Magnaverde, I love your rules! You are so wise.

WOW...magnaverde...I could "listen" to you all day. Love the information and the manner in which it is given. One thing I love about this forum...is that people don't just tell you *if* they like or dislike your idea...they tell you *why.* You take it a step further and make it very entertaining. I mean...the Carmen Soprano/Grace Kelly reference? YES...I get that...and can see how that would relate to a home. Thank you!

Ok, sooo definitely "no" on the dark wood, and a "maybe" on some crown painted the same as the baseboards. Our home is casual...2200 sq foot ranch built in the mid 70s. Thing is, when I see where the ceiling meets the wall, it just doesn't look *finished* to me. I did not grow up w/crown mldings...never really saw them in friends'homes growing up (I grew up in a 70s ranch...I live in So Fla so no real cottage or victorian homes to look at! Certainly not in my suburban neighborhood!) and I am not sure WHY it looks so unfinished. Might have something to do with the fact that we removed the popcorn and had the ceiling done with knockdown (wanted smooth ceilings, but ceilings were VERY wavy.) Where the wall meets the ceiling...just doesn't seem like a crisp line and when the walls are painted, even less of a crisp line. Seems like a crown would tie it together. that is just my gut feeling. Unfortunately, my *gut feeling* has led me astray many times...both in fashion and in decorating! LOL.

Ok, hope you see this and add more comments. Also looking forward to hearing anyone elses opinions on the matter!

forgot to say hello to justgotabeme!!!
Also, I have a New Yorker cartoon in a little frame in our office...a real estate agent showing a couple a home and saying, "It's a major fixer upper...how is your marriage?"

This house has certainly tested our bond of matrimony! Yikes! We are still standing, though!

This reminds me how in my small powder room (only room to hold a toilet, sink and small table) with 10 foot ceilings...a couple of friends said "black crown molding would look great in there with those pictures in the black frames." I thought about it for a moment and although that might look good, my room told me "no." I have large cream colored baseboards throughout my home and the contrast of those two and the dimensions in my powder room turned me off on that idea.

I agree with magnaverde...you have to listen to your house as it knows what it "needs." We often times see something we like and "want" to replicate it in our home. However, if we listen to our house, it will tell us we don't "need" it and we can avoid the mistake due to the "wants." If you take the time to listen you will realize the item/s looked good in the environment where we liked it, but it will not give us the same feeling in our space.

Magnaverde, as usual, is on the money, and paying interest on it, too.

In our previous house, which was a simple gambrel colonial built in the early 60's, the scale and proportions on the front facade were perfect...and inside, it had (in the words of a dear architectural historian pal) all the proportions of a double-wide. Every room was three feet too narrow, and the ceilings, which would have been fine at 9 feet, were 8. But the builder did three things that saved it; and they were long 9-over-nine windows in the main rooms, true divided lights with substantial muntins in the windows, and good quality trim, including 6-inch trim on all the doors and windows, 2-piece baseboard, and 2-piece crown in most rooms. We added the same 2-piece crown everywhere else, and emphasized every vertical proportion we could. The result was that all the ceilings seemed another foot higher.

Our current house was built in 1893 and has 11-foot ceilings and substantial trim, but it is not one of the grand mansions in our neighborhood. Those houses have trim for days, and it's gorgeous...but not for ours. So the trim is in a simpler Victorian family house style, with corner blocks instead of mitred corners, simple routed patterns, and no crown at all. And though I love trim at the ceilings, this house says, no, please don't.

That long story is meant to say that you can actually make the ceiling seem higher with substantial crown, but only if the rest of the trim in the house has the same generous proportions, and the same style. Houses with narrower, basic trim seldom look better with skinny crown added. They just seem to be trying to be something else.

Ok, I have absolutely scratched the idea of wood/dark crown. Still not sure about crown to match our baseboards. My DH did the baseboards himself..they are 4.5" high, very simple. So, they are not those super skinny baseboards you see in some newer homes...but they are not huge.

I do "get"" that just because I like something, doesn't mean it would work with our home. It's one of the reasons we are not doing granite countertops...just don't think it "goes" with our house. I love those beautiful glass entry doors that many of my friends have as front doors...but again, I never considered them for my house.

Anyway, thanks for the input vampire and brownwynsmom. Wondering if I should provide a picture...I will try to find one to post.

I love that cartoon. My hubby and I have been through many a thing that could have broken a lesser marriage to shreds, but we stand tall and strong. Even better than before. Maybe couples should have to do something like this before they marry to see if they have what it takes to make a marriage work, huh?