We installed crown molding in our daughter’s bedroom and I’m feeling quite proud. *pats self on back* And it was surprisingly cheap to pull off (less than $100!) and easy to execute (once I had the right tools).
My last attempt at installing crown was a bit of a rough ride. It still turned out just fine, but a combination of factors (being tired from book shoots, being short on materials, it being my first time, etc, etc) nearly made me swear off installing crown molding ever again. But I’m glad I didn’t because this time it went much more smoothly and the results are well worth the effort.
So let me back up, tell you how I did it, and explain why crown molding went from one of my most dreaded projects to one I’ll surely be doing again.
Installing Crown Molding: Video Tutorial
The photos in this post will show you how we installed crown in our daughter’s nursery, but it was so easy that we decided to do all of the other bedrooms too. So in the video below you can see each step in detail as we install crown molding in her big girl room.
Purchase Your Crown Molding Ahead Of Time
First, I purchased my materials and let them sit in our house for a week so the wood could acclimate to our home (the key is letting it expand or contract based on your home’s humidity before it’s on the wall, since if you nail it in and then it contracts or expands on the wall you’re left with cracked or bowed molding). I bought the standard 3 5/8″ crown from Lowe’s because it appears to be what the previous owners installed in our other rooms (every room except for the guest bedroom, playroom, and Clara’s room have crown already – so we thought finishing off those spaces would make the whole house feel equally upgraded).
Each 8ft, pre-primed piece was about $9.50 so, including a couple of extras to cover my butt, my total material cost was $72 (I ended up getting to return some, but I’ll get to that soon enough).
Getting The Right Installation Tools
Like most molding or trim installation projects, you’ll want a way to cut your molding and tools for nailing it in. You can do both of these steps by hand, but simple power tools make it MUCH faster. We used a miter saw like this one and a nail gun (the ones photographed in this post are no longer available, so I’ve updated these link to our current favorites).
We already had a saw and nail gun on hand, but we did purchase the Kreg Crown-Pro. I had read great reviews of it and considering my love of the Kreg Jig, I figured it was worth the $30 price tag to give it a go. Spoiler alert: I love this thing (perhaps it and my Jig can be sister wives or something). And no, they haven’t twisted my arm to say this. They don’t even know I bought it yet.
Once assembled (which takes all of five minutes) it looks like this. It’s basically a platform on an adjustable angle so you can cut your crown molding at the same angle that it will sit against the wall. Sounds simple, and it is, but this is a huge help when it comes to cutting crown (it was getting my wood to stay at this angle while cutting it last time that gave me hours of trouble).
To find the angle the cutting guide should be set at Kreg includes an Angle-Finder tool so you can determine the “spring angle” – or the angle at which the crown tips away from your wall. Apparently, most moldings sit at either 38°, 45° or 52°. Mine was 38°.
Then you just use the red guide on the underside of the Crown Pro to match. Now the cutting guide is ready to help you cut.
Measuring Your Wall Angles And Cuts
But to get my saw ready to cut, I had to figure out the angles on my walls because – as anyone who has looked carefully at their walls before knows – not every corner is exactly 90°. And these not-quite-right angles can mess you up if you’re not careful. Thankfully the Kreg kit also comes with a handy little Angle-Finder tool.
So after measuring and recording every angle, I could figure out how my miter saw should be turned to give me the right cuts. Luckily most of my corners were very close to 90°, so I could set my saw at 45° (half of 90°) for pretty much everything. For the non-so-perfect corners there was a bit of extra math involved that I won’t get into here because it depends on how your particular saw is labeled, but the instruction booklet that came with the Kreg has a great illustration for this.
And while I was on a roll, Sherry helped me take precise length measurements from corner-to-corner along each wall of the room using a tape measure (this went MUCH faster with an extra set of hands, btw). So definitely try to recruit someone else to help you measure from corner to corner along the ceiling line (as opposed to measuring along the floor and assuming the ceiling’s the same, since often times it’s not).
Outside Versus Inside Corners
Another thing that I was constantly getting mixed up last time I tried to tackle crown molding was exactly which direction I should be cutting the wood. Which way does my saw go? Which side of the blade do I put the wood on? For some reason my brain doesn’t visualize it very well, especially when having to mentally toggle between cutting inside corners and outside corners (of which Clara’s room has both, gah!).
Luckily, the Kreg tool helped me out there too. Right on the guide there are some little stickers that show how your blade should be angled and where you should place your wood to get each of the four most popular cuts. Life saver.
