Here’s my not so carefully guarded secret of how to install crown molding on a vaulted ceiling.
You don’t.
The majority of homes built during the last thirty years consist of both traditional and contemporary design elements. This is most evident in the great room and open floor plans that replaced more traditionally divided homes.
These great rooms, with their asymmetrical vaulted ceilings, are the contemporary portion — installing crown molding on these chaotic angles looks forced. Your crown molding looses and your great room looses.
Instead, install what I’ve come to call a “flying crown.”
Use a flying crown to divide up the vast walls of impersonal and hard to decorate exposures of drywall. Paint the walls below the flying crown a bold color, and then paint the space above the flying crown some other color.
This great room decorating technique allows you to create a more intimate space below, while retaining the lofty, airy space above.
Follow-up Post: No Crown Molding on Vaulted Ceilings.
Get your daily dose of molding joy by subscribing to TheJoyofMoldings.com RSS feed or by email. We never spam or send out newsletters.
Cheers, Ken
I just found your site, very nicely done!! And I am a firm believer in adding crown elements and I, too, have an open design home. Slightly different from yours. We did the crown on the level ceiling (only), but also avoided the angled portions (I agree with you on that). Not very expensive but it sure looks like it is!! I found your site when I noticed I was getting hits on mine for 2 story foyer molding and did a search. I think you just gave me an idea for some columns that have no decorative quality…we just fixed drywall issues where cracks developed at the “settling” points. This is next on our list with our contractor.
Jeanette, we’re so glad our site helped you out!