Entainment center - ceiling differs 1.25" inches side to side - what to do?
 

Entertainment center construction in process. Wall to wall - floor to ceiling. Come to find out the ceiling is 1.25" lower on one side (right side) than the other - how best to deal with this?

Crown molding will extend from around the room and run across the top front of the entertainment center. There is a 1x4 trim board across the top of the entertainment center. Obviously these need to be parallel - else the reveal between the crown and the trim board will plainly show the difference.

The concrete floor is level. The cabinet base is level. The top of the cabinets is level. The shelving is level. The ceiling is out of wack...

The cabinet boxes are already built as in the picture. And the picture was during work in progress. The problem was not realized until most everything is assembled and in place.

Suggestions?

You can scribe the top edge of the trimboard to the ceiling and still have the bottom edge level with the cabinet tops (you may need a wider board for this). I don't see a way to run the crown across it, though, because you can't scribe the profile. May have to have the crown die into the sides of the cabinets rather than go across.

Usually you can skim coat an out of level wall or ceiling, but not by over an inch.

Sorry, I can't think of a better idea.

I really wanted the crown to run across the top - but eliminating it there is an idea to consider. However, I am still concerned that the difference is great enough that it will still be apparant in the trim board...

We are considering to tilt the top trim board to run parallet to the ceiling, and apply the crown. This would make the trim board overlap the top of the cabinet more on the one end than the other. Input on how anyone thinks this will look is welcomed.

Take the sheetrock off the ceiling and rework the framing to level. You may just have to do about 4' or so and feather it into the ceiling. Depends if the situation is throughout the ceiling.
Ron

It will be obvious to you because you did the work. Most won't notice. Did your eye notice before starting the project?

I'm guessing that you want to attach the crown to the front of the existing top piece. Obviously, the crown will be perfect on one end and below the top on the other.

If you put a wide piece of trim at the top that overhangs the front of the box and then attach the crown to it, it won't be as noticeable across that distance.

The side wall hieghts are different - the left (an exterior wall) measures appropriatly at ~96", the right wall (an interior wall) measures 97"+... It would take a lot of shimming to try and make the ceiling level.

The house is 25 years old, a 1800 sq ft single story ranch rectangular box measuring 30'x60'. The ceiling is the bottom cord of trusses that span the 30" depth of the house (and parallel to the new entertainment center). Evidently the bottom of the trusses was not flat and the interior walls were built accordingly?

Furthermore,

you could use that front trim piece to cut that gap in half. Again, no one but you will be able to tell the trim piece isn't perfectly level. If you have a 2" reveal at one end, you could easily get away with a 1.5" reveal at the other.

The previous picture was a work in progress - here is an updated picture. The ceiling issue was not realized until after the entertainment center was nearly completed...

How wide is the face frame at the top? How big will the reveal be once the crown in attached?

It's a 1x4 at the top. On the right side, the crown just makes it over the larger gap - about 1/2" into the 1x4. At the other end, it would be 1 3/4 into the 1x4... I can space the crown a bit, to gain maybe 1/4" of the difference - but that still leaves a full 1" difference.

I am kinda liking the idea of a wider board at the top - overhanging and cut to reduce the difference - and then to see if the casual viewers eye would not readily pick out the issue.

Frankly, I think the most obvious "out-of-level" area to spot anything will be that long, straight run at the ceiling. It's not wide (tall) enough to fool the eye. I'd try to get that part pretty close. All the stuff on the shelves will break up visual continuity in those short runs, but not at the ceiling. Remember, books are usually all different heights, and plants, knick-knacks and angled photos throw off the eye anyway.

I would split the 1-1/4 up in several places... just a little in each.

• Bring the inside wall end (right side) of the base up maybe 5/16 to 3/8 of an inch, and slope it straight to nothing at the outside. The toe kick base setback will hide this much easily... or even a shoe base if you have no toe kick... (especially working off carpet)
• Then begin gradual tapers of the bottoms of all the bookcase verticals, by progressively taking more and more of the bottoms off all the way across, working toward the outside wall. (You're lowering the left end of these, not raising them.)
• The two pieces at the ends may show a tiny bit, but the center should be undetectable. And the 13 to 15 inch opening heights all across the end pieces should work well enough to hide the small differences.

Just a little here, a little there.... and you may not have to make up the whole 1-1/4. Perhaps 1 inch will do. I recently had to hide 7/8 across three feet (the eight foot wide office was 1-3/4" off across the ceiling). Fortunately I was able to paint all the trim the same color as the walls (which was close enough to ceiling white to also help), and even I have to say it is barely noticeable.

finished
 

Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions!

Here's a picture of what was done to fix it. The top board was dropped/tilted a bit at the left side (cutting each verticle stile a bit) and the crown was spaced a bit from the ceiling on the right side. While there is still a small difference, it is not readily noticable - and then only if you know to look for it.

Now to spend some time this weekend to prime and paint.
And to buy a big LCD TV to fill in the middle! :thumbup:

Again - thanks to all for great support!

Vince

Nice job. I like it. :thumbup:

Oh Geez! I can see the problem all the way from chicago. Gotta tear it down and start over. Ha hA.

looks great! I am planing on doing the exact same thing. Give us a little detail on how you constructed it.

The bottom is four 30" wide unfinished kitchen upper cabinets from Lowes (the cabinet doors are not installed in the picture). The bottom sits on a simple frame made from 2x4 to space the cabinets off the floor - the baseboard runs across the front of this frame to hide it and trim out the bottom.

The front of the 12" deep cabinets are spaced out from the wall about 20" - the cabinet top sits directly on the cabinets with a ledger board along the wall to provide support at the rear. The cabinet top is plywood with a rope trim to finish off the front edge.

As you can see from the the earlier in-progress picture the uppers are basically three boxs made from MDF. 1x2 hardwood pieces are used to create the face frame. The crown from around the room extends across the top of the unit.

The entire unit will be primed, then finished with white SW waterborne enamel to match all the crown, casings, and base in the rest of the ajoining areas.

The overall width is 163". The center section is sized to fit a 52" LCD Television which will be floated on a wall mount. Appropriate holes and openings are made to allow for cables, power cords, etc.