Cutting & Hanging Your Crown Molding
The other important thing I was reminded from the Kreg instruction book is that when cutting a piece of crown molding you have to turn it upside down, so that the bottom (the part that sits against the wall) faces up. I totally would’ve forgotten this had I not read the instructions.
So with my measurements all taken, my Crown Pro all set up, and my saw blade angled I was finally ready to get cracking, er, crowning (er, nevermind, that sounds like I was giving birth – and I’m pretty sure birth doesn’t involve this much sawdust).
In addition to my Kreg taking the guesswork out of cutting, the other thing that made this crown project ten billion times easier was having a nail gun (we had bought one to install board & batten last week). I can’t even begin to describe how long it took me to hammer in all of the nails by hand for our last crown installation adventure, so just going pop-pop-pop with the nail gun was the best feeling in the world.
I think it took me just about 2 hours to get all of the molding cut and nailed in place this time. Which is a miracle considering last time it took me two hours just to figure out how to make my first cut. And all-in-all, things turned out quite nicely in my opinion. Here’s an un-caulked corner for your viewing pleasure.
One shortcoming of the Kreg tool is that it doesn’t really address scarf joints – the ones where two pieces of crown meet along a straightaway, not at a corner. This happens when your wall is longer than your piece of molding and – since I could only fit eight foot pieces in my car – I had three of these joints in the room. Luckily I was able to figure it out on my own pretty quickly, but I did screw up a couple of pieces because the Kreg guides hadn’t made that part as dummy-proof as the rest of it.
Finishing Touches: Caulk & Paint
Since the actual installation didn’t take me nearly as long as I thought, we even had time before Clara needed her room back (for the ever-important nap) that we could get our caulking done. We just used white paintable Dap caulk (made for windows, doors, and moldings) to fill all of the seams (like those pictured above) along with nail holes. We also ended up caulking the line where the molding meets the ceiling (even if though there wasn’t a noticeable gap, it made it look a lot more seamless to do that around the entire room).
See, much better. And the stuff isn’t even painted yet!
So yeah, I do still have to paint it – since there are some parts where the primer is pretty scuffed up – but even still, we’re very happy with the results and, as Clara would say after she uses the potty successfully, “I’m so proud.”
Total Project Cost
Oh yeah, and since I didn’t need all eight of the pieces that I purchased (I only had to cut into one of my back-up pieces for that confusing-at-first scarf joint) our material cost ended up being $67. Add the cost of the Kreg Crown Pro ($30) put my total project cost at just $97. Not bad! We’ve seen enough house listings that say “crown molding throughout” to know that it’s a nice selling point – and now we’re one room closer to a fully crowned house.
With my new found crown-fidence (see what I did there?) I’m gonna tackle Clara’s big girl room, the guest room, and even our freshly board & battened hallway so that every room in the house (except for closets, bathrooms, and our little laundry nook) will have crown molding. And who knows, I might just go crazy and do those at some point if I’m craving some quality nail gun time. Well, probably not the closets…
More Crown Molding Projects & How-Tos
Since first publishing this post, we’ve tackled a few other crown molding installations – include how to make beefier, more fancy looking molding. Check them out below:
- How To Install Chunky Crown Molding For An Upgraded Look
- Adding Crown Molding To Kitchen Cabinets
- Installing Crown Molding Around Built-In Bookcases
Does anyone have any tricks to their crown molding installations that they’d like to pass on? Or have you had a similarly discouraging first experience with crown, only to crack the crown molding code on your second attempt?
A few weeks ago I installed crown molding in my master bathroom and I decided if I ever try it again I will definitely be buying a miter saw and that angle finder! Trying to use the miter box was such a pain. But I finished it and it looks great. I thought the hardest part was goig to be installing it, but that wasn’t too bad (I did it by myself using a hammer and nails!)
Clara’s room looks great!
That’s awesome Tara! It sounds so pretty – and it’s hard work using a hammer and nails! That’s how we did the crown in the kitchen and it was brutal!
xo
s
Looks great. I didn’t know what crown molding was but now I realise it’s what we call ‘coving’ in England. We like to be different :)
Haha, I love that!
xo
s
you guys are seriously real professionals now–you tackle such tough projects with ease, i’m so impressed! i wouldn’t have thought to let the wood pieces acclimate to the climate of your home for a week, thats a really great tip. i tried to do some floor trim that needed replacing in our tiny pantry at our old place, and those angled cuts in the corner did me in, i never got it right. this room is looking great!
