Cabinet molding question - how to cut this?

[kaylie]

My stubborn over-confidence strikes again. I just had to have 42'' cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling and it turns out, our ceiling is 2'' shorter on one side than the other. I was planning on doing a 1'' flat molding on top with a tiny cover where it hit the ceiling. Now I think I need to take the cabinets another inch lower (I'll have a 16 inch backsplash) and do a larger molding to deal with the difference. My plan is to screw 1x3s to the top of the cabinets and put a flat stock over that, and then add a crown over the flat stock. The flat stock will have more showing on the higher parts of the ceiling, but I don't think it will be obvious.

I'm going to need to cut the molding so that it fits along the top of the ceiling. It will be 2'' on one end and then go to 4'' at the other end. Any suggestions on what tool to use for this? FoxInFiji, I thought you might know best. Is there a sonicrafter accessory that might work?

[FoxInFiji]

Wow 2" that's a lot! I hope that is over a long distance. Your plan to get lower cabinets sounds good. I'm a little confused on the 1x3, flat stock, crown install. How are you going to screw the 1x3 into the cabinets? You won't have space for a cordless drill and I think you'll need the structural support where the pieces meet the ceiling instead. A 1x2 (or a 2x4 ripped in half) screwed the ceiling would probably work better. Use a straight edge or very straight board to line the piece up with the front of the cