Does Crown Molding For Kitchen Cabinets Come In Different Sizes

In the earth of trim, crown is king. Lording high over casings, chair rails, and baseboards, information technology cuts an impressive profile with elegant curves and distinguished angles. It also elevates a room's stature, drawing the eye up to the ceiling and echoing pattern motifs seen in other moldings to create a cohesive and polished look for the infinite.

Crown's lineage reaches dorsum to the ancient Greeks, who created the profiles and the rules of proportion that we still use some 2,500 years after. Only the materials have changed. Rather than the original heavy rock, 18th-century American craftsmen opted for more than malleable and relatively lighter-weight plaster or wood crown. While these materials are still tiptop choices for traditionalists, today'southward handy homeowner can too cull moldings made from foam and flexible polyurethane, which go up with greater ease than the Greeks, or even our grandfathers, could have ever imagined—no chisel, trowel, or nails required.

Pictured: White paint in a high-gloss sheen accentuates the carved item in this wood crown and adds a classic touch to the entry antechamber and living room.

Similar to Shown: Custom 9-inch-high cornice in wood, about $vii.50 per linear foot; Stark Custom Millwork

Beefcake of Crown

At its essence, crown consists of an elongated S profile atop a cove. Calculation trim beneath the cove, every bit shown, creates a cornice, though the entire assemblage is often referred to as crown.

Vitals

How much does it toll?

Stock primed pine crown molding starts at nigh $one.fifty per linear pes, plaster at near $v, foam at about $3.75, and flexible polyurethane at about $1.

Stock or custom?

Stock profiles are the least expensive and most readily available. Custom work—matching an existing profile or creating a new pattern—tin can cost more than twice equally much and take up to six weeks to produce.

DIY or rent a pro?

Installing a jumpsuit crown is a projection virtually particular-minded homeowners can handle. Merely if a room has out-of-square or curved walls, or if the molding is fabricated of heavy plaster or built-upwardly forest profiles, hire a pro.

How much to buy?

Measure the perimeter of the room, so add x to 15 percent for waste matter; for rooms with lots of corners, add together 20 percent.

Crown Textile: Forest

Lightweight and relatively flexible, this DIY-friendly material comes in viii- to 12-human foot lengths and is installed with finishing nails.

Stock paint-class crown runs near $1.l to $7 per linear foot; stain-grade woods range from about $1 to more $x.

Shown: vii¼-inch-high B301 in walnut, about $14.25 per linear foot, plus about $65 custom fee; Baird Brothers Sawmill

Crown Material: Plaster

Because it's fabricated to order in 6-pes lengths, each paw-cast piece can exist richly ornamented with well-baked item. Plaster is heavy and rigid, and unremarkably requires a pro to install it using screws and construction agglutinative. Joints are filled with plaster, and so the surface must exist painted.

Prices range from about $5 to $30 per linear human foot.

Shown: four⅜-inch-high Georgian 2210, almost $9 per linear foot; Monumental Construction & Moulding Company

Crown Material: Plaster-Covered Foam

The viii-foot lengths of extruded polystyrene are topped with fiberglass and a thin glaze of acrylic plaster. It'due south light and flexible as wood, every bit seamless as solid plaster, and DIY-friendly; joint chemical compound holds it in place and fills seams. Like plaster, it has to be painted.

Stock profiles range from about $one.eighty to $7.75 per linear foot.

Shown: 6-inch-loftier CTR-813, most $4.10 per linear foot; Canamould Extrusions (Go here to see how Canamould is installed)

Crown Material: Polyurethane Cream

Cast in 8- and 12-foot lengths, it looks like plaster merely is lightweight and doesn't require professional person installation. Construction adhesive holds it in place; joints are filled with caulk.

Stock profiles cost virtually $3.75 to $45 per linear human foot.

Shown: 4 15/16-inch-high Carmichael Crown 11750, about $9.35 per linear foot; Focal Point Architectural Products

Crown Material: Flexible Polyurethane

Cast in 8- to 12-human foot lengths, it cuts similar wood but is much heavier. Tin fit a radius as small as 24 inches. Structure agglutinative and finishing nails hold it in place. Choose a painted or stained-wood-look terminate.