Aw thanks so much Mary! We’re still just finding our way in this whole DIY thing (how did we just buy a nail gun last week?!?! Haha!). Trial and error seems to work though!
xo
s
I had no idea you could do a whole room for under $100. Looks like crown molding is getting added to our to-do list!
Aw, good luck Christina! It makes such a difference (even more than these pics) in person!
xo
s
I love it! I went out and bought the same nail gun since you guys loved it so much. We have ZERO crown moulding, but that’s about to change. We also are going to replacing our base moulding in pretty much the entire house except one room. I wish I had the nail gun for when we did board and batten in our bathroom. Hammering in the boards really stinks!
Have fun with your new toy Maureen! Good luck with everything!
xo
s
I am so impressed! This project still scares me but your handy dandy tool there does seem to simplify it. It looks so good! Maybe one day in my house…all of which is molding free. :(
You can totally do it Megan!
xo
s
Lovely job…as always. I thought crown molding would be way more expensive…now you’ve got me thinking…
Question! I saw your nail gun in your previous post…did you already have the air compressor? Where did you get that? Details?
Thanks as always!
That came with it! All for $70! We just read reviews to find a really well rated but affordable one!
xo
s
Great job on the crown! I had to smile at “probably not the closets”… I’m working on removing popcorn ceilings in my house, one room at a time. I did my master bath and bedroom recently, and my mom (who was helping me) pointed out that I’ll still have the popcorn in the closet. I decided this: I hope I always have more important things to do in my life than spend a weekend working on my closet ceiling! The popcorn on the ceiling in my closet will always be a reminder to me of the many blessings that fill my life!
Hahahahaha!
xo
s
Just a quick question. When we had crown moulding installed by a contractor he first put a 1×2 (or something like that) behind the moulding. Is that something you came across when researching installation?
Never heard of that! Anyone else heard of that?
xo
s
I replied on the wrong post! Easier to install backer board to studs and then moulding to backer board.
Interesting! Never heard of that! Rest assured it was really simple to do without any backerboard though! So it’s a way to save time/materials if you’d like to just go without it :)
xo
s
I’e heard of it. Its called a cleat. You put it behind the moulding so you have something more hefty to nail into. And that way, you can secure the cleat to some studs or something.
I don’t get it. Why can’t you just lay the crown pieces flat on the jig and saw straight down at whatever length you need? I’m hopeless at understanding this kind of stuff :/
Since they hang on the wall at an angle (they’re not flat against the wall like baseboards, they literally angle out) the cuts would all be wrong and wouldn’t line up.
xo
s
Oh! Thanks, I was confused. Good thing y’all did this tutorial because if I ever tried this I never would have know until it was too late!
Sure thing! Good luck with everything Jayme!
xo
s
I love crown molding, but it totally intimidates me. Thanks for the tips so it’s not as scary!
Looks great!!! I am curious to know why you chose not cope this time around. I am finishing up my bathroom and didnt cope either, but I saw that you coped in the kitchen. Also, what compressor do you have?
Thanks,
The new tool (the Crown Pro) takes the place of coping! So much easier and faster! And the compressor came with the nail gun (all of it was $70). So helpful!
xo
s
We were doing this just last night in our powder room which I gutted and am almost done. Frustrating, but the tutorial you posted should render positive results! Thanks!
I have a pile of crown molding in a house I’m renovating right now that my previous “trim-guy” had installed upside down and attached with the flat part right on the wall, not even angled at the ceiling! I had him take it all down because obviously, he’d never installed crown before. I keep telling myself I’m just going to learn how to do it on my own but every video or home show I’ve watched scares me out of it. I’m feeling inspired to try it now that I know there’s a special tool out there! Great post!
Oh no! That’s terrible! Hope that the second time’s the charm!
xo
s
Crown molding looks great! A little off topic here, but I was wondering if you guys were still composting with your pallet system, and if you’ve had better luck with that or the original plastic bin system you used. Thanks for all the lovely posts!
Oh yes, it’s still going strong!
xo
s
We’re installing quarter round next weekend, so this post is right on time! Kind of off topic, but have you considered using a curtain rod and a floor-to-ceiling length panel for the reading nook/closet, just to balance out the drapes on the other side of the room? Just noticed that the tension rod was sagging a little (like they ALL do over time).
Oh yes, that could use a little upgrade for sure!
xo
s
Okay, I did some googling. Main reason: easier to find studs when first nailing up a backer board. Then, the crown moulding is nailed to the backer board, not studs and joists.
Ah, that was supposed to be a reply to my post. iPhone fail!
