[nholt]

Hi, this is my first post but I've read many threads. Anyway I've been working on remodeling my small upstairs half bath seemingly forever. I've finally got to the trim stage. I got the baseboards installed and the trim around the door. Now I'm on to the crown molding and based on everything I've read and seen on the web so far, I'm afraid I installed it upside down. It's just four walls all inside corners with Home Depot MDF crown. The crown is "45 degree" and surprisingly my walls are almost square only one degree off or so. I attached some pictures. I'm still trying to master the coping joint but I think mine aren't to bad lol. And in a couple of picts I held up a scrap piece the way I think it should be. The picts weren't taken at the same time so they represent different stages of the crown install. I've got all four pieces up and I'm debating what to do.

This is the first room in the house we have worked on so far. The house is in the Houston Texas area and we are going for the popular "farm house/ cottage" look so we left the shiplap exposed and painted it white and covered the shiplap ceiling with beadboard paneling.

 

[joed]

If you think it is upside down then it is. It will install the same either way.

It's your house put it up the way the wife says.

 

[Millertyme]

In most crowns the more detailed portion is usually at the bottom. It doesn't really matter which way you put it but,technically speaking, it's upside down.

 

[woodworkbykirk]

im with miller on this one.. its always the largest ogee on the molding that goes to the ceiling unless its the cheaper symmetrical crown sold at big box stores

 

[mbrando1994]

It's standard to install crown molding with the "thicker" portion of the design up, so according to that yes, it's upside down. However, the room I'm sitting in has it this way as I type and it's never really bothered me, it was one of the first projects my stepfather and I did on the house and for what it's worth it's not a huge deal.

If you think it will bother you, take it down and recut and install the other direction, the finished result will have little to no impact on the room, unless you're designing a show room or museum. From the post, it seems it's just a bath so you have nothing to worry about, it's not common knowledge which direction crown should be hung.

As far as coping goes, do a regular miter cut for whatever type corner you have (inside outside) and then lay the board design up flat on a workbench. With your coping saw cut relief cuts in the molding starting from the backside (plain side) into and straight lines in the design (yours appears to have 10-11 straight edges in the design). Once done this you then need to cut out the rest of the design by following the design angling the saw the other direction cutting opposite direction of those relief cuts. This is how I learned and still do coping cuts and it seems to have always worked out. That molding you have there is a doozy! My first cope was on a basic curved piece of crown, you certainly set yourself up to fail with it but I think you did a nice job! Best of luck to you

 

[nholt]

Thank you for all the replies! I had a feeling it was technically upside down. Something about it just didn't and still doesn't look right to me and I'm afraid if I leave it then every time I walk into the room it will bug me. She thinks it looks fine but she was also the one who loved how I installed it at an angle (she thought crown molding was installed flat just like baseboards lol) But then again it's just a halfbath upstairs that nobody will probably even use except us. However if I were to take it down and start over with new pieces I could hopefully get tighter coped joints. The one in the pict is the best one. I'm not under any type of time crunch but I would like to finally finish this project!

 

[ddawg16]

But, next to that busy ceiling? Maybe it's better the way it is?

 

[Millertyme]

One thing I've learned over the years is when you get that gut feeling that you've done something wrong or not to your standards, it pays to suck it up and do it over. Little things drive me nuts and j used to always try to find a way to work around a mistake, but I noticed that I would spend more time just thinking about it that I would to just fix it.

 

[mbrando1994]

One thing I've learned over the years is when you get that gut feeling that you've done something wrong or not to your standards, it pays to suck it up and do it over. Little things drive me nuts and j used to always try to find a way to work around a mistake, but I noticed that I would spend more time just thinking about it that I would to just fix it.

+1

I completely agree, we have a running joke here where if I make a mistake everyone usually says "no one will ever see that" and I always respond "I know its there and will see it when I'm trying to sleep". Little mistakes drive me crazy as I'm a perfectionist when it comes to any work I do. So yes, sometimes its best to rip it down and start over. The benefits is that you gained experience in what you did.

 

[jlhaslip]

After offering to help my niece with re-trimming her house with new Base and Case, her husband decided to go ahead and do it himself with no help.
He installed the Casing with the thinner edge out. The Baseboards were proud of the casing. Of course, he had the entire house cased before noticing the problem.

His solution was to cut bevels on the ends of the baseboards to match at the casing. Looks like crap, but, whatever.

Your Cove looks as good as the wife thinks it does. Carry on.

 

[nholt]

Again thank you for all the replies. I've been busy with yard work so the bathroom got put on hold the last couple of weeks. Anyway despite how long and frustrating it was to get the crown up and wanting to just finally finish this project I think I want to go ahead, suck it up, and redo it. At the end of the day I think I'll feel better about it. And after all the practice and using everything I've learned from the first time I wanna challenge myself this time and aim for better coped joints and see if I can get it all cut and nailed up in one day! I don't have a nail gun which I know would help out but I actually take pride in knowing that every single nail then going back and countersinking every nail was all done by hand. Granted this is a very small room so I might want to invest in a nail gun when I a start on the much bigger living room lol

 

[Gymschu]

You will thank yourself immensely by borrowing or renting or buying a compressor and a nail gun. I did it the "old-fashioned" way for years. It could be so frustrating. The air nailer will save you TIME and FRUSTRATION + it's so much easier to hang crown by yourself.

 

[carpdad]

Going by the second photo, I think it is right side up. Convex is up and down side is concave, as the crowns usually look. The mid field relief lines? also face down, as they should. Before you actually remove and redo, you should tape a long piece to the wall (use it on a short wall later or cope to it) and see what it looks like.