Cabinet Crown Moulding Help Needed! (w/pic)

[David Eisan]

Hello everyone,

I have a problem with the crown moulding on the corner cabinet in my parents kitchen that I am redoing for them.



I did not want to face nail anything, so the crown moulding was screwed to the top of the corner cabinet from behind before the cabinet was hung. I just have it in place temporarily for now while I decide what to do. In the picture, the cabinet is level in all three planes. But, as you can see, I have a little problem where the level crown meets an awfully unlevel ceiling.

What do I do?

I thought of scribing the crown to the ceiling, but too much of the profile would be lost and I think it would look stupid.

My brother suggested that I hang the cabinet crooked so that I have as much of the crown against the ceiling as possible. No.

My Dad suggested that I take the crown off and face nail it so that it is more flush to the ceiling. This would require bizarre angles and bevels for rthe 45º corners as well as look funny when the gap between the crown and the face frame (and soon doors) tapers.

Leave it?

A case of caulk? I do think this is the answer, a nice cove bead of flexible latex caulk that is then painted to match the ceiling.

What would you do?

Thanks,

David.

[Donnie Raines]

Are you painting the cabinets?...are you going to fill the gap in with caulking and then re-pain the ceilling?

Is the reveal at the top line of the crown moudling large enough for a qrt round strip..or something like that?

[Jamie Buxton]

That's the problem with houses. They're not built to cabinetmakers' standards.

Here's three common solutions:
1) Mount the cabinet without the crown. Apply the crown afterwards, twisting and trimming it as best you can to conform to the ceiling and the cabinet. As ugly as this sounds, it often works acceptably.
or
2) Don't push the crown all the way up to the ceiling. Leave an air gap between the top of the crown and the ceiling. If the gap is large enough, the uneveness of the ceiling is not too noticeable. This is the fastest solution, so you see it fairly often.
or
3) Don't use cove-type crown molding. If, for instance, you were to use 1x3 for your molding, you could scribe the top edge to meet the ceiling and nobody would notice. You could even put a larger rectangular piece against the ceiling, and then put a smaller cove-type crown below it.

Here's the solution for the guy with a cabinetmaker's insistence on accuracy: fix the ceiling. If the ceiling isn't too bad, float it with several applications of drywall compound, building it up and sanding it back until you get it flat enough. If the ceiling is real bad, it may pay to take out the old sheetrock and apply shims to the joists to get things level. In either case, you don't need to fix the rear corner where the cabinet will cover.

[Bob Hovde]

I had a wallboard guy fill in almost that much gap around a fan fixture in the middle of the ceiling. He tapered it out about 2 ft. You can tell it's there when rolling paint on the ceiling, but you can't see it.

Using spackle to re-plaster that corner would be easier than sanding the ceiling level (and still having to spackle). Once it's painted, you shouldn't be able to see the repair.

Bob

[David Eisan]

Thanks everyone for your input, I ended up lowering the cabinet. I had my friend raise and lower the corner cabinet until we settled on a gap of 1" being the correct amount to lower the cabinet. I like the shadow line and the 1"-1-1/4" side to side taper between the ceiling and the crown moulding cannot be seen.



David.

[Donnie Raines]

Wish I could get my "friend" to help me hold up the cabinets.....

Nice fix!

[Steve Clardy]

Wish I had seen this post earlier, but was out installing cabinets!! Ha.
I ran into this same problem 3 years ago. But my problem was I could not drop the cabinets to make an even gap, as the walls in the kitchen were only 90".
The customers wanted the uppers to go to the top, so thats what I built.
When I crowned them, there I found the major problem. Keep the crown straight and live with the gaps? or put the crown to the ceiling and have it uneven with the doors?
I opted to keep my crown straight, telling the customer that thats the way it is. So--after readig the customers look in the face, telling me he really did not like the gaps, we put our heads together. Why not PUSH the sheetrock to the crown? Sounds good, lets try. So the customer got in the attic with a handful of shims and a hammer, driving the shims under the ceiling joists, pushing the drywall down. I would holler and tell him when and where to stop.
It worked out great, and the sheetrock cannot come down, because the cabs are holding it up.
By the way. Are you going to crown the cabinets to the left and right of the corner cabinet?
If so, what are you going to run the crown into when you get to the face frame of the corner cabinet? If you are, normally the castle effect cabinets, the taller ones like your corner cabinet, are two inches deeper so the crown can be run into them. Curious Steve

