Suggestions for Crown Molding Around Dormer?
Wondering if some of the experienced trim carpenters can help me out here– we’re updating the room shown in the attached photo- one of my ideas was to add a crown around the ceiling. But what should I do about the dormer?
The spring angle of most crown means that it’s impossible to bridge 135 degrees where the wall angles downward– should I stop the crown where the angle begins and call it a day?
Should I frame the dormer with molding?
Should I use a different molding to go across the 135 degree gap and resume the crown where the wall goes vertical again?
Should I build a box-section drywall soffit and run the crown across that?
I guess I could give up on Crown Molding entirely in this room but I didn’t want to give up without asking for expert advice.
Any advice on the topic would be much appreciated.
John
Replies
Since you are prepared to box down . . .
. . . and all that entails with framing, rocking, mud-tape-finish-prime, and more . . .
. . . then consider a perimeter soffit with a face you can trim conventionally.
Just plastering a wood detail around the existing ceiling line ain't gonna do it for you, IMHO.
In the room view attached here, I put a perimeter soffit around your whole room, dropped about 9 inches from your 8' ceiling, with edges positioned to hide your roof frame drops at their ceiling intersects, and brought wide at your alcove.
I just plastered a simple edge molding around the edge of your new tray ceiling, but there are plenty of options for that, including cove lighting details.
Another view
John, in this camera view of my soffit treatment, you can look back at the door entry, and see how the soffit in the "alcove" area to the L of the door is wider.
I changed the edge molding to something cherry-colored, and made it smaller, about 1 1/4" w x 1" h.
One possibilty
You could place a crown backer on the wall first, which would effectively kick out the crown enough to clear the angled ceiling either side of the window. You could use 5/4 ripped to the correct width for the angle ceiling and continue that size around the room. In effect a mini soffit, smaller than gene shows. You'll place it edge out, with the backside ripped to the angle to fit the sloped ceiling. The rest would be square edged. Screw and glue to studs and rafters.
You could of course use 3/4 but you might limit your bottom nailing for the crown. However if 5/4 is unavailable or too $'s, I'm sure you could make it work.
Or, with a few sticks and some rock and mud,
. . . you can create little triangular gypboard-faced "drops" out at the top leading edges of your sloped rafter ceiling sections, just deep enough for the height of the crown you want to do, and it will look like the pic, attached. I painted them orange just to highlight them.
Cal's suggestion would have you boxing out away from all the other walls as well, but this is simpler.
It all really depends on you, and how much of a room "upgrade" you want.
Dropped soffit perimeter as shown in my earlier hallucinations, would afford you the easy option of doing some can lights around the perimeter, for a nice wall-washing lighting effect.
To my design sense, for what it is worth, and that's probably nothing to you, just slapping a crownmold around at ceiling height, in an upper-floor under-roof room like this one, is not the right thing to do.
Note to Calvin: Let's hope some other contributors chime in here and offer John some advice. You and I are going to get tired arms, with just us holding up a big piece of this here forum.
There's others pulling answers out of the hat too Gene. Admittedly our group is thinner than b/4. Hopefully I'm answering only questions on which I might have a good answer or opinion. And besides, constantly blowing my top at TauntonWeb is getting old. I'm sure it's got to bother all the wrong people and for that I am sorry. Since I get no answers to anything anymore from Ed or Matt I know it can't be aggravating them in the least.
And Gene, I like that last idea you pictured. Looks like it would have been there and is certainly an simpler method to do what he wants to do.
Now that I think about it-even simpler would be to die it into the slopes, pick it up again over the window. It'd have purpose-the roof "cuts" into the ceiling/wall finish.
Shoot, nobody looks up anyway........
" . . . nobody looks up anyway."
You're right, Calvin.
I don't. Most times my eyes are casting down, looking to see if I remembered to tie my shoes and zip my fly.
So here is the look, attached, of doing a crownmold job in the easiest most expedient way. It'll take longer to pick it out at the store, than to put up these few pieces.
Crown molding, in my humble opinion, is one of the most overrated pieces of decor in all of residential house design. All too often, it is just slapped up there in the cove, with little or no thought given to the composition of the room as a whole, molding-wise.
