Whenever you are selling or buying a home if there is crown moulding it can increase the value or be a selling feature. I have never lived in a home with crown moulding. Since we’ve built or customized our homes it wasn’t there because we didn’t install it. It can be pricy so it never made it to the top of the want list.
If I lived in the southern states I would want a beautiful victorian home with the ornate crown moulding that is installed there. Since I do not live in the southern states thats not what I was looking for. I wanted to create something more modern. I love straight smooth moulding without ridges or design. We have beautiful 5″ baseboards. When we designed our semi custom home one of the upgrades we paid for was the baseboards. The standard were the skinny ones you see everywhere. I would have pulled them out and installed what we have but the cost to upgrade was only $600 which we decided was a great investment. It would have cost more then $600 to change and install them ourselves which we would have done first thing. Paying the $600 in upgrades saved us a lot of time and headache.
Deciding on crown moulding
Our house came with tray ceilings in our entry and family room. The rest of the ceilings are 10 feet. I really wanted to add crown moulding but didn’t want the classic crown moulding. One day I saw the vision in my head about what I wanted. I ran it by Monte to see if he thought it was a good idea and something we could pull off. Of course we were able to and decided to add the moulding in our master bedroom, entry and family room to start.
The spaces that have the tray ceiling were going to cost a little more then the master bedroom because we had to go around the room twice. I decided to do the upper portion a smaller version then the lower part of the ceiling. There wasn’t as much space to work with on the upper portion so doing a scaled down version was going to look the best.
Off to Home Depot
We headed to home depot to pick up the supplies. I don’t know if this happens to anyone else but we always need products that are up high so we need to find someone who will close down the aisle and drive in a lift to bring down the supplies we need. There are usually a few pieces down but never enough which makes the trip take more time. I guess I need to go in prepared to spend more time then I would hope.
We had an idea of what we wanted but had to adjust just a little to fit what was available. For the lower portion of the tray ceiling we decided to use 5″ baseboard along the wall and 3 1/2″ along the ceiling. For the top we used 3 1/2 ” along the wall and 2 1/2 ” along the ceiling.
Preparing to Install
I wanted the crown moulding painted the same color as our baseboards and door and window trim. I set up my painting station in the garage and got busy. Giving all the primed wood a coat of paint is a good idea it can be tricky to paint the edges after they’re installed. I like to use a small roller and tray or paper plate if I forget to buy trays.
I did learn not to lay everything out at once because then I can’t reach to get it painted. What works best for me is lay out three or four boards paint them and then lay out three or four more until I run out of room or everything is painted. With this project I was running out of room because we were doing so much at once.
Install
Because we were creating our own crown moulding the install is different then classic crown moulding. We were working with more pieces but the process goes a lot quicker. Classic crown moulding can be a little tricky to install because getting the angles right is not an easy task.
The installation was pretty easy. Monte took some time to find the studs around the rooms so he would have something to secure the moulding too. We decided to 45 the corners. The contractor didn’t do that with our baseboards. They just butted them to each other. That isn’t how we would have installed it so we did the crown moulding the way we wanted it to look.
Because we were working with square rooms and ninety degree corners it went fairly quickly. In the entry we were able to install everything without having to create seams because the space was a little smaller and we could get long enough pieces. For the great room and master bedroom we did have seams. We were careful to stagger the seams so they are less noticeable. We purchased the longest pieces we were able to haul and what they had available at Home Depot. It would have been nice not to deal with seams but it was unavoidable.
Looking good
I am so happy with the way it turned out. It looks so good with the shiplap ceiling we installed in our entry. Monte is very precise with his cutting and measuring. The corner pieces fit together perfectly. Because you install a piece at a time we decided to put the ceiling pieces on first then butt the wall pieces up to the ceiling pieces. There wouldn’t be a right or wrong to this it’s just what we decided.
This is one of my favorite spaces we added the crown moulding to. I love the way it looks with the shiplap ceiling. It looked amazing in the great room and master bedroom as well. I was thrilled with how it all came together.
It also added a lot to the feature wall we created in our master bedroom. Adding the crown moulding really elevates the space and creates something unique. After the install Monte applied the finishing touches. He caulked all the edges, seams and nail holes. Then gave it all a final coat of paint. I didn’t repaint the edges against the wall just the flat front surfaces.
Final Cost
I love doing projects that don’t cost a fortune but really make an impact. Adding the crown moulding to the great room was about $300. It took twice as much wood because of the tray ceiling. It is also a very large room. The crown in the master bedroom was $200. This room doesn’t have a tray ceiling. It is a decently large room so it definitely took a fair bit of wood. The entry crown moulding was also $200 but that included the shiplap. If we hadn’t done the shiplap it would have been under $100.
We are so happy with look of the crown moulding. We were able to make and create some beautiful spaces that added so much uniqueness and charm to our home.
