So, I finally got around to doing that crown wood project I’d been thinking about. Well, technically, it’s crown molding for the study. The room just felt a bit bare up top, you know? Looked unfinished. I figured, how hard could it be?
Getting Started
First thing, I went and got the wood. Just the standard primed MDF stuff, nothing too fancy. Easier to paint. Measured the room walls, probably measured them three times just to be sure. You mess up the measurements, the whole thing’s a wash.
Then came the tool gathering. Dragged out my miter saw – that’s the key piece of gear for this job. Also needed my nail gun, a level, tape measure, pencil, caulk gun, and plenty of spackle and caulk. Oh, and a ladder, obviously.
The Actual Work
Okay, cutting the molding. This is where things get interesting. Those inside and outside corner cuts are tricky. You gotta set the miter saw angle and the bevel angle just right. My first few practice cuts on scrap wood? Let’s just say they didn’t exactly meet up perfectly. Took a bit to get the hang of holding the molding against the saw fence properly, upside down and backward, basically.
Once I felt confident enough, I started cutting the real pieces. Measured a length, marked it, and made the cut. Then I’d take the piece inside, hold it up to the wall, see how it fit. Sometimes it was good, sometimes I had to shave a tiny bit more off.
Getting the first piece up was a bit fiddly. Used the level to make sure it wasn’t crooked. Shot a few nails in with the nail gun to hold it. Tack, tack, tack. Moved onto the next piece. The long straight runs were easy enough. Just had to make sure the ends lined up okay for the scarf joints.
The corners, though. That’s where you hold your breath. Cut the two adjoining pieces, bring them up, see if they meet nicely. Most of them did, thankfully. Had one corner that fought me a bit – the wall wasn’t perfectly square, imagine that. Had to recut one side slightly. Used a coping saw for one inside corner joint too, just to see if it worked better. It did okay, but took way longer than the mitered corners.
- Measure wall section.
- Cut molding piece with correct angles.
- Test fit the piece.
- Apply some adhesive maybe (I skipped this, just used nails).
- Nail it to the wall studs and the top plate.
Yeah, finding the studs in the wall was important. Used a stud finder. You want those nails biting into solid wood, not just drywall.
Finishing Up
With all the pieces up, it looked… okay. Kinda rough still. Lots of small gaps, especially where the molding met the ceiling or in the corners. And nail holes everywhere.
So, next step: spackle and caulk. Filled all the nail holes with spackle. Let it dry, then sanded it smooth. Then I ran a bead of caulk along the top edge where the molding met the ceiling, and the bottom edge where it met the wall. Also caulked the corners and any joints between pieces. This part makes a huge difference. It hides all the little imperfections and makes it look seamless.
Let the caulk dry. Then it was time for paint. Just a couple coats of semi-gloss white, same as the rest of the trim in the room. Painting crown molding in place is a bit of a neck-acher, gotta be careful not to get paint on the ceiling or walls.
Stood back finally. Looked at it. Yeah. That did the trick. Room looks much more complete now, more polished. It was a fair bit of work, more fiddly than difficult maybe. But seeing it done? Pretty satisfying.
