With IKEA cabinets, there is no structure at the top of the cabinet to attach the crown moulding to. So what my cabinet guy told me is that you will have to attach a strip of wood to the top of the cabinet, right at the front edge of the box. The crown will actually attach to this, with the bottom edge of the crown right at the top edge of your doors (leave a very small gap between them. In order for this to all work out right, you need to pick your crown first. Attach the strips to the top of the cabinets, but put the crown on after the cabinets are up. In case any of the strip might show, paint or stain it to match the cabinets.

Thanks! So should I pick the shortest crown molding to fit the shortest gap? What happens with the gap between the cabinets and the crown at the highest point in the kitchen? Make sense?

Not sure what you mean. The gap between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling should be the same.

All the way around the kitchen the floor to ceiling height is slightly different giving me at the least a 3.5 inch gap between the top of the cabs and the ceiling and at most a 4.5 gap between the top of the cabs and the ceiling. Which gap do I try to fill, the small one or the big one? Or do I adjust the wall cabs up or down to work with the moulding?

Make any sense?

If you are dealing with that much difference, my best suggestion to you is to hire a professional trim carpenter to do it. You can't adjust the cabinets for the crooked ceiling or the bottom of the cabs wont be even. And you can't really adjust crown molding like that either. Crown is mounted on an angle, and anything presenting a different elevation created a real challenge. I am really afraid if you try to run crown against a ceiling that is out by that much, it will be really obvious.

The bigger the gap between the crown and the ceiling, the better it'll look.

Don't shuffle your cabs up and down or match their level to the ceiling. Don't try and force the crown to move an inch and a quarter. (Though I would doublecheck that it is, in fact, your ceiling that's out of level.)

Are you set on crown? This might not be the best kitchen for it.

And finally, if you had money burning a hole in your pocket, it is theoretically possible (if impractical) to level your ceiling.

Usually in cases of our ceiling height being off, you should plan for a shadow line where the crown comes with an inch or two of the ceiling but does not actually touch. This is what I have done in older homes to make life easier.

Or a decent trim guy should be able to float the crown on the strip on top of the cabinet so that it becomes level looking. You will have to have the strip mounted on top of the cabinet painted or stained to match the cabinets. The difference of an inch across the whole kitchen should be doable. Good luck.

You can also do a two piece molding - that piece of wood above is moved back the depth of the vertical piece below and attached to the top of the cabinets. A flat board is set on edge at the top of the cabinet - maybe two or three inches tall and attached to the hidden support. The crown is attached to the flat board and the ceiling. It follows the ceiling. The apparent height of the vertical flat piece will change.

I am definitely hiring a pro for the finishing work, no worries there. I am just anxious to pick out the crown moulding so that I can get those cabinets up there!

Our ceilings are also off. Or KD designed a 3-piece crown molding that handles it so well that you can't tell w/o getting on a chair and measuring!

The center piece, "stock", is what is used to adjust for ceiling height. The "crown" (top) & "soffit" (bottom) pieces are the same height regardless of the ceiling height.

You could also do it w/two pieces if you eliminate the soffit piece and just use the stock & crown. The stock would be attached to the piece of wood Ccoombs1 described and the stock piece would be measured to fit the space...then the top piece is put up. (Think of the stock as "filler"!)

HTH!

Oooh, nice! So I should definitely choose a smaller molding.

Any opinions on wood vs. urethane moldings?

CDM

It's pretty much a moot point with Ikea cabinets. They really don't offer any crown molding.

Every ceiling has some difference in height and mine like yours has quite a bit. I had originally wanted my cabinets and moulding to go to the ceiling. The cabinet maker discouraged me from doing this because of the varying ceiling height problem. Although an expert carpenter/ cabinetmaker can make it work quite well under most circumstances anyway, if you leave some space it makes it easier to make that ceiling height difference invisible. We left about 5" and put over cabinet lights. Initially I thought that was silly and wasteful with 8' ceilings, but we love the way it turned out.

- Jim

>It's pretty much a moot point with Ikea cabinets. They really don't offer any crown molding.

This is true, but I have seen some very effective use of their cornice, stacked, for a more modern look (and most of their wood cabinets are more modern looking). With the white cabs, of course any painted molding will work.

Also, two other ways people have attached molding with ikea is to dry fit the cabinets in a run, gang them, take them down, attach the molding, and then put them up. I've also seen some clever use of industrial velcro with mounting blocks pre-installed on the cabinets.

Since you are getting a trim guy involved, why not get him involved with the cabinet height too. Let him decide how close they need to be for him to work with them.

The way that buehl described will probably work best for you.

Thanks all!

My finish guy is on vacation, the nerve;) and I just am itching to get these damn things on the wall! But I know I should wait and get his advice. Argggh.

Hi,

I am also adding crown (and not the IKEA crown) to my IKEA cabs, and I would be interested in how your trim carpenter does this. If you happen to shoot any pix, could you post them?

I am envious that you are at this point. It will be a while before we put up our cabinets.

I'm excited to see your finished kitchen, in any case!