Stock profiles range from nigh $i to $17 per human foot.

Shown: 4-inch-loftier pigment-grade 126, well-nigh $12.75 per linear foot; ZaGO Flexible Mouldings

What Size Should It Be?

Continue these rules of thumb in mind when selecting crown for your house.

Consider the room'due south purpose. Traditionally, crown was incorporated into impressive cornices in public rooms, such every bit entry foyers, dining rooms, and parlors. The size would remain consistent from one first-floor entertaining space to the next. Past dissimilarity, smaller, less elaborate crown was generally used for private spaces—a powder room or bedroom.

Play off the existing trim. Look to your baseboards and door and window casing to determine the right scale. An appropriately sized cornice is either the same height as, or slightly smaller than, the baseboard.

Measure out the ceiling height. Ceiling height is the ultimate arbiter of size, co-ordinate to architect Richard Sammons, coauthor of Get Your House Right. For standard 8-foot-loftier ceilings, the crown/cornice height should be 2½ to 6 inches; for 9-human foot ceilings, three to 7½ inches, and for 10-foot ceilings, 3½ to 8 inches.

Molding Profile: Distinguished Dentils

This crown is paired with crisply milled dentil molding and beaded baseboard.

Shown: 6 ¼-inch-high B209, B009, and B303 in red oak, almost $half dozen.65 per linear foot; Baird Brothers Sawmill

Molding Profile: Classical Casting

In the tradition of ancient Greek and Roman crown, this molding has both acanthus leaves and egg-and-sprint detailing.

Shown: vii⅜-inch-high CM391 in plaster, nigh $22.90 per linear pes; Hyde Park Mouldings

Molding Contour: Dewdrop and Curve

In place of the typical cove, there's a bead beneath the elongated Southward curve. This crown is solid, making it a good choice in locations that don't touch the ceiling, such as cabinets and casings.

Shown: 2¾-inch-high SC234 in primed pine, virtually $ane.65 per linear human foot; Garden Country Lumber Products

Molding Contour: Leafy Look

Delicate acanthus leaves are ordinarily seen on trim used in Classical Revival–style homes.

Shown: six¾-inch-high MLD493-12 in polyurethane foam, nearly $12.fifty per linear foot; Fypon

Molding Contour: Double Bead

A jumpsuit crown with bead detail sits atop a beaded baseboard.

Shown: 4⅝-inch-high B211, B309 in stain-form crimson, $six.38 per linear pes; Baird Brothers Sawmill

Molding Profile: Ornamental Ovolo

This flexible, paint-grade polyurethane crown is topped with a large bulbous curve, called an ovolo, that creates a clean shadow line.

Shown: 4¼-inch-high 175, nearly $19.25 per linear foot; ZaGO Flexible Mouldings

Molding Profile: Stair Steps

Overlaid strips of solid stock grade a crown that would complement 1920s Art Deco or even gimmicky interiors.

Shown: 7½-inch-high custom profile in maple, near $7.75 per linear human foot; Baird Brothers Sawmill

Molding Profile: Svelte Garland

A scene-stealing frieze with a flowering vine motif tucks neatly beneath a rippled crown.

Shown: 6½-inch-high FM311 in plaster, about $14.50 per linear foot; Hyde Park Mouldings

Molding Profile: Potent and Unproblematic

This ancient crown profile is simply a graceful S curve set above a concave-shaped cove.

Shown: 3½-inch-high B302 in hickory, about $3.25 per linear pes; Baird Brothers Sawmill

Molding Profile: Deco Facets

An angular profile and jewel-like geometric blueprint recall flapper-era glamour.

Shown: viii⅛-inch-loftier 2235 in plaster, well-nigh $ix.25 per linear pes; Monumental Construction & Moulding Visitor

Molding Profile: Understated Elegance

Clean, simple profiles are often the best selection for a home's more private rooms.

