Icing on the Cake

We're this close to finishing up our family room! You can imagine how happy we'll be to be done.  As I mentioned last week, Chris was busy working on the crown molding. The room already had it, but it was dinky and we wanted something more substantial.  Beacon Hill Brownstone Chic needs big crown!  Here's a good example of how small and wimpy it was before.

We like to use two layers of molding. The first layer is baseboard placed upside down, then Chris attaches the crown on top of that. The result is a really wide and decorative molding that looks like one piece once it is all caulked and painted.

Chris has had some practice installing crown molding in other rooms on Hazard Ave and at our last house and has picked up a few tricks. Along with making "tough guy" faces, he makes a mock up of the two molding pieces together so that we can make sure the scale is correct.

Here he has built a template showing the angle of the crown and the overall length of the assembly once it is put together.   Using his template, Chris was able to find the appropriate height to install the inverted baseboard...  This accommodates the imperfections in the ceilings and walls and ensures that the molding is as consistent as possible.

Installing the upper level of crown after the inverted baseboard went up.

Now that the crown is up, the ceiling color is a little more obvious. I chose a cool gray like Casey suggested to contrast against the warm walls. It is Reserved White by Sherwin Williams.

 So what's left to do in here?
Chris is going to add quarter round molding to the baseboards in order to hide the small gap between the baseboards and the floors. Then we'll need to caulk and paint all the trim and molding.
We're in the home stretch...