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Ironwood Builders Mouldings complete the finish of the home. Some are necessary, some purely decorative. Baseboards and casings (the trim around windows and doors) are in the necessary category as they cover up raw edges of drywall. Coffered ceiling, crown, chair rail, wall panels, wainscot...these are mostly decorative and not absolutely necessary to finish a room. You can do the necessary parts, paint and furnish...then come back to an area as time and budget allow, to add trim and further decorate the room. Hope this helps!

latoya_mcfadden That helps a lot. I don't have the crown molding chair rail, etc...However, as I look into finishing step by step, most builders or contractors are looking for big jobs and not the small jobs. If I just wanted to do a bathroom or living room, they have no interest in coming out. Do you think the chair rail or molding is too hard to do on my own? I do have a miter saw. Not sure how to use it though...

Mona Ives It is not hard to do on your own but you should have a few skills. You will waste materials and money but if you're generally handy or have a relative or friend who can teach you, you probably can do basic crown molding with minimal help. Many finish carpenters will come for a small job especially in this ecnomy. Even handy men or painters will do it.

Ironwood Builders Look on youtube for instructional videos, look for ones that "cope" the inside corners. Actually, crown moulding is the most difficult of standard trim to master.

latoya_mcfadden The only challenge I have that makes me want crown molding is the fact of painting. When going from room to room in painting, it is hard to change colors when there is no trim around the door or trim on corners of the wall. For example, in the pic below, the picture is the corner wall rit before going into living room on left, however I want my hallway and living different colors. Do I paint the little small trim between two main walls like the hallway or the living room color....

Ironwood Builders Latoya, we typically recommend a "global" trim color...one that unifies open spaces such as this throughout the house. We can easily change trim colors at doors if necessary, but as you are finding out, it can get messy in the open plan areas. Changing wall colors is easier and we do frequently "break" the color at inside or outside corners. Crown moulding won't help with the color break on trim...it just adds another element to make the change more noticeable....

Ironwood Builders And...perhaps we have a vocabulary issue? Crown goes at the ceiling line of the wall like baseboard does at the floor...but at an angle, like a crown. So it won't help with the color break. I hope I am clarifying things not confusing them. And if I'm being obtuse...let me know. Good luck!

latoya_mcfadden Thanks. That helped!!!

Ironwood Builders Anytime!