pic 2

this is where it meets a 8 foot wall, and they painted it slanted down.

My best guess is that they were trying to make the molding look more substantial.

That's my best guess as well.

I had it done at the suggestion of my painter. Mine is considerably wider and goes from the picture rail to the crown. I have 12ft ceilings. It adds to the look of the crown and interest to the design as well as elegance. We have it in 2 rooms.

DR:

Sitting room

No doubt it was to give the room a more enhance-crown-moulding look.

LOVE trail runner's! YOu must have a talented painter. But trail runner's also has the lower trim, which makes a big difference.

Also love the darker walls, trail runner. I'm hoping to paint my LR next fall a darker color (low pine ceiling is what has me nervous). I was talking to a pro painter yesterday while I was looking at BM colors, and he told me he prefers darker colors. I told him that dark colors are like investing in the stock market: High risk, high returnâ¦or disaster. Lighter colors are the treasuries of painting. Lol.

Simply beautiful trailrunner....

Thank you ! I have to disagree dark jewel colors are SO over looked on this forum and in most homes. It makes me cringe everytime I hear a light color suggested for a room ! Go for it. I have jewel tones in a 3 ft x 2 1/2 ft half bath and in our huge master bedroom / bath suite ! I love rich colors and think they are so under used. They make a small room look intimate and warm and rich and a large room rich and elegant and cozy. You can't go wrong. Please don't discount rich colors. c

My guess is in the OPs situation, the molding ended sharply where some smaller molding began and the painter felt that it showed up the skimpiness of the molding. I have no idea why the small molding was added there. Most open plans have the crown end in such a position and "feather off" sotospeak but they added a thinner molding and most likely their painter did that to fool the eye and make it appear as a wider molding.

I have very wide crown molding in all rooms adjacent, but in my great room, I have no crown whatsoever, but lots of molding around the windows, fireplace, bookcases, doors, etc, which offsets the need for molding. Adding it to the crown would be "too much." In Trailrunner's case, the molding is enhanced by the thinner molding at the bottom.

I agree with Trailrunner on the use of rich jewel tones in the house. I think we all got induced by the white upholstery, white walls, bad wood painted white, good wood painted white, walls painted white, walls made to look like they were painted white to hide another color which in and of itself, is a beautiful look but there is more than one way to skin a bear.

I hope the 'white on white' on white tone is about to take its rightful place in the history books of decorating as another elegant way to decorate rooms and the rich colorful wall decor will return with a vengeance.

Completely agree, trailrunner, re: jewel and richer, darker colors. They are SO gorgeous when used correctly. they're a disaster, though, when not.

I've decided that picking paint color depth and tone is like the stock market: Darker, richer, bolder = High risk, but higher return if it works; lighter, esp. neutrals, low risk, but pretty safe.

People can be so afraid of dark colors, for common-sense reasons. However, they can pull of a MUCH more elegant, sophisticated look and feel. I love them.

to me, it looks like maybe they had a wallpaper border up and took it down to 'update'/neutralize the house when putting it on the market and either didn't have the same paint color anymore or just decided it looked ok white and left it.

i would think if it was intentional they would have put up some molding like trailrunner has- looks nice with the molding!!

In the navy room the picture rail was already there. This home was built in 1890 and the picture rail is the traditional way to hang art so as not to disturb the plaster walls with nails etc. We did the navy room first in 2002 . It was my first time working with my painter. It was his idea to convert the area above the picture rail to "trim" by finishing it in the same paint as the trim. He had used the process in other old homes he had worked on. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to do it again.

When I had my painter back in 2006 to complete our renovations on the house we decided to add the picture rail in the chocolate room and follow the same procedure. It has made the rooms so interesting and everyone who sees it thinks that the area is all trim ! I have meant to convert all of my art to the special hangers for a picture rail but as in many things it has remained a great idea that hasn't seen completion.

Thank you all for your kind remarks. Tibbrix I look forward to seeing your project too !

Here is another and better pic of the sitting room . It was a DR in the original house...that is a built in china cabinet. We have used the room as a DR and now use it as a sitting room with a small gate-leg table where we dine and work in front of the fireplace in the Winter months. Our chocolate room is now our current DR but has been our sitting room in the past ! We love to change things up and our Oriental rugs and art work lend themselves to this due to the consistent color/themes throughout the house. Hope this has been helpful to those who are looking for alternative decorating ideas. c

trailrunner, the trim and paint looks just beautiful..we did something similar in our condo...not quite as substantial though..we covered up an existing wall paper border with crown moulding and then added egg and dart paper border, with a half round trim at the bottom, the entire thing is painted with gloss BM 'simple white' and it really does enhance the look of the rooms...we only have 8' ceilings, yet it really 'works'

ds..I really like that ! I am so glad you posted this and hope others will see it so that they can do something interesting like it with a lower ceiling . Maybe you need to start a new thread ...something to do with trims/crown molds etc....c

thank you trailrunner!

i'm hardly an expert on this topic and this was my first DIY project (number of years ago)

there are some incredibly beautiful frieze borders that can be achieved, i've linked some very nice ones....the border i chose was from graham & brown (i think i got it from Lowes!)

i had to cut down the border, there was a separate design incorporated that needed to be cut away to make the border design work...it truly was a pretty easy project, one that was necessitated by the fact we were covering an unacceptable border already pasted on by the PO...

regarding the OP's pic, i think just putting a half round trim on the edge like the one we used on ours would give it a more finished look

i read the other thread about interchanging trim styles within a home and found it extremely informative!

i actually think the crown and border arrangement we used 'lifts' the ceiling because it draws the eye upwards....

btw, also LOVE your beautiful jewel tones....just lovely!

Here is a link that might be useful: frieze borders

It's usually done to enhance an existing crown molding, as Caroline's painted recommended~smart guy! He did finish it off with a strip of molding, which IMO, is the right way, and how I've seen it. It's really a smart idea, if the ceilings are high since the treatment might make a low ceiling look even lower.

Trailrunner has beautiful high ceilings and large windows ( I am guessing they are pretty low to the floor, too like a lot of homes in the South, lucky dogs). I think darker colors are a lot easier to pull off in a space like that!