Hey, look at my crown molding up there. Ignore my cheap mitered ranch casing and matching ranch baseboard.
Look at all the silly real estate listings that call it out in whatever mini-McMansion is being described, as if it is a major upgrade. Consider all those jackleg "remodelers" that get hired to poke it up in existing houses, just the crown, please, as if it will make all the difference.
Overrated. Like other things. School, for instance. Twelve-inch sliding compound miter saws. The list is a long one.
Sorry for the rant, John. Your room looks good, and will really be a standout after you get done. Please post some "after" photos.
john... don't listen to those bozos
i'd pick a crown that aproximates the slanted ceiling areas..... then just carry it right around the room
o wait.... calvin finally backed into that 1
Less is more.
Here ya go, Mike. X3 makes it easier than ever.
Unless you want it elled around each rafter boxdown. Or brought out the straight sides of the dormer, then doodled with little self-returns to match into the sloped ceiling corner adjacent.
Whew! I'm worn out thinking of the possibilities.
gene...
did you go straight from 10 to betaX3?
i got a new computer with multi-core & winn 7-64 .... but i don't notice any "lightning speed"
Mike:
I did 10, then new PC (specs in signature line @ Chieftalk), then X2, now X3 beta. It is not the speed, it is the features, most noticeably for construction docs. That is where the time savings is.
Program loads much quicker due to the new way libraries are handled, if that matters. Otherwise, camera views, overviews, about the same. Don't know much about Windows 7. I'm going to stick with Vista for now.
Maybe I'll ride my bike down to Saratoga. Play the part of a piñata, guys like Holly can take a swing with the bat.
Ride your bike?
Hope it's downhill all the way. You can always take the train home, no?
wow. . .unbelievably helpful
Wow. . . thank you Gentlemen for the advice. It is going WAY beyond the call of duty to generate CAD renderings of the room and try out the alternatives. Do you guys do that for a living, probably so? Anyway, it is one thing to receive advice in the form of text so you can visualize it, it's entirely another to be able to see it. Thank you very much for going the extra mile.
So my plan is, I'm going to stop the crown where the box begins and see how it looks-- much like the final illustration.
I hear you on the "upgrade" mentality-- crown molding is one of those basics of trim that has been used for centuries, and yet it gets talked about in the context of otherwise undistinguished McMansions like it's the Rosetta Stone that's been discovered. I'm actually tempted to do a build-up with regard to the room above, just to get away from the basic single piece of crown molding, poked up there like it's the Palace of Versailles or something. . . the project is a rambling two story cedar shingle house in Upstate New York, not like it's Greek Revival or anything, so maintaining some BALANCE is critical, but doing slightly better than stock probably works and will be more visually interesting.
I will certainly post some "after" photos in a few weeks, it is the least I can do given the time and trouble you fellows went to.
Best,
John
John
it is the least I can do given the time and trouble you fellows went to
Bull shit john. there's so much more you can do.
You can show up at this July's Fest in Saratoga Springs (See Fest 2010-1&2 threads in the fest folder) with the pictures and a case of the premier lager from 'upstate' NY.
You can't be far away.
And Gene, he's from up there-you could thank him in person.....................
If the conservative right winger has the balls to show up.
Best of luck.
Well here is the "after"-- I
Well here is the "after"-- I still have some drywall sanding and finish coating to do around the crawl space entrance at lower left.
I think it came out fine-- it's one of those things you don't really notice. I suppose I could put a piece over the windows cut square at both ends. That would tie it all together.
MANY thanks to the nice people here who rendered assistance.
Best,
John
John,
Thanks alot for coming back and showing us the after. I think it looks killer. The brown really accentuates that crown. Way to go!
Well! Isn't that nice!
You must be pleased.
Thanks for showing us the end result.
Definitely put crown over the window.
While you're at it, why don't you cope a couple of pieces to mock up what Gene Davis' earlier suggestion (his 3rd post) for a "mini-soffet" solution at the roof slope would look like. Bring one piece from the crown on the right wall across the roof slope section and another from there back to the over-window piece.
I think you might like that even better than what you have done.