I wouldn't put it up in those instances. It would throw off the balance of the room. I would consider instead a picture rail and/or a frieze paper instead.

Most modern crown moldings are going to be too small for a proper Victorian house, even if you use multiple profiles together. By around 1890, crown moldings were going out of fashion in favor of aesthetic friezes.

I was starting to think that the house was not intended to have crown moldings, I think I may have stripped off original wallpaper, but I couldn't tell if there were any friezes because it was painted over. The ceilings were papered too, which made me suspect it did have a frieze plus a patterned ceiling. Besides being painted over, the paper also covered up a lot of cracks and holes that needed patching, so it wasn't salvageable, but honestly, the amount of work it took to strip it all has made me fairly anti-wallpaper, even it is appropriate for the house.

So, instead of a frieze, I thought about having a picture rail 4-6" down and then a shallow cove molding in the wall/ceiling corner and then paint the two moldings and the space in between in an accent color that was different than the walls or ceiling (that is maybe a different white than the ceiling) and letting it be sort of a faux frieze. Is that ever done? How would it look?

Truly, I'd skip the cove--where those existed as in my aunt's house, they were one continuous curve in the plaster rather than an applied detail. The positioning of the picture rail depends on the height of the ceilings--I'd say 4-6 inches is too little--think more on the line of 1-2' for an average 9' high room.

I hate stripping paper myself--it was very common to have a stencilled frieze instead of paper...I have seen pics of them with a trellis and vines with pendants of wisteria hanging down near the corners--very nice.

Painting the area a different color would be nice--but if you have average height ceilings, I'd not paint it close to the ceiling color--it will make the room seem shorter.

I really suggest trying to get a copy of Moss' Victorian Interior Decoration from the library or a used book site--it is an encyclopedia of Victorian decorative practice and theory with lots of color plates, illustrations and photographs.

Thanks for the advice, I'll look that up!

You could do an image search in google for something like "transom windows victorian picture rail" or some version of that, and also search this forum for "mouldings" or "trim." You might find some pictures that will show some options. Also, you could consult a millwork shop if you have one locally that specializes in historic mouldings.

I think a key issue is your ceiling height. Some things look good at a certain height, and otherwise they don't. Our ceilings are, I think, 10'4" in most rooms and all had a picture rail or wallpaper border at 1 foot below the ceiling. In all rooms we painted the top 12" to match the ceilings and it looks great - it takes away the sense that you are standing in a chimney (the rooms are small). In the kitchen, however, we stiffened the ceiling because the floor above was sagging, reducing ceiling height to exactly 10 feet. When we held up the border or whatever we had planned for the 1 foot drop, it looked wrong, so in that room, the wall colour goes right to the ceiling.

The picture rail with 1 foot above it goes with wainscoting and a chair rail in one room.

The other common treatment is panelling with a plate rail at about 5 feet, with paint above that, but my feeling is that is more often in rooms that are 9 feet tall. Don't quote me on that, but the point is, what looks right will depend in part on just how high your ceilings are.

Crown moulding, I think, goes with lower ceilings still, or in the grander settings, in rooms that are wider than they are tall. And I'm not sure it ever combines with a picture rail.

Your transom size might also matter - maybe your picture rail can line up or exactly bisect the transom. It's all about proportions...

Karin L
PS I love wallpaper, but the funny thing is that as hard as it is to strip, it's also fragile :-)