French Country Crown Molding

 Since I have these grand tall rooms in this grand house, I knew I wanted a larger and more ornate type of crown molding, at least on the first floor. 

I had some leftover Falcon resin trim, really frieze, from doing the Whitledge-Burgess Patisserie and loved it. I decided I would use that under regular crown molding. Here's the patisserie. 

I was doing this work in fall of 2017 and had to hunt a bit as Falcon was going out of business and I would need a large quantity. Found some stock and bought it all.  (The Whitledge-Burgess workshop was back in 2009). Others have asked me recently how I did this and that led me to post it now. Its also a good way for me to record what I did for reference later.

Painted it all white and began cutting and installing with crown. I love the look! Decided it was a go and planned to do it in the living room, foyer and dining room. 

I will say it was a bit of a challenge when it came to corners and around the chimney breasts but I got through it. 

French Country Embellishments

Sometimes a break from this hobby, or in particular, this house, spurs new ideas and breaks me out of the 'can't make a decision' mode. For a year or more I have procrastinated/agonized over certain things that really shouldn't have been that big a deal.

Things like staining/painting the 2nd floor stairs, and ordering more ribbon for the same stair runner, and stair rods...at least the supplier for the ribbon still had some. As for stair rods from Mini Mundus, no go. I ended up with Clare Bell ones, which I found out were easy peasy to install and I prefer the more antiqued finish. (Now I have to decide whether to buy more for the 1st floor stairs and redo those).

Then procrastinating about how to apply crown molding to 3rd floor angled ceilings. This has perplexed me and I've gone several ways to purchase various products. The angle of the ceiling to the wall in the two end rooms is the challenge. Stiff crown molding will show a gap. I debated about several flat moldings, and this week ended up putting on a faux embossed flat molding.  

This turned out to be so easy that I kicked myself for agonizing over this for so long. I'm pleased with the results! It adds just enough elegance and finishes the ceiling edges nicely.

Foyer

The stairs are now stained and painted - starting to get a finished look here. Crown and baseboard are up too, and you can see the lovely french settee in the corner.