Pictures of the 14" tall sheetrock crown?

Pictures of the house?

Crown profile and size should relate to the architecture of the house.

My builder has a way of building it. I don't have pictures to show. The reason for it is to make the ceilings look less boxy. I have seen it done in another home and it looks nice in that home. They have the six foot doors with transom windows above. I don't want the windows because I don't want the light to go into the bedrooms. I am torn between putting in 8 foot doors and 6'8" doors. It seems that everyone says that with a 10 foot ceiling, you need 8 foot doors. But if you put a crown molding above that, there won't be much wall space. I could go with 11 foot ceilings in the great room. B. Carey, how tall are the ceilings in the home you are building without crown?

Are you talking about something like this I found on the interwebs?

Drywall layers:

Then added trim mouldings to arrive at final:

A typical house has 6'8" doors with 8'-0" ceiling. With an approx 2.5" crown + 2.5" door casing, that leaves say 10" of header, or 8" with a 2-piece crown.

With 8'-0" doors it may be fine with 6" of header exposed, not sure depends on what the crown will look like. But your baseboard and casings should be proportionate in heft.

No, this crown is more ornate. It comes down and out in a sort of J shape. I am thinking of raising the room to 11 feet from 10 feet. I know that is more economical. I don't know if the high ceilings will over-whelm the room. Another dilemma is going into the bedrooms. They were originally going to have 9 foot ceilings. With 8 foot doors, that brings the doors up to the ceiling with only about 4 inches of a header exposed, and no crown.

Be cognizant of room proportions vs ceiling height just to satisfy a crown.

Really would like to see a pic if you can coax one out of the builder sometime.

We have 10 ft ceilings and 6"crown, 8 ft doors. Prior to the remodeling we had standard doors, they looked very out of proportion. The 6" molding is fine but a little larger would be better, I think. Also the top of the window trim molding is the same as the top of the door molding now, it looks nice.

My builder thinks I should use seven foot doors with 14 in crown molding. The room is 11 feet tall but doors open into bedrooms with 9 foot ceilings, so 8 foot doors don't work so well. It might look our of proportion, but the tall molding will help.

You might consider mocking it up with cardboard/posterboard...

14" of crown molding on any ceiling seems a bit much. If that was my builder, I'd let him know that I'm from Missouri - He has to show me!

I agree with David Cary - drywall crown molding is the cheap way to do molding. Tread cautiously - you don't want another dilemma saying the crown molding looks cheap.

I am doing 8ft doors throughout my home. Main floor and Finished basement will be 10 ft ceilings (9’8 or so in basement). I have been in homes with 10 ft ceilings in a room and 6’8 door and feel the proportion is off.

My deal with the 14inch crown is that figure your baseboard is 8inches, you have 2 ft of trim work, 20% of your wall space! That leaves you with only 8ft of painted wall. Are you sure that the house he did that you liked it had 10ft ceilings? And is this the trim work you originally wanted or is he talking you into it.

I will be having an 11 foot ceiling in the great room and dining room. Yes, the house I looked at definitely had 10 foot ceilings. They had 6'8" doors with transom windows. I don't want transoms into my bedrooms, which will have 9 foot ceilings, so that is why I will put in 7 foot doors. I will put 4 inches of molding around the doors on the great room side, at least. My builder says that if we do that and he puts up the 14 inch crown molding, it will look okay. I guess that will leave 30 inches of wall. I am doing this trim because it will be a ton cheaper than buying real crown molding and it is something he knows how to do. He says that 11 ft and 9 ft walls are the most economical ones to build. Doing 10 foot walls costs more money. At the end of the room, I will have 9 feet of windows and French doors, which I have seen in another home and they are awesome. That is why I have decided to have an 11 foot ceiling in that room. The problem is the transition from the great room into the bedrooms with doors. I don't think there is a perfect solution.

To me, drywall based molding is cheap. You may not agree and that is perfectly fine. But hear me out. There are some people (like me) that come to your house and think 11 ft ceilings are all fancy but you cheaped out on the details.

Now you can dismiss me as a snob and that is fine. But you should know that there are people out there that understand trim and feel like you are being less than genuine.

