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Uneven ceiling height and crown moulding

10 years ago

Hello all, in the ongoing kitchen drama, we have most cabinets installed, which are 42". We also have a 4" crown moulding,which touches the ceiling in half the kitchen, but leaves a 1" to 1 1/4" gap in the other half (we have an older house, some sagging floor joists-we have had support put in but the ceiling still sags).
We could use a 'starter strip' type thing to bump up the crown moulding on the higher part or we could leave part of it not quite touching the ceiling. Contractor wants to do the latter, says it will look funny otherwise, but I am not so sure. to me, having a 1" gap between cabinets and ceiling kind of defeats the purpose of it all, but I don't know...
Thoughts?

Comments (5)

andreak100
10 years ago
I would (and we are in our kitchen) put a riser strip. The riser strip will carry the variation allowing the crown to ride the ceiling. I can't imagine that it would look good having the crown go to the top in some places and have an inch gap in others. Obviously, the best thing is to have completely even ceilings...but, reality is that most people don't. Using the riser strip, it's something that draws your eye less than what it would having the gap. Also, you'll get dust and so on in that one inch gap and won't be able to clean it, which would irritate me. So, mine is an absolute vote of "No. No gap, please."
romy718
10 years ago
I have no carpentry skills but remember this same issue being discussed.
I attached a link that gives detailed info with pics. You can also do a google search "Uneven Ceiling & Crown Molding, Gardenweb Kitchen Forum".
There are lots of other helpful posts. Me, I wouldn't want the gaps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Uneven Ceiling & Crown Molding
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We used 3-piece crown molding on our cabinets...but we have 6" of crown, not 3". The problem you may have is that the shorter the crown molding, the more noticeable height differences are. Anyway, this is our crown molding design... Notice the 3 pieces. The middle piece ("Stock-S") is a flat filler piece that goes b/w the two detailed pieces ("Crown" and "Soffit A"). The Stock/filler piece is what changes based on ceiling height...the other two pieces are exactly the same throughout the kitchen, regardless of ceiling evenness. In your case, you could try eliminating the bottom piece ("Soffit A"), use a narrow piece for the top ("Crown"), and use a filler/stock piece in the middle to accommodate ceiling differences.
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He has certainly made a mess of the ceiling. Those cracks are from putting more mud on top of mud that wasnt dry enough to begin with, and thats not the way you would repair that mess anyway. Please tell him to stop and get someone in there that knows exactly what they are doing. Now, you also have a ceiling mess to straighten out, and the best way to do that, is to remove that cabinet, and get that gunked on mud out of there, and the ceiling repaired and then start over. It should have a much larger moulding on both sides. Whoever did the ceiling, should have made sure it was level to begin with. Hopefully, it is just the ceiling and that the whole room isnt sagging on that side, in which case, it could be foundation problems.
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Does no one hire a cabinet installer with enough skill for scribing anymore? It used to be standard. This is way extra from what needs to happen with a horizontal filler and the ceiling, but the principal is the same. https://www.jlconline.com/products-tools/power-tools/scribing-wood-to-stone_o
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quesera1970
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you! I twent to look and measure again today and think the problem is that on half the kitchen the starter strip would be 1 to 1.5" but on the other half, there is no need or room for a strip--in otherword the crown moulding would go straight from the top of the cabinet so there would be no space between the cabinet door and the moulding, unlike the other half of the kitchen. I'm wondering if that will look weird--eg, perhaps it would be better for us to get a smaller crown moulding (say under 3") and then all the cabinets would have some sort of starter strip, but it would vary between 1 and 3". Of course, that means the 'finished' kitchen gets pushed off again, but maybe I can find crown moulding locally and paint to match rather than order from the cabinet company.

Thoughts?
romy718
10 years ago
In my picture, the thin piece & 3" flat board immediately above the cabinets is from the cabinet company. Above that, the crown is poplar molding bought locally and painted to match. Our cabinet color is not a known BM or SW paint color. My painter took a piece of trim & had the color & sheen matched. It looks great & that option is probably less expensive than ordering crown from the cabinet company. Better to delay & do it right, in my mind.
sherri1058
10 years ago
I also vote for no gap. Romy, I love what you've done - looks great!

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