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Installing Crown Molding

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Tips for installing crown molding in a master bedroom or and room in your house. A great way to add interest and a finishing touch to any room.

I’ve already shared the start of my master bedroom redo, the painting of the ceiling with Benjamin Moore White Dove in Pearl, so now we’ll move on to painting the master bedroom walls and installing crown molding.

After the ceiling was painted, I moved on to painting all of the trim in the whole room using Benjamin Moore White Dove Advance.

ceiling halfway painted with a pearl paint sheen

Before I could paint the walls I had to fix a few spots where the paint was puckered and loose.

I scraped off the old paint, then I spackled and sanded and painted the walls, Benjamin Moore Hazy Skies Regal in eggshell finish.

After the walls were done we started installing the crown molding.

Is Crown Molding Hard to Install?

Not at all…once we rectified a rookie mistake.

It was our first time installing crown molding and the first try was a big fail.  

We cut and tried to install the first two pieces of molding but couldn’t get the edges lined up. It took us a while but we finally figured out the we were trying to put 2 different types of crown molding together. Gah!

So our first big tip is…buy all the molding you think you’ll need, and maybe a few extra pieces, at the same store.

The first store we went to didn’t have enough so we ended up buying a few pieces at another store, thinking it was the same.

It took some time to figure out that they weren’t the same.

Once we figured out what the problem was, the second day (second attempt) was much better.  Actually it all went up pretty quickly, in about 2 hours.

corner of master bedroom before crown molding

Supplies for installing crown molding

To start the installation process we used a piece of cardboard cut to size to mark the wall where the bottom of the crown molding would sit.

using a template for crown molding

I marked the walls every two feet with a pencil around the whole room so that each piece would line up once it was on the wall.

Crown Molding Templates

We had to do inside and outside corners in our space so to keep it all straight I made a couple of templates with scrap crown before we started. I marked each one so I could refer to it when making my cuts.

They were a lifesaver and helped us save time.

crown molding templates and cardboard for marking

With our templates made and walls marked, it was time to cut the molding to size.

After making our cuts outside on the chop saw, we put up the molding.

cutting crown molding on a chop saw

How do you nail crown molding?

We ended up buying a cordless brad nailer to make the job quicker and easier and it was definitely worth it.

Check out the side view of the molding after it went up.

side view of crown molding on wall

You can see the pencil marks we made with the cardboard, where the bottom of the molding needed to sit. It definitely made the job easier.

Perfect fit!

After the molding was installed, we went around to all of the nails that were sticking out and used a nail set to tap the heads in.

using nail set to finish crown molding

Caulking and Painting Crown Molding

Once the nails were set it was time to caulk the joints and wood putty the nail holes.

Why use wood putty and not caulk?

We’ve learned over the years that using caulk and spackle in the nail holes can actually rust the head of the nail, which can cause a spot on your finished paint.

Not a good look, and it adds more work when you have to fix it. 

applying wood putyy to nail holes in crown molding

Sooo…

Once the putty was dry, I sanded it smooth.

Really the caulk and wood putty part is the most tedious part of the whole project. In my humble opinion.

crown molding with wood putting covering nail holes

With the new crown molding sanded and caulked I got to work painting it.

I used the same BM White Dove that we used on all of the other trim in the room.

master bedroom with crown molding installed

And that’s it.

It wasn’t a necessarily hard job but it did take some time to do. I’m so glad we did it though because I think it definitely makes the room look more finished.  

Have you put up crown molding? What do you think is the worst part of the process?

collage of different steps installing crown molding