[Roger Kirkpatrick]

I was wondering the same thing as Steve about the crown moulding on the side cabinets. When I build corners like this I make them 15" deep and about 5" taller than the rest.
What are you going to do with the space where your helpers head is located?

[Dan Mages]

I have an interesting idea for you. In my kitchen, there is a 4 inch gap between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling. I snaked a rope light above the cabinet and concealed it with a 1.5 inch crown. The rope light gives the kitchen an awesome ambiance relecting off my tin ceiling.

2 bits.

Dan

[David Eisan]

>>>By the way. Are you going to crown the cabinets to the left and right of the corner cabinet?
If so, what are you going to run the crown into when you get to the face frame of the corner cabinet? If you are, normally the castle effect cabinets, the taller ones like your corner cabinet, are two inches deeper so the crown can be run into them. Curious Steve

I am not sure yet. The crown was an afterthought. I have seen pictures where the crown just ends in a return and that is what I am going to mock up in a few days. It is still up in the air for now. Mom wants crown, but it has to look good. This is only my second kitchen, I did my sisters much more modest kitchen last year, this one is much much more involved.

>>>What are you going to do with the space where your helpers head is located?

She is standing where the sink cabinet will go.


No work today. Off to the beach...

David.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Nice solution, that's what I was going to suggest. The cabinets look great.

[Clint deal]

Hello, new member here and think this forum is great. I felt this was the perfect post for me to introduce myself as I have built myself into the same situation. I'm building all the cabinets in my parent's new house and have all the carcases built and finished. I decided kind of last minute to raise the corner cabinet like the above pictures with crown molding on the corner cabinet plus over the stove and the sink. I did'nt think far enough ahead to see the problem of ending the crown against the raised cabinets. OOOPPPS.
I've talked to mom about it and told her that when I install them I'll figure something out. She things that if I used the post and railings type moldings on top it would look good but I've never really liked that.
I guess I could make my own moldings on a smaller scale and maybe make it work or just do a return like suggested above.
Any other suggestions?
Clint

[Steve Clardy]

Hello, new member here and think this forum is great. I felt this was the perfect post for me to introduce myself as I have built myself into the same situation. I'm building all the cabinets in my parent's new house and have all the carcases built and finished. I decided kind of last minute to raise the corner cabinet like the above pictures with crown molding on the corner cabinet plus over the stove and the sink. I did'nt think far enough ahead to see the problem of ending the crown against the raised cabinets. OOOPPPS.
I've talked to mom about it and told her that when I install them I'll figure something out. She things that if I used the post and railings type moldings on top it would look good but I've never really liked that.
I guess I could make my own moldings on a smaller scale and maybe make it work or just do a return like suggested above.
Any other suggestions?
Clint

There is an easy fix solution to your problem Clint. I did that once, same problem as you. Cabs all built in shop, ready to install, then the brain told me I had a problem.
Other than using that gosh-awful store bought railing [ my thoughts] or rebuilding the corner cabinet, just space your corner cabinet out from the wall. What I am saying is on the back two sides of that cabinet, take like wood and make some spacers, 2" or so. This will kick the cabinet out from the wall to give you room for your crown.
Of course the amount of spacing you need depends on your size of crown. 2 1/4 crown lays out about 1 1/2". 3 1/4 crown lays out about 1 7/8". I always like my crown to sit back from the corner cabinet side at least a quarter to half inch.
Spacing it out will actually make it fit to the 90 degree corner better too. Wall corner out of square, or the drywall mudders from hell has put an inch of mud in the corners.
Hope this helps you out Clint.
Steve