Decorative crown molding will add charm and elegance to your rooms just by their very nature. Even the most plain looking of rooms can be transformed into tasteful spaces just by adding crown molding. The available choices of decorative styles today make the options almost limitless, giving the homeowner the ability to turn his living room into a Victorian parlor or a warm rich library.
You can use decorative crown molding to highlight and feature different areas of your room. By using pieces that are complementary to the trim around your fireplace or French doors you can seamlessly pull the design together. The most effective technique is to paint or stain the crown molding to match the existing trim of the room. If you aren’t able to do that, then at least match the trim types. For instance, if your windows and doors are trimmed in a dark stained wood, don’t use a white plastic on the ceiling. While this isn’t a terrible look against your white ceiling, it wouldn’t quite flow with the room’s other dark trim. Try to maintain consistency.
One other option is to redo the room’s trim to match the crown molding if you’ve found a favorite molding style that doesn’t currently complement your décor. It’s more work to replace everything in the room, but if you’re fallen in love with a particular style then don’t make sacrifices if you don’t have to.
Some homeowners have gone so far as to extend their new wood crown molding all the way across the ceiling in the form of natural wood ceilings instead of the common plaster. Just be sure you don’t darken the room so much that it becomes gloomy and depressing. If you prefer this option be sure to use light airy wood stains instead of the darker ones.
Most good molding installations are handled by professionals, but we always champion the skills of a do it yourselfer. If you can’t handle the complicated corner cuts we suggest using corner molding and corner blocks designed specifically to avoid those difficult cuts.