The crown molding looks fantastic – congratulations on the second-time-around success! My favorite part of this post though is the proof that we both have great taste in pens. Yay Pilot Precise V5! Best pens ever!
Crown always makes a big difference. We just put it up in our family room and the technique that helped us the most was to cope the corners. Essentially you do a straight cut and a regular right inside corner cut. Then you use a coping saw to cut the back of the right side out so it fits perfectly regardless of if your corners are 90 deg or not. We wrote about it in more detail on our blog here: http://www.softpuppywarmhouse.com/2013/02/25/adding-the-crown/
Love that!
xo
s
Looks perfect!!
Have to show this post to my husband. We have been talking about putting crown molding in our bedrooms, but he is kind of dreading the project. With your great instructions and handy tools it should be much easier. Thanks for the info on the nail gun. My hubby has been wanting one for a long time and I seem to be unable to find the right one. Can’t wait to get started.
Beautiful! COOL tools rule!
I can relate to the flip-flop-which-angle crown-nundrum.
I liken it to the time-zone-daylight-savings conversion mind bend. Ouch!
Since John looks so sexy in his reading glasses, I can imagine that Sherry is looking for every oportunity to give him a new tool just so he has to read the instruction manual :)
Haha, amen!
xo
s
After reading your post last week about your nail gun I ordered one on Thursday and it arrived on Friday just in time for us to install trim in the kitchen. My husband loves it and is very happy that it made the job go by so much quicker. I am going to use it this week myself and install trim and baseboard in the bathroom, I can’t wait to try it.
So glad!
xo
s
Crown molding looks great! Where is the cute cow art from?
That’s from an insanely talented reader who painted that for us and made our mouths drop by hanging them to us at a signing. Aren’t they cute?
xo
s
I vote for putting crown in the laundry area! Bathrooms and closets seem good to skip, but i think it’d really finish off that cute little nook nicely, especially since it’s right at the kitchen and office which both have molding too. Plus, it’s so little, it’d be cheap!
True! I’ll have to work on John… hah!
xo
s
Great post, guys! I would love to add crown molding throughout our house, but we have textured ceilings. Has anyone had any experience with this who could offer any tips?
Anyone have tips? I would think just caulking the line where the crown meets the ceiling would make it nice and seamless!
xo
s
Ha! I can see the listing now….”4 bedroom brick ranch featuring crown molding in all closets….” Everyone will think it’s the latest thing and rush to put up their own ;)
Hahahah!
xo
s
Looks amazing! Also… this is totally unrelated, but I was checking out some chairs at Target online and came across this: http://www.target.com/p/avington-upholstered-armless-accent-slipper-chair-gazebo-cloud-floral/-/A-13916598#prodSlot=large_1_24 That fabric has been popping up EVERYWHERE! You guys are such trend-setters :)
Aw, I love those chairs!
xo
s
Looks so good! It makes me want to crown my house as well. I better get saving my pennies. Good work!
Looks awesome! Crown moulding is definitely a must have upgrade, IMHO.
Thanks SO MUCH for posting this, John! We are about to install crown in our new master bath and master bedroom. It is currently sitting in the basement getting to know our house. ;) I am ordering my husband that handy dandy Kreg tool RIGHT NOW! I am sure it will save many a curse word and frustration. THANKS for the tip! (And Kreg owes you a commission! ha!)
We have yet to tackle crown molding but doing new baseboards through 4 bedrooms and a 17′ long living room was enough back bending/breaking work for us to take a few months (March 9 makes our 1 year mark in the house!) off from even going down that aisle at Home D or Lowe’s. But the good thing is that now we have realized that large jobs like that we REALLY need to get them done in one shot before our bodies get hip to what’s going on and try to revolt. :)
My best, Lynn
* Oh and it looks super great in Clara’s room! A real classy finish…or almost finish.
There are not enough hours in a day to explain how frustrating our first attempt at putting crown molding up in our sons bedroom was. Because it was so difficult and we never ended up figuring out how to do it, we ended up buying these corner pieces (not the decorative type that are usually longer than the crown itself) where the two pieces if crown molding slide into the back of the corner pieces. We have stained dark wood trim throughout our house, so we just stained those corner pieces to match. They actually look seamless up against the trim and I’m so happy with them. (They are shaped like the corners of the trim would be, so you just cut the trim straight across which is easy!) however, we do have plans to put some crown molding in our master, so I’m mentally bookmarking this post to refer back to it and we will give it another try! I think we even bought that kreg tool and still couldn’t figure it out…I wonder if my hubby read those instructions?! Probably not! Lol
Oh man, that sounds rough!
xo
s
Trying to remember/figure out which way to cut the wood so the edges match up is the hardest part! When we were adding molding to rooms in my mom’s house we were constantly having to start over and recut. It didn’t seem to matter how many times we swiveled the saw blade or flipped the molding..we were bound to mess one up once in a while! Seeing these suggestions (and everybody else’s in the comments!) will be so helpful in the future.