My last hood had 55 houses built by 5 custom builders. One of these areas that was developed and each builder bought lots (presumably 11 each but not sure about that). They then built some spec houses and some custom. All to about the same level (fancy cookie cutter we liked to call it). Trim levels usually pretty ornate. Most with 10 down/9up ceilings. You could always tell which houses were Rudy's houses. Ah the corners he cut..... like drywall based crown.

Our good friend's next door bought a Rudy (not the company's name) spec house.....

My builder (total trim snob) refers to drywall based trim as a "spec house trick" that he refused to partake in. Better to have no trim than fake trim....

On your other issue - you should post a floor plan. 11ft transitioning down to 9 ft is tricky with door sizes as you are figuring out. But the plan matters. You can mix 8 ft doors and 7 ft doors in the right situation I think.

IMO any ceiling over 10’ is just wasted space and what is your style that is how you decide crown. As for th actual plan who the heck decided all bedroom doors off the great room? I think you have bigger issues than the size of the crown. In this time of huge energy costs high ceiling just for the sake of them is a big waste.

Thank you David. That was really good input. It's good you know what drywall trim is.

I actually designed the floor plan. It is based off a house of someone I know and some similar plans that I found on the internet. I didn't realize the problems it would cause with doors. If I made all my ceilings as 9 feet, I wouldn't have an issue. The property looks out over a beautiful view and so I want the great room to have higher ceilings. Another house I was able to look at in the same area I am building, had nine foot ceilings that a vaulted ceiling hooked onto. So they were able to put large 9 foot windows at the end of the room where the view is, and they are awesome. They have small halls that lead into their bedrooms, so no issues with doors.

I have never designed or built a house, so I didn't know about vaulted ceilings, etc. or the problems I would encounter. I want to show off the view with the high ceilings and high windows.

I don't know your plan or site constraints, but as general advice when you pull parts and ideas from different plans and force them together, you wind up detailing the heck out of complications and competing interests, focusing on tiny things instead of the big picture.

On the other hand, conceiving them functionally and spatially from the get-go will just naturally (well, with a lot of thought and pencil lead) be seamless and many complications won't even exist. So maybe addressing circulation cancels the issue with competing door and ceiling heights. Maybe, even, the special 14" crown moulding you are using is a design element that should be expressed in the proportions or theme.

As to the doors. I can put in 6'8" doors with a transom. I just learned that you can buy black-out blinds for transoms that are controlled by a remote or a phone app. That will lessen the space between the doors and the ceiling in the great room. That will only leave about 6 inches of header wall in the bedrooms, but I think I can live with that. I wouldn't put crown in the bedrooms, although I really like crown molding around ceilings.

Thank you 3onthetree. You are right about pulling ideas from different plans. It has complicated things and taken a lot of time and effort to make it all work. Not sure what you mean about circulation. Is that the flow of the house and rooms?

Not sure what you mean about circulation. Is that the flow of the house and rooms?

Yes. As I understand it, a big concern of yours is 8' doors opening into 9' ceilings because each of the bedrooms enter into the Great Room individually.

Pulling ideas is fine, usually though those that are new, untrained, or ungifted in design pull "kits of parts" from here and there and they do not work together. If you are brave enough and thick-skinned, post your plans in a new thread. You will get lots of feedback, mostly blunt but all honest from different viewpoints, and usually it can open your eyes to other ideas and hopefully improve your plan.

My plan is of a giant size and I have marked it up. I will consider posting in a new thread. I have a new question. I have mentioned that a friend of mine did a beautiful configuration of French doors and windows that meet the lower part of her vaulted ceiling, which she thinks rises up to 14 feet. I wanted to repeat that configuration. My builder says it will be 9'5". Will that look okay on an 11 foot wall? If I do this, then I will not be able to use his 14 inch crown that he makes out of drywall. I will need to find something shorter. What would an appropriate size crown molding be with an 11 foot ceiling. And will it work to have windows that high the leave about 1'7" of wall above? Thanks everyone.

If you want the window to go to ceiling, then ask for it. You'll just have to pay a bit more because the rafters will be mounted into the beam, instead of resting on top of it. Your builder seems to be running the show with dictating what you will be doing and using his crown. Shouldn't you be calling the shots?