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chgojudyinaz

Shower tile run up to wood crown?

chgojudyinaz
11 years ago

Has anyone run their shower tile up to wood crown? This is a neo angle shower (not in an alcove) in a 6 1/2 by 7 ft bathroom with a 9 ft high ceiling. It really functions as a powder room that happens to have a shower in it, so I am trying to minimize the bulk of the shower. I wanted to run crown moulding around the room. I am not sure how I feel about the tile stopping 18" below the ceiling and I thought about running the shower tile up to the crown. The tile would be slightly thicker (with the thinset) than the bottom of the moldings I have seen. Has anyone seen or done this? Thanks!

Comments (12)

  • StoneTech
    11 years ago

    If the tile is thicker, I would probably stop it at about 7 feet up and allow the paint or wallpaper to fill the gap to the top. I think that generally, this ties the colour of the room together...but it's your call.

  • chgojudyinaz
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I thought it would be helpful to post some pictures. Hope this works. This is the powder room and you can see where the old shower pan hasn't been demoed yet. The new shower will have the same footprint.

    Where you see the small cabinet is where the toilet goes.

    This is the tile I plan to use for the walls. The shower floor will be the same as the bathroom floor, but the stone tiles will be cut to 4 x 4. The matte white ceramic tile is running all around the bathroom and through the shower in a 3 x 6 wainscoting with diagonal 6 x 6 above the chair rail in the shower:

    The bummer is that the glass people tell me that I have to have a metal header on my otherwise frameless glass shower enclosure, like this (but mine is polished nickel):

    So, which option will look better? Running the shower tile all the way up to butt the wood crown at the ceiling, or ending the tile at 7 1/2' above the floor (18" down from the ceiling). The finish carpenter said he could build out the crown a tiny bit all around the room which wouldn't be noticeable once the crown was painted. I am doing a light greige paint color on the walls and ceiling. The plan is to continue the chair rail and deco through the shower, so that the shower doesn't dominate the room any more than it has to. I appreciate any advice! Thanks!

  • chgojudyinaz
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    My pictures turned out so big. If you go to tools in Internet Explorer you can reduce the zoom down to 50% or so to see a whole picture at once. Sorry, still learning.

  • millworkman
    11 years ago

    You can use angle mounted brackets as opposed to the header, I have attached a picture of what they look like. CRL makes these brackets in most every finish.

  • sweeby
    11 years ago

    I'd vote for tile to the bottom of the crown. It would take a real nit-picker to fuss over a 'tile is 1/4" thicker than crown' situation.

    Just to be sure though, you could test a piece of crown against a piece of tile to see how big the difference is, and if it looks 'off' to you.

  • bill_vincent
    11 years ago

    I agree. But caulk in between the wood and tile.

  • chgojudyinaz
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Bill, do you mean sanded caulk?

  • napagirl
    11 years ago

    I say tile all the way to the crown, but use a Build-up Crown as your carpenter suggested.

    Its really the traditional way of installing crown moulding. First you install a 1"x4" backer on the wall and then install the crown leaving, the bottom 1" or so of the backer exposed. You can finish off the backer with either a routed edge or another piece of trim.

    (OT - my DH did this in our home and used a 1-3/8" Coronado Cap at the bottom of the backer board. To create the illusion of a higher ceiling, he also ran the backer and Coronado Cap down the corners of the room and across the bottom which also became the baseboard.)

    Hope this helps to ease your mind about "building out the crown a tiny bit all around the room which wouldn't be noticeable."

    Here is a link that might be useful: Wood moulding trims, ideas and photos

  • bill_vincent
    11 years ago

    Sand is put in caulking for one reason, and one reason only-- to match the texture of the grout. It has no mechanical purpose. SO if you use unsanded grout, use unsanded caulking.

  • dkv-texas
    11 years ago

    I agree with lewisoh, go to the 84" mark, looks to be about where the blue painters tape is. I believe this will help show the height of the room & highlight the crown.

  • kelvar
    11 years ago

    When we did our basement bathroom, we build out the crown such that it was flush with the tile. To ensure a color match, we used the caulk that came from the manufacturer of the grout to caulk between the top of the tile and the crown. The room had a 7 1/2 foot ceiling.