do have some broader ones - shown here if that helps anyone.

We have arches. They are all cased. I would not want them if they were not cased. These aren't the best pictures, but they kind of show them:

Nice detailing!

Faux marble column?

Here's one of two cast stone arches.

We love our archways in our new build because it keeps the contemporary clean lines we are striving for.

We put four arches in our home they are not completely finished yet so I can't say if we will like them or not. Still haven't figured out how to post more then one picture at a time. Good luck on hour project.

{{!gwi}}

We love arches- have more than 20 including arched openings, doors, windows, ceilings, and layered drywall. this photo is from an unusual prospective- from the floor looking up towards the great room skylite thru the opening. a 12" wall thickness in just this area allows the bed mold/ panel effect. I do not know how to post more that one photo at a time so more can be seen at 280po.com.

Our new home will have 4 arched openings. Two of them will have arched glass doors that we can close off entry into LR and DR to our animals. We will be going with cased arches.

FWIW I would see no problem painting the interior of an uncased arch white in order to transition to another color in another room. But maybe that's just me.

We're having several arched openings in our new house and I love them! It's a very traditional house. Sheetrock starts this week... I'll try and post some pics once I get them.

I have them in my new home and feel they add a European influence. Mine are not cased, and don't think the look is particularly contemporary, but maybe that's because my style of decorating isn't.

I've thought of painting the interior of the arches as well as an 8" border around the arches to define their shape. I would also add large shell plaster castings to the center of each arch. Paint color would be the same color as the trim(warm tan, 3 shades darker than walls)or possibly black since i've used a lot of black in other areas of the house.

I've been mulling this idea around in my head since I bought the house, just need to make the decision to do it! ;o)

PBX2, i like your style. will you share more of your house?

i'm typing your name again below in case the first line didn't catch your attention

pbx2 pbx2

Like patty cakes, our home has arches that do not look contemporary. They are not trimmed.

Here are two of the smaller arches in the kitchen.

We have large arches going into the DR from great room and foyer, and a medium from great room to foyer. Other small ones are scattered throughout both levels of our home.

{{gwi:1431596}}

I have several large trimmed arches like the one below.

Arches with casing trim.

Posted by bmh4796 (My Page) on Sun, Apr 28, 13 at 18:28
PBX2, i like your style. will you share more of your house?
i'm typing your name again below in case the first line didn't catch your attention

pbx2 pbx2

Just for you ;) Look half way down for the pics in the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: For bmh4796

This post was edited by pbx2 on Fri, May 3, 13 at 23:50

Sunroomguy, that's gorgeous! We are also planning cased, paneled arches in our home. (We're going for a Colonial Revival look.)

Good thread, love seeing the gorgeous pictures.

No to the archways, but we have two large arched windows and will be putting in a third. Another way to incorporate the arch.

Our house is not finished yet (we are painting and haveother finish work to complete) but we have arches seperating the rooms in our open concept house. We also have an arch detail in the drywall around the stairway landing window.

Arch detail in the drywall around the stairway window while the drywall was being hung.