Crown moulding is awesome. It makes rooms appear longer, wider and taller. Everyone will tell you crown moulding is a bitch. People will give you ALL sorts of tips. Here we break it down simple so that anyone with a saw, a miter box (compound miter saw would be easiest), a tape measure, a pencil, a few 2X4’s, nails and some nail hole filler can bang it out like a pro.

The first thing you do is PAINT all your mouldings.

Next, rip down 2X4’s into stringers that will be nailed up along your ceiling/wall intersection giving you solid wood to nail into without having to worry about finding studs while holding up your moulding. These stringers are cut to match your spring angle (the angle your crown moulding will make between your wall and ceiling) and small enough to fit into the recess behind your crown. Don’t cut them TOO small – perhaps just enough to leave a ¼ inch gap between the back of your crowns and the stringer. This will allow you to put the crown in tighter, or looser along any wall ceiling to make up for high or low spots. You can get 4 stringers out of any 2X4 by cutting each outside edge, leaving an upright, flat-topped triangle out of the middle piece that can then be ripped down the center, giving you 4 triangular stringers.

Next, locate the wall studs. Starting tight in the corner, locate a stud to start anchoring your stringer to. You can measure about 16" to locate the next although in older houses the spacing may not be as uniform. You can use a stud finder, but a nail is quicker and less expensive – especially since these will be hidden behind both the crown and the stringer. Nail your stringer into the studs along each wall you will be installing your crown.

Now you need to cut. I suggest using a compound miter saw, but a miter box with a shape back saw work fine too. Build a template by cutting two pieces of crown, about 18" long with a 45° inside angles. Nail them together into a “V” forming your inside corner. You will use these as test pieces to check the angles of your corner. Hold your template up into your corner and measure how far down the WALL the bottom edge of your crown sits. This is the measurement you will use around the entire area for your crown – making your corners very close. If you have some space, don’t sweat it, we’ll cover that!

From here, you just need to remember your cuts:
(1) All crown should be cut upside down in your miter box (crown facing out/visible but the part of the crown that will be along your wall will be at the TOP of your miter box, not the base of it).
(2) INSIDE corners, you will make sure the crown is cut so that the BOTTOM of the MOULDING (which is at the top of your miter box – the part that will be along the WALL) is the longest edge. OUTSIDE corners you will make sure the TOP of the MOULDING (which is at the BASE of your miter box – the part that will be along the CEILING) is the longest edge.
(3) Lastly, cut your joins along the wall the same as you would a corner (but with overlapping edges), and don’t worry about cutting them where you will be able tightly together at a stud – YOU HAVE THE STRINGER! Butt them up as tightly as you can and nail them on either side (again, don’t sweat minor gaps – YOU HAVE HOLE FILLER).

Install your pieces as you cut them, tacking them into place. Once you have a wall done – all the way to the corner AND you’re satisfied with your joins, go back and drive in your nails, and set them below the surface. You may have some areas along the ceiling that isn’t as tight as in other areas, don’t worry, you’ll dress that up in the final steps. For now, go back and fill your joins and nail holes with hole filler, perhaps even some spackle for the corners if need be. Wipe off excess, and then hit them again with a DRY paper towel after they’ve dried, making sure you now have a clean, smooth surface. The final installation step makes ALL the difference in the world - caulking. Go back and run fine beads of painters caulk along the seams between the crown and wall/ceiling. Then run a wet fingertip down the bead, smoothing it over and filling the seams. When that dries, you may want to wipe everything down with a damp paper towel, taking off fingerprints and any other dirt. Pay special attention to the areas with hole filler. Smoothed over seams will be impossible to see after some paint is applied