The room looks great!
We have had crown molding sitting in our basement for at least a year. My husband has been putting off the project partly due to the difficulty of cutting the angles for the corners. Thanks for sharing the tip about the Kreg Crown-Pro. I’m forwarding this post to my husband with hopes that it will motivate him to finally cross this project off the list!
This is AWESOME. That tool is just what we need. Our family room has crown molding, but it was a PAIN to install for the same reasons you had trouble. The measuring and angles are SO confusing!
OOH, such a timely post. We’re about to put crown in our kitchen (the cabinet guy will do it on top the cabinets but we’re doing the rest of the room to save money). Crown molding is not cheap so $30 for a tool to help us is well worth it if it keeps us from screwing up expensive boards. I’m all over that. Thanks for the tips.
We have yet to tackle crown, but we’ve redone all the door and window casing and almost all of the floor trim, we also caulk the joints, but occasionally run into it shrinking up months later… We use the DAP ALEX white paintable caulk, I know you mention DAP is this what you are using? Or have you seen this issue before?
Hmm, that sounds strange that it shrinks months later (sometimes things shrink when they dry and then you reapply them a few hours later for a flush look). We use Dap paintable caulk for moldings/windows/doors and have had luck with it so far (we used it in our first house too, and years later it was in good shape). Hope it helps!
xo
s
I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for posts like this–whenever I start a home project by myself I come here first to see if you guys have done it so I can learn from your successes and mistakes. I’ve saved myself a significant chunk of time and money over the past few years.
You’re welcome LMG! Happy to help.
-John
Nice job! Looks like John got a little sketch book, great idea. He should date each little project to look back on some day.
Looks great! This is one of the projects we want to tackle in our bedrooms :) Thanks for the tool tip :)
Beautiful! I have a dumb question … what is that saw called that you are using? does it come with the attached table? is it useful for things other than molding? and is there an easy way to do crown molding without it? Maybe that was four dumb questions. :)
It’s a miter saw. It comes with the table and everything. You can do molding without it (with a miter saw and a miter box) but it takes more work/time :)
xo
s
If you can’t stop there is always the mancave basement to add crown molding.
Haha!
xo
s
Crown molding always make a room look better! You did a great job.
How would you handle walls that have angles up?? They are not all the walls but just one wall. Can you cut to have it follow along or would that look weird?
Hmm, we haven’t tackled anything like that. Anyone have advice for Deb?
xo
s
That’s exactly why our house will (probably) never have crown molding. Both our upstairs bedrooms have 2/4 walls sloped, and our living room and dining room have coved ceilings (which we love). Sorry I’m not any help, just letting you know you’re not the only one with that issue!
Could you do a picture rail (not right at the top of the wall) then paint the wall above the railing and the sloped ceiling a lighter color? Sort of like this house crash in their dining room? https://www.younghouselove.com/2012/12/house-crashing-lovely-at-last/
Looks great! I grew up in a house with crown molding and just noticed how lonely my current rental is without it.
THANK YOU! Breaking the task into bites of information, which you both do so well, makes the difficult seem simple. My next lumber/hardware store purchase: Kreg crown molding kit. It looks excellent — job well done.
Thanks Dianne! Happy to help.
-John
we bought new kitchen cabinets from a big-box stores and they sold us crown molding to finish them up
we hung the cabinets and then we realized the cabinets were never meant to have crown molding (cuss-word!).
I think with this tutorial, we might be able to make the crown molding work – crossing my fingers!
Good luck Pam!
xo
s
The crown looks so great :)
This looks awesome!! Great job! We are house hunting and whenever we look at fixer-uppers, I think in my head “John and Sherry would totally change this and that…”. It’s been super helpful, so thanks for being the voices in my head! ;)
xo Rachael
Home Sweet Harbor
Oh my goodness. I think I’m in love… A man who reads instruction manuals?! I die!
xo
Heather
Haha, I know right?! Not to worry, he only seems to read them when things like broken limbs can result in not following them (he ignores Ikea assembly instructions like the best of them, haha).
xo
s