How to paint above "dropped" crown molding

last year

last modified: last year

Hello, it's time to paint inside my 1910 craftsman house, which has crown molding set about a foot below where the wall meets the ceiling. This highlights what I find a pleasing contrast between the white trim and the green wall, but I don't like the unfinished look where the wall meets the ceiling. Should I (a) paint the wall above the trim the same color as the ceiling, or (b) add molding where the wall meets the ceiling? Other ideas?

Featured Answer

palimpsest

last year

That's picture rail and the area above this is called the frieze.

Historically it often had a wallpaper particularly designed for friezes between the picture rail and the ceiling.

You can either paint it the wall color like you have, the ceiling color down to the picture rail, or a different color between the picture rail and ceiling. Any of these is correct, each will be a different sort of look. It does not need crown moulding between the ceiling and wall, necessarily.

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Comments (19)

P Banos
last year
Paint the same color as the wall.
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nickel_kg
last year
I wish I had picture rails -- I love artwork on the walls but plaster over brick is hard to deal with.
PRO
BeverlyFLADeziner
last year
last modified: last year
It's a great place to add wallpaper or paint without a full room commitment.
1188artista thanked BeverlyFLADeziner
Madisynn B
last year
Yeah… definitely do not add molding. I would simply paint over it with the same wall color, which I must say, is so stunning. Just, be careful when painting over it, you do not want to damage its “fresh look.” In that scenario, if worst comes to worse, you’ll probably have to get it surgically removed from the wall. Best of luck!
lharpie
last year
In my area everyone paints the areaabove the picture rail same as the ceiling color. not sure if this is the best tactic but it makes it really easy to repaint the room! random internet example. it may be the same realtor that is doing this though….
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
Please show the whole room This part is not really picture rail but I need to see the whole space and also your style of the space . How high is the ceiling?
Jilly
last year
last modified: last year
“This part is not really picture rail …”

It’s not? Why do you say that?

Sure looks like picture rail molding to me. As such, I’d roll with it and do something interesting. Pal (who is very experienced regarding historic homes) gave correct info.
palimpsest
last year
last modified: last year
It's....

picture rail

It can be positioned at various heights and alignments depending upon the ceiling height and other details, to create a frieze area, all the way up to right under the cornice so it looks like part of the cornice itself.

The OP's is even the typical shape with the wider bit at the top to hold the clips to hang the pictures on.
1188artista thanked palimpsest
bpath
last year
Look for cpartist’s house, you should be able to find her in the Building a Home forum. She build a craftsman-inspired house and has a similar treatment. I think she painted above the ”hatband” as she calls it, a shade different than the color below it. @cpartist
1188artista thanked bpath
1188artista
Original Author
last year
It's definitely what's called a picture rail around here (even though I didn't call it that in my original post). Although I don't use it for that here in earthquake country (SF Bay Area).

Ceiling is about 100 inches (8 feet 4 inches). Neither very high nor very low.
cpartist
last year
last modified: last year
My house is new but I purposely put in a wide "picture rail". Mine is not a true picture rail (bp is correct, I call it a hatband) but a hatband was also done back in the day. I painted the ceiling a color and extended it down to the hatband. As Pal said any of the 3 ways to paint it would be correct. It all depends on what you prefer.

If you want to add wallpaper, Bradbury and Bradbury has authentic style wallpaper for the era

Their friezes would work especially well.

If it were me, I'd paint the ceiling and the frieze a pale color but not white.

This part is not really picture rail

It sure looks like picture rail to me!

Please don't add crown molding at the ceiling.
1188artista thanked cpartist
HU-787167202
last year
Here's the issue. The OP said htey dislike the 'unfinished' area where ceiling and wall meet. That's what most homes have but still OP doesn't care for it. There are good suggestions here but in the end they don't really address the dislike. Anyone have a pic of molding/chair rail (stop the silly quibbling) and crown above it?????
1188artista thanked HU-787167202
elcieg
last year
1930 Craftsman home:

Install authentic style crown molding.
1188artista thanked elcieg
palimpsest
last year
I would decide how you want to paint before installing crown moulding (which can be finicky to do well, especially in an old house. I see a lot of terrible installations of crown moulding.

If you like the look of the wall color above the picture rail or band being the same as the ceiling color, it looks better without the crown moulding. If you want to do something different with the wall and ceiling like you have now, maybe do the crown moulding.
1188artista thanked palimpsest
1188artista
Original Author
last year
Thank you for all the suggestions and examples, they are super helpful! I would be glad not to add crown molding—it seems a little much for my simple house, besides adding expense, so I'm glad to know that's not the only way to handle what I specifically don't like, which is that the line between the current wall/frieze and ceiling paint colors isn't straight and clean, and it looks to me like making it so would be hard to do. Either continuing the ceiling color in the frieze or papering the frieze would solve that problem. I like the idea of painting or papering the frieze differently—I might do that in the bedroom and the dining room. For the other rooms, I think I'll go with continuing the ceiling color in the frieze (and with something more interesting than the current sort-of-white ceiling color).
cpartist
last year
I think I'll go with continuing the ceiling color in the frieze (and with something more interesting than the current sort-of-white ceiling color).

My only suggestion would be not to go as dark as I did on my ceilings. Mine are 10' tall and I wanted to visually "lower" the ceiling so it felt more "cozy". However what does work well is to use a complementary tint of your wall color. The complement of blue for example is orange, so think a light peach, or if the walls are peach or orange, think a pale blue for the ceiling.

The complement of red is green and the complement of yellow is purple. Hope that helps.
1188artista thanked cpartist
wdccruise
last year
"what I specifically don't like, which is that the line between the current wall/frieze and ceiling paint colors isn't straight and clean..."

Use painters tape to create a clean, straight line between two paint colors. I've used Frogtape Multi-Surface and it works amazingly well.

"For the other rooms, I think I'll go with continuing the ceiling color in the frieze..."

Based on the photos above, I'd say that painting the frieze a color other than the ceiling color makes the ceiling appear low.
1188artista thanked wdccruise
nickel_kg
last year
Where it's technically difficult to get a straight clean line at the ceiling/wall joint, I've seen the ceiling white extended about 1/2 to 1" down the wall. There's a trick to getting a clean break between colors using painters tape -- worth looking up on youtube. I'd try that before taking the ceiling color all the way down to the picture rail.
1188artista thanked nickel_kg