Selecting Crown Molding – Sizes, Profiles, Options

Sometimes I wish I was speaking to you in person so that you could see that I’m smiling as I write this.

I know that smiling isn’t normally associated with a blog post all about wood molding (or moulding?) sizes, placements, and shapes!

But it does happen.

So, why am I smiling? First of all, it’s my birthday, and I refuse to frown on my birthday! Second, it’s because I laugh at myself when I recognize how my heart rate increases after looking at a few pictures of crown molding! What’s wrong with me? It must be a sickness…who get’s excited by trim?

Well, maybe you do, and maybe that’s why you’re here! And that brings up my third reason for smiling. I’m also sarcastically laughing at myself as I contemplate which small part of the world of crown moldings I ought to discuss! I think I’ll start with the most common question I hear. What size?

Pick the Right Size

Crown Molding has to be sized according the the volume of the room to work well. Too small and it will seem insignificant and look out of place, too large and it will make the room itself seem small and just be overpowering. There is a right size for every room.

Ceiling height is the first consideration. If your ceilings are at 8 feet above the floor, then you shouldn’t go with a huge molding. If your ceilings are 20′ in the air, on the other hand, then it wouldn’t do much good to put a small molding because nobody will be able to see it! At least not once they hit my age.

Here is the official 2009 RGCMSC (Remodeling Guy Crown Molding Size Chart):

Of course you know that there are no hard-and-fast rules on this! This is just a guide meant to help get you in the ballpark.

Build-Up’s or Multi-Piece Crown

If you have a large enough room, you can use more than one piece of trim to assemble a larger molding. There are endless combinations, but one of the most common is to use a piece of baseboard on the wall first, installed upside down, then put the crown on top of that, leaving the bottom few inches of the base exposed. Take a look at this picture:

In the close-up to the right, you can see that in this case they have actually used a piece of trim both on the wall and on the ceiling before applying the crown molding.

You’ll also notice in these pictures that they’ve done a multi-part built-up crown in a room that doesn’t have exceptionally high ceilings and it looks good.

You’re free to experiment!

How To Experiment

You’re probably wondering how in the world you’re supposed to experiment with something like this! I’ll tell you. If it’s at all possible, find a local building supplier that stocks many shapes and sizes of trim. If you can find a store that is locally owned and operated you often get better service with what I’m going to suggest next.

You want them to cut you off pieces, very short, of the different profiles that you think you might like. This will allow you to hold the various parts together and even take them home and hold it up in your room to see if it seems like the right size.

This process is the best way to be certain that you’ll be happy with the result. With larger chain stores you may have a problem getting them to cut a small piece for you, but sometimes you can find a broken piece in the bottom of the bin. If all else fails, hold the various parts together right in the store to form your perfect assembly.

Keep It Simple

If all this sounds like too much, don’t worry about it! For most rooms, a standard crown molding with nothing added to it will work wonders. Ninety percent of the crown molding I’ve installed has been 5.25″ standard crown. Unless you have very high ceilings, you can’t go wrong with that size.

There is So Much More!

I’m not even sure I’ve scratched the surface with regard to crown moldings, or with any of the moldings we’ve looked at in this series.  If you want to keep on learning about remodeling, including more trim, subscribe in a feed reader for free here.

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So, is there a crown in your future?

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