Shown: 3 9/sixteen-inch-high CTR 514 in plaster-covered foam, almost $2.35 per linear foot; Canamould Extrusions

Molding Profile: Rope Border

To get intricate details like ropes or beads in a wood crown, these components are often machined separately so inserted into a groove cutting into the crown.

Shown: three½-inch-high B311 in cherry, virtually $3.75 per linear human foot; Baird Brothers Sawmill

Molding Profile: Greek Key

This impressive i-slice cornice has a meandering Greek key pattern of interlocking geometric shapes.

Shown: 7⅝-inch-high Governor's Palace Fretwork Crown in polyurethane, nearly $15.50 per linear human foot; Focal Point Architectural Products

Molding Profile: Beads and Curls

A dough-like mixture of sawdust and resin forms the decorative beading and the "lamb'southward natural language" motif on this paint-grade crown.

Shown: 5¾-inch-loftier CM8856 in poplar with composite details, about $11.75 per linear human foot; White River Hardwoods

Crown Style: Colonial

The earliest crown was planed by hand from the New World's plentiful supply of wood. Simple profiles predominated, owing to the high cost of adding complicated carved details.

Inset: 2¼-inch-high B304 in ash, about $1.15 per linear foot, plus about $65 custom fee; Baird Brothers Sawmill

Crown Style: Contemporary

The use of crown waned in the 1940s, but simple strips are a handsome upgrade to more mod ranches and split-levels, as long equally they are in proportion to the ceiling summit.

Inset: 7⅝-inch-high MLD253-sixteen in polyurethane foam, nigh $11.50 per linear human foot; Fypon

Crown Manner: Victorian

In the late 19th century, Americans favored crown that was big, bold, and often encrusted with classical details, such every bit dentils and acanthus leaves.

Inset: 8-inch-high CM230 in plaster, about $22.50 per linear foot; Hyde Park Mouldings

Crown Style: Arts and Crafts

This early-20th-century style supplanted Victorian-era excess with clean lines and no-fuss shapes. Crown could be painted or, if milled from quality wood, such equally oak, stained to highlight its beauty.

Inset: iv½-inch-high Craftsman Cove in poplar, near $4.25 per linear foot; Brent Hull Companies

How to Duplicate Crown

When you tin't find a matching profile at a lumberyard or home center, the easiest way to get a copy of your existing crown is to send a cutoff to a wood millwork shop or a maker of foam or plaster moldings, such as Fypon or Hyde Park. But if a fleck isn't handy and your crown doesn't accept details like dentils and leaves, make a template using a profile gauge (left). Printing the comb-like device against the crown, then trace the shape onto cardboard, noting which edge is the crown'southward face.

Shown: Stainless-steel tracing profile gauge, about $23.50; Lee Valley Tools

How to Handle Corners

Crown molding is usually installed and so that it appears to run seamlessly around a room. It's easier to do that with foam and plaster trim because their joints are filled; they don't need to exist perfect. With forest crown, filling isn't an option—cuts accept to be precise so that joints are virtually invisible. That'southward a claiming in the real earth, where corners are never exactly xc degrees and forest fibers are constantly swelling and shrinking. Here are ii ways to continue joints tight.

Coping: This technique, used only with forest crown on inside corners, involves cutting along the profile of one strip so that it fits over the face of the bordering one. It takes skill and time to make this cut, but it'south much better than an within miter at hiding a joint, and it'south forgiving of out-of-square corners. Go here to larn how to cut copes.

Corner blocks: These manufactory-made pieces, placed at outside and inside corners (shown), eliminate the need for coping or miter cuts; the crown ends just butt upward against the blocks' sides. A slight bevel in the back of the crown ensures tight joints in out-of-square corners. Corner blocks come in unlike styles and tin be used with any textile. They practise simplify joinery, but considering they project slightly beyond the contour, they tin can interrupt a crown's continuity.

TOH Pro Advice: "To minimize your view of the joints in forest crown, make certain the copes and bevel joints point away from the room's main entry, where you lot might otherwise see shadow lines between sections." —Tom Silva, TOH general contractor