# Crown molding on with catherderal celing for LED lights



## My_attempt (Jan 29, 2009)

I am attempting to use LED lights to give my room some ambiance.... I came up with the idea of putting crown molding on the walls about 7" inches below the ceiling to allow the LEDs indirect to light the cieling... There are a few issues I am not sure about...

1) The room length is 20', can I run the crown molding without supports the entire length, especially since I will not be tacking the molding to the ceiling?

2) The largest angle on crown molding I found is 45 deg, but my ceiling about 33 degrees, so the molding pinches (gets closer) at the ceiling, which will let on a little light splash out onto the ceiling..

3) If the crown molding is too low to allow the light on the cieling, you will see the walls above the crown molding... Which are not white (yet?)... FYI, the walls are 9' but I can see it when I am on the opposide side of the room.

Do I need to build a buildout box then put the crown molding on that? How will that stay on the walls without pulling away from teh walls?


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## Termite (Apr 13, 2008)

The crown moulding needs to be nailed to something at the top. That could be 45* angled blocks every 16" or so fastened to the wall, and you could notch them for the rope light. You wouldn't be able to see them.

A framed box soffit wouldn't help this situation the way I see it.


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## Termite (Apr 13, 2008)

LED lights? Rope light is what is usually used in this application.


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## harleysilo (Jun 19, 2006)

Do you need the decorative nature of the crown, or is it just something you can use to solve the problem? I only ask cause I can think of another way but it would look different. Do you have a table saw or a radial arm saw?


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## harleysilo (Jun 19, 2006)

So you could get some clean 3/4 pine boards, cut a couple of 45's on them, attach a piece of blocking, and then screw to your ceiling/wall studs as shown. Might direct the light better if you painted the hidden part white prior to hanging them up. I didn't draw how the corners would meet, but i'd do it just like crown, so ultimately it looks like a continuous run around your room.


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## Willie T (Jan 29, 2009)

Actually 45 degree Crown Molding is far more rare than either 38 or 52 degree sprung Crown Molding. Go back and look at the lumber store again. You should easily find 52 degree molding to your liking.

I did the same thing you are talking about, but I built a lower shelf into the setup wide enough to accept single fluorescent fixtures. I supported a 20' length by simply putting screw eyes into the wall and the back of the molding, (about every four feet), then tightening some steel tie wire between each of the two screw eye pairs.


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## My_attempt (Jan 29, 2009)

Sorry, yes I have rope LED lights for this application. I have a table, compound miter so whatever cuts are necessary I can make them. No I am not tied to Crown molding, it just was my idea to hide the rope lights and look decorative.

I thought of a A framed box soffit, and you are right, it still pinches, its just farther away from the wall, so more light will get out.

harleysilo, it would work and has a look of its own. The end wall has windows well above the side wall heights so it must terminate into the end walls.. But that's ok. I guess if we want a more decorative look I could cut crown molding to the angle of the wall and use it vs. clean pine. But that is a design issue the other person in my house makes.... 

Willie T do have any pictures, I would live to see how it looked. 52 deg crown although better still is 5 deg short of parallel to the ceiling. Not sure if that is noticeable? I guess I could trim the crown moldings edge to match the exact degrees desired.

One issue I forgot to mention is the power is already pulled through the wall 5" below the ceiling/wall connection. Opps I had not designed the implementation when I finished the walls.


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## Willie T (Jan 29, 2009)

Sorry, no photos at this time. But this may help. I did not place my box nearly so close to the ceiling as you seem to be planning to. The farther down the wall, the farther up the ceiling the fixtures will wash that ceiling with light.


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## drtbk4ever (Dec 29, 2008)

I just read on another thread about the CutnCrown system. Wow that looks like the way to go for cutting crown molding. You may want to look into this too.

Maybe my logic is flawed, but is it really a big deal if you increase the angle on the crown molding. The bottom edge of the bottom lip of the molding will still touch the wall but you will not be able to nail through the bottom lip as it doesn't sit flush. 

As long as you are using the angled blocks termite mentioned, wouldn't this work?


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## harleysilo (Jun 19, 2006)

Have you strung the lights up temporary like to see if the generate enough light to make the project worthwhile?


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## II Weeks (Jan 6, 2009)

I havent done one of these in a long time but it went kinda like this.

We did a 2 piece crown with the base molding going on the wall first and then we glued in blocks every 2 feet or so. That base molding is comes in handy when nailing off the crown and the blocks. Its a decorative ledger board basically.


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## My_attempt (Jan 29, 2009)

I have ran the LED rope down the sides of the room and found the amount of light they give off is perfect. However, I have not put them in a box/sofit to see how they work when confined... Have you any real life advice that shows limitations that I won't know until I install it???

I agree painting them white or even putting a reflective surface in the bay will significantly help channel the light... That I assume will take some tinkering. Anyone have advise on the focusing of the light?

II Weeks, interesting and nice look. Did you put up a reflective surface to focus the light more along the ceiling vs. straight out. To bad the base boards were not longer, then they could sit on top of each other making a very easy connection.


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## Jay123 (May 7, 2008)

Here's a few shots of some crown dropped down for rope lighting...sorry the last one is without the lights, but as you can see the top of the crown is only 2-3 inches from the ceiling for a nice lighting effect...


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## johnnyboy (Oct 8, 2007)

wow it's nice to see how the other half lives


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## Jay123 (May 7, 2008)

Yeah, I wish either one was in my house, but it's only work we've done.


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## My_attempt (Jan 29, 2009)

Other half? Other 1/10th. Very Nice. But when you do not turn on the cans, how much light is in the room? Can you see enough to walk around and not crash into things?


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## Jay123 (May 7, 2008)

It's been a few years since these installs, but yeah, they give off a little light in a dark room...I wouldn't want to perform brain surgery with the rope lighting alone...but, they're more for ambiance than anything else.

J


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## My_attempt (Jan 29, 2009)

Thanks everyone.... I will see how a few of these options look and work for us.


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## SilverTouch (Jul 22, 2009)

Jay123 said:


> Here's a few shots of some crown dropped down for rope lighting...sorry the last one is without the lights, but as you can see the top of the crown is only 2-3 inches from the ceiling for a nice lighting effect...



I was thinking about doing this in my home. what is the minimum i should come down from the ceiling to install the crown molding to give the right effect. I don't have cathedral ceilings or anything, so i am going to have to go with the minimum here.

-thanks


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## Jay123 (May 7, 2008)

I've install the crown where the top of the crown is down 2 inches from the ceiling.


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

Keeping mind that LED lighting is directional, 30-60 degree light 
Rope lighting using normal minis will produce over all light in every direction
Rope light will produce heat, DO NOT coil it or light it up when it is coiled
If the LED in the rope light is pointing "the wrong way" then you will have less light coming out in the direction you want
I have 18' of LED rope light in my kitchen (to be remodeled) as a test
It is very noticeable the directional nature of the LED light
My rope light is fully exposed under the cabinets at present
The 18' length uses a total of 10w while on
Normal rope light will use around 3w per foot depending upon lights used

You can "line-up" the LEDs in the rope light to point in the direction you want
Provided they are all installed in the rope light pointing in the same direction


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