Crown Molding Cheat Without Using Crown Molding

Crown molding cheat without using crown molding. That’s what I did in my kitchen and it looks fabulous. For anyone out there who cannot afford crown molding this cheat is for you. If you cannot cut crown molding without making a gazillion mistakes (like I do) then there is still some tips for you if you are using crown molding.

I have used the corner cheats for crown molding on a bathroom renovation a few years back with great success. I cannot cut the angles required of crown molding. It does not matter how many videos or tutorials I watch- my brain does not think in angles. So these corner blocks that you can find at your local home and lumber store are awesome. There is no fancy smancy tools needed because you just cut the board to length and put in place.

Crown molding cheat without using crown molding cost me around $100. Yes $100 and it required 2 trips to 2 different home stores to find the materials to create this budget friendly and fabulous crown molding cheat. Truth be told, I had to put up crown molding because I had some issues with cabinets meet the ceiling and where wall meets the ceiling. My house is not square and sometimes to hide a cosmetic flaw you need to be creative.

Crown molding can add value to your home as well. However if you have a home that needs a lot of work and your budget is closer to $100 than a $1,000, then my low cost ideas are for you. My favorite home store is Home Depot followed by Lowe’s which is right up the road. Home Depot sells trim by the foot and for lumber and paint I go there but for some trim pieces I find Lowe’s to be more cost ‘effective’.

So here is the breakdown of the materials list:

Home Depot- 1″x4″x14′ boards that were $3.61 a piece. Note: I had to sort through to find straight pieces but the savings was well worth it!
Home Depot (or Lowe’s) for the molding (I found my molding at Home Depot)
Lowe’s- the inside and outside corner cheats @ $1.18 a piece
Tube of paintable/white caulking which is needed to fill in gaps for that finished professional look
Finish nails, hammer, and a nail set (or something so you can tap the nails all the way into the trim so the nail heads are not sticking out from the wood trim)
Router (optional because using the 1×4 is fine without routering an edge)
Help (if you have 14′ piece to put up it helps to have a helper)

Crown molding cheat without using crown molding is the easiest and most cost effective way to give you a finished look in any room. If you have cracks and joint issues where the wall meets the ceiling, then this cheat is for you. My cost for this was around $110 by the time I had to buy finish nails and a tube of caulking and I had about 75 feet of ‘crown molding’ to put up. In the above picture you will I had to overlap the molding trim over the outside corner piece- this was because the 1×4 routered board was thicker and it did not butt to the corner piece flush so hubby and I improvised.

In the kitchen I had to improvise because my cabinets were at different measurements along the ceiling. So to make my trim flow and blend I used the corner pieces as a sort of transition where I only used the molding around the top of my cabinets where I could not use the routered 1×4 (shown below).

I hope I inspired you to start on that project you have avoided. I also shined up the engineered wood floors that were dull and lifeless and repainted the cabinets and walls. Thank you for stopping by and be sure to check out my fabulous kitchen rehab (posted soon).