How To Hang Crown Molding On Kitchen Cabinets

Before You Get Started

First, select a crown molding with a vertical height about the same as the narrowest gap between ceiling and cabinet. Then glue a 3⁄4 -inch-thick strip of clear poplar to the molding’s top edge. Make sure the strip’s front edge and the top of the molding are flush, as shown at right. When the glue sets, sand or plane the joint so that it won’t be visible after painting. Now you can scribe this section to fit tight against the sloping ceiling.

Cabinets with Inset Doors

If your cabinets have inset doors, open them, place the augmented crown in position on the ceiling, and clamp it to the cabinet’s face frame. Trace a pencil line on the ceiling where it meets the scribe strip, then reclamp the crown so it sits flush with bottom edge of the face-frame top rail. Draw tick marks across this joint to help you align the crown after scribing. To make the scribe line, set your compass legs to match the widest gap between the crown and ceiling. Keep the legs aligned vertically as you run the compass point along the line on the ceiling and the pencil along the scribe strip. The pencil line will show the ceiling contour. On cabinets with overlay doors, which have hidden face frames or no frames at all, you’ll have to mount rabbeted filler pieces to the cabinets’ tops to give you something to nail the crown to. The fillers above the doors should sit flush with the door faces; these fillers are held in place with screws driven through the tops of the cabinets. The side fillers sit inside the cabinet frame, flush with the sides. They’re fastened to the cabinet with a combination of superglue gel, wood glue, and pin nails.

Steps for hanging crown molding:

Resources: 

The homeowner had already purchased Shaker-style cabinets that came with the crown molding. The wood glue and super glue Tom used for the crown molding and the filler pieces are both manufactured by Gorilla Glue. The other materials Tom used to install the crown molding, including the brad nailer, compressor, and spray paint, are all found at home centers. For the spray paint, Tom recommends getting a fast-drying spray primer with a dry time of one hour. Expert assistance with this segment was provided by Universal Factory Direct.