http://www.thejoyofmoldings.com/ 

I've found it useful to make full-size mockups of the various options and tack them up where they are supposed to go to get a better feeling for how it will come out. Early on I just print a 3-4 ft long picture of what I'm thinking of, for the final contenders I'll make a 3-d mock up from scrap wood or rigid foam board, paint it the approximate color and put it in place. It very frequently makes the choice easy. Skinny moldings are probably going to look out of place in a Craftsman bungalow.

If you are looking for ceiling trim that would be consistent with the original design philosophy of the house it would not be crown molding. Some kind of cove molding might be better.

IMHO, it's almost never a good idea to indulge in fads when it comes to home construction/trim. Very often such fads wind up looking inauthentic, silly and pretentious. Crown molding is just such a current fad. Online or in books, take a look at the style of wall to ceiling trim - if any - for houses of your era and style. Be guided by those images, not what other people are doing.

Quite possibly it had picture rail originally - which would have been level w/tops of windows and doors. Often it was removed when fads changed. Sometimes you can tell what was there originally by looking at the first layers of paint - or maybe ridges in the paint where they painted up next to the rail. (IF there was originally crown molding you would be able to see evidence of that as well).

My upstairs has them in combination with slanty ceilings - I love them and have used them with hooks to hang some (not all) pictures from, also they provide a nice border between ceiling and wall colors. Downstairs they were removed but last year when I was peeling off old wall paper from the 1940s I was down to the original brown walls and brown-gold ceiling and it totally changed my feel for the house and what I want to do with it - now I want to restore the rich original artsy-craftsy colors and put back the picture rail.

With an old house I think its always a good idea (and fun) to figure out what was the original intention and the original design - not that we necessarily have to slavishly imitate it exactly but just to have it inform your design choices in the present.

JDS, I'd been wondering bat what you said. My first choice had been a coffered ceiling, but the features if the room don't "center up" with each other and I was afraid the grid pattern would really emphasize that. Actually, I know it would. Would you have other suggestions?

kasha-kat I appreciate your comments and had thought of the picture rail. this house has always been in my family. I grew up in it. No, there was no ceiling trim originally. We just like the idea!

If you absolutely are driven to have crown in your bungalow, please avoid any of the classical or colonial-inspired shapes, they are really not appropriate for craftsman.

I agree completely and had already shown this phot to our GC. We would simplify it I even further, taking out a few of the ridges.

Interesting resource.

JDS, when you say "interesting resource" are you referring to the photo? I basically just would want to keep any crown molding really simple.

I would still like to hear any suggestions you might have on ceiling trim. True, we're not purists, but I would like to at least stay close to the design style.

You might also consider a wallpaper border instead of crown. Bradbury and Bradbury make fabulous ones appropriate for A&C decor.

lazy_gardens, Exactly. All of our other wood trim is flat with rounded edges. Thanks. Yes, these are the kinds of pics I've been pouring over.

On the website I posted scroll down to page 17, "Craftsman, Mission, Arts & Crafts Movement" and get a feeling for the design philosophy of those styles.

It is not a matter of being a "purist"; there are many variations on these styles and you can create your own once you get a feeling for the design philosophy. However, a traditional "crown" molding is derived from the Cyma of a classical Greek temple roof cornice so it would contradict the design philosophy of your house.

JDS, I hadn't even realized what you'd posted was a link (said sheepishly). It's very helpful. The rest of our trim is just like what is shown in the collection in the middle of the bottom of page 17. Yes, I understand completely what you're saying about the philosophy of the style. I'd actually been planning on more or less replicating the baseboards and/or door frames somehow with what I'm calling (perhaps I need another name) crown molding. I guess ceiling trim would be a better term. The ceiling trim for the catalog collection is actually more detailed than what I had in mind. I'd been planning on my general contractor doing the carpentry from scratch (he's matched our trim before when we redid our bathroom). I was most stumped on dimensions/proportions, but maybe we can just order. Thanks, again. This is indeed a good resource.

Another great source of inspiration is http://www.bradbury.com/ac.html

Their site is all about their designs, papers & textiles, but in this section they are all in homes similar to your style.

I can never get enough of their site. Just for the eye candy sake!!

We ended up making the picture rail/top molding for our place to get the width we needed. Because it's screwed to the adobe walls in many, many places, we painted them to match the walls. Some future renovator will be sorely disappointed trying to uncover the "wonderful original trim" and finding poplar and masonry screws.

BTW, corner blocks are WONDERFUL because you don't have to do a miter to a corner that isn't quite square. We only had to mess around with the blocks until they fit the totally unsquare corners and then snug the moldings up to them. It saved us a lot of grief.

No pics??

No pic yet ... I'm still painting them.

With all due respect, crown corner blocks are the ultimate cop-out and should never be seen in the context of an old house. They are anti-craftsmanship of the lowest order and I despise them with a seething resentment. The old house should not be subject to such indignity.

With all due respect, that's my bête noire .

Casey

What the heck is a corner block?

If you put a square block in the corner of a ceiling, the running trim doesn't have to be mitered, it can just butt into the sides of the block. I've never seen it done.