Trim on interior wall corners around sliding doors

Question

We've just had some work done in our house, and we have a brick (exterior) wall in our living room with patio doors in it. The builder plastered the walls, and told us we would need to buy white pvc edging strips (90 degree angle, 30mm wings) to go along the convex wall corners (i.e. the front edge of the wall, two sides and the top; not the concave angles back by the door itself).

We don't like this much because you can't paint PVC very well, and a wooden trim would be too much of a bump.

What alternatives are there for the edges? They need something to neaten them up, but I'm not sure what

Answer 1

One alternative would be to ditch the square corner with protective corner bead and simply do a rounded corner in plaster^*.

If this matches the design aesthetic of the house, it is a perfectly acceptable solution, and I lived in 2 different rental houses (while in college) that used this on interior doorways.

It's my belief that there's a good chance that this would actually be less susceptible to damage than a sharp corner, even one that it protected. If something (say furniture during a move) hits the corner, a sharp, square corner is likely to be chipped or dented, while a rounded corner is more likely to deflect the item hitting it, rolling it around the corner instead of breaking or chipping.

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^*It might take a pro to get a good result for this, though if you want to DIY and are willing to make a few attempts, you might get good enough to make an acceptable result after a while. It all depends on your skills and what you (or your spouse) consider "acceptable".