How to choose crown molding

If you’re reading this, you’re interested in what crown molding can do for your room or home. Nobody just searches ‘crown molding’ for gags. So that means you’re really starting to think about it and the first thing to do is pick molding that looks right in your space.

And this is no small task. Obviously, picking the right molding out of the chute is the way to go, so here are some tips for choosing crown molding that I use. I hope they help with your project. Here goes:

Gotta ‘Goldilocks’ crown. Too big only looks marginally worse than too small so you gotta get a few things in harmony—ceiling height as it relates to room size, and so on. There are a few ways to do this.

Tall ceilings. For 9 or 10-foot ceilings you have to go big with your crown. For ceilings that high, I like to layer crown molding buy putting another molding (usually base molding turned upside down or a soffit I make on site) behind it on the wall or ceiling—or both. This delivers the mass, tapering and projection that makes crown molding look like it was born there. So it literally crowns the room.

Small ceilings. On the other hand, for ceilings that are barely ticking 8-feet, anything much larger than a 3-inch profile looks silly, like someone wearing pants that are too big. Sure, they’re dressed, yet your eyes are drawn to the weirdness. Weird.

For smaller rooms with lots of texture and turns (like a mantle or closets or cabinets that break up the field of view) a 3-inch profile flying solo is great. But in larger rooms, say a dining room, it sometimes looks a little (lot) lonely. To give it that extra nudge it needs to look big without actually being big I ‘grow’ the shapes down the wall by adding base molding behind a small crown along the wall only. Or add a picture rail underneath the crown. This gives texture and depth without adding mass and projection, which is what I like for lower, larger rooms.

Test pieces. I can pretty much tell which build-ups (or not) will be awesome. But when I’m unsure, or just want to play, I buy a few test pieces and try them out in the room. It’s an easy insurance policy too. Just a couple of feet is all you need. If you’re building up the crown molding out of several pieces, do the mock-up, screw it into place in a few places in the room and take a look.

While I’ve spent many years refining this for my own work, many of us have a built-in sense of proportion, which, if you’re thinking about crown molding for your home is probably sensational as is. In other words, you know it when you see it. It’s the ‘it’ to see that’s the challenge.

That said, there is such a thing as installing crown molding upside down. If you don’t know which side is up, well, that’s a pretty good indicator that choosing crown molding might not be your strong suit.

Mark

A licensed contractor, tool expert, wood and outdoor enthusiast, and elite Spartan Race competitor, he writes about home improvement and tools for national magazines and websites, and teaches hands-on clinics for other remodeling professionals. Check out his book, The Carpenter's Notebook.

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