Here's a pic of my 1970 Florida ranch with crown in a few rooms. It was there when I bought it and I just left it. I would not have paid to put it up and didn't in my new house either, as I believe that crown is only suitable for higher ceiling and fairly formal places.

I believe one's first responsibility is to honor the inherent nature of the house. To take a 50's ranch and try to gussy it up with crown molding and a Tuscan-style kitchen is just silly.

I was thinking European country for the kitchen in my ranch house because that's what looked good to me in the magazines at the time. Fortunately, I quickly came to my senses and realized that the only thing that wouldn't seem strange was a more modern look -- slab doors, glass tile, color, etc.

If there is any way to get your friend to embrace the house and love it for what it is, the design piece will always be easier....path of least resistance and all that...

I live in CA and most all homes are ranch here. We remodeled ours and added new stucco to the outside, but I'd still call it a ranch and almost all ceilings are 8' ceilings. Adding crown can actually make 8' ceilings appear taller since it raises the eye up. I think a simple, smaller crown is perfectly appropriate and disagree that you cannot gussy up a ranch home. I would not do any heavy, dark craftman style moldings, though. I have crown only in the formal front areas of my home.

before crown:
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after:
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My thoughts are that all the trim in the house need to relate to one another in terms of both color and scale. When we remodeled our house we redid the trim throught the entire house and removed all of the builder grade trim on the doors and base. If all of the rest of the trim is the original builder grade, I would agree just adding crown would look out of place.

Here in the South a lot of ranch houses were built with crown molding. Our housing styles, including ranch houses, lean heavily toward traditional. Crown molding might look out of place in a more contemporary ranch. I grew up in a 1963 ranch with crown in every room. My first house was a 1967 ranch, also with crown in every room. The first time I saw a home with no crown molding, I thought it looked odd ... like they had skimped on building costs.

I also firmly disagree that crown molding is only suitable for high ceilings. My 1979 colonial with "low" 8-foot ceilings has wonderful thick crown molding in all the formal rooms. We plan to add slightly smaller molding in the bedrooms this summer. Just because my home isn't grandiose, doesn't mean it can't have some pretty features like crown molding.

We just built out ranch house and I plan on adding crown to the LR. All our ceilings are 8'. I think it really looks nice.

Val- what is builders grade trim?

sheesharee: What I was referring to was the 30-35 year old plain flat trim and slab hollow core doors that many ranch homes put in--which you can also find in apartments. Since your house is new I think the addition of crown will be a nice touch--esp. as your taste is for more traditional decor--where I think it looks best.

We just put all new molding and trim in our master bedrm and added crown...and yes, it has 8 ft ceilings and it looks so good! I am tickled with the result. :)

Susan

Well, I think my use of only might have been too strong. Clearly the crown looks great in Valinsv's house. But, I think the key is her more formal look in general.

I also think that today's ranch houses are one-story homes with far more architectural interest, inside and out, not quite the same as the ranches of several decades ago.

My new house has Craftsman overtones and what I consider to be slightly overwrought trim, particularly on the windows and doors. To have added crown would have been a big mistake....just too cluttered, imo.