Crown molding options….

[Justin Jump]

OK all, one of the last things to finish up the kitchen is to figure out my crown molding, and I need some input.

A few rookie mistakes put me into a bit of a dilemma.

The original plan was to relocate all the plumbing and eliminate the bulkhead above the sink and wall cabinets seen in the one picture. After demo, we realized that without some major restructuring, pulling toilets and changing flanges in the bathrooms above, it would be too much, so I opted to keep the bulkhead, which is 6” tall.

The bad part is that I had already built the carcasses and frames for the cabinets on the other wall, the wall oven, refrigerator and the small pantry cabinet. The issue here is that from the top of the cabinet to the ceiling is only 3” on this wall.

Add into the issue I put a can light really close to the corner wall cabinet, leaving me only about 1 ½” of clearance if you extend the wall cabinet up to the ceiling.

That being said – I need some help coming up with a crown that will look somewhat similar to each side, the sink side having a 6” tall reveal, and the frig side having a 3” tall reveal.

The last picture shows something I found on web, I could easily use this option, and it would just be 6” and 3” tall….

Anyone else had a similar situation and had a clever fix for an issue like this?

THX



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[Justin Ludwig]

Tough one. I'd stack crown on the fridge/pantry cabinets to the ceiling. The other side isn't so easy. The cabinet left of the sink has a depth matching the soffit, so any stacked crown would stop there and you'd only have the bottom portion of the crown making the return to the wall. Plus, you stack crown with 3/4" material to the ceiling and you run into the can light (3/4 + 3/4 = 1.5"). I can't see the back side of the corner cabinet, but I'm assuming its flush with return of the soffit like the upper by the sink? What is your door overlay at the top? Your top rail looks to be 1.5". Crown usually gets 5/8 to 3/4 of the top rail. If you have 1/2" overlay, then you can get away with 5/8" and leave a tight 1/8" margin.

Without rebuilding: I'd run one level of flat crown on that side and just let it be, not try to reach the ceiling. The stack would look awkward, IMO.

[Mel Fulks]

We see stuff every day that really isn't right and accept it because it it is so prevalent. Crown is a formal detail and kitchens are mostly practical hodge podge. No one ever asks why one kitchen has twenty different sized doors. I would use square stock ,same thickness as the doors. Clean, modern,vertical. If it's too dificult to scribe at ceiling use a small moulding.

[Jamie Buxton]

Can you move the can light, or is there something structural inside the ceiling that forces it to be where it is? If there's nothing inside the ceiling, moving the light is mostly sheet rock work.

[Justin Jump]

My soffit is flush with the cabinet, all the way around...I am using 1.5" rails with 1/2" overlay.

The can light is with a set of 3, if I moved that one, it would be closer to the center light than the other end. I chose this because on this side of the house for some reasons the joists run side to side, instead of front to back. So the can light in the picture is right up against a floor joist above. During rough in, if I would have chose further away from the cabinet but closer to the center light, to me it seemed the 3 lights would've been too close to each other....

In hindsight, which is how we learn right....I should have dropper to 2 can lights instead of 3, spaced them out evenly, and I would've avoided this issue.

If I tried that now, I could easily patch the ceiling, it does have a texture, but since the joists are running side to side, I would have to hope to be able to fish the wire correctly through 3-4 joists.

@ Mel....just plain old square stock eh? Would you route an edge on it? Maybe duplicate the 22.5 degree shaker edge from the doors?

[Jamie Buxton]

..In hindsight, which is how we learn right....I should have dropper to 2 can lights instead of 3, spaced them out evenly, and I would've avoided this issue.

If I tried that now, I could easily patch the ceiling, it does have a texture, but since the joists are running side to side, I would have to hope to be able to fish the wire correctly through 3-4 joists...

Yeah, that isn't as simple as I hoped.
If you do it, you might consider just cutting into the sheetrock the whole way to run the cable instead of fishing cable from the ends. Then you patch the sheetrock, and retexture a bigger area.

Considering how much work you've already invested in that kitchen, don't be in a rush to finish the job -- do it the way you'll be proud of.

[Mel Fulks]

I would keep it as simple and smooth as possible. To see pics of similar styles Google up some of the kitchens of late 1920s and 1930s. Or some of modern metal cabinets and kitchens in lofts and such where you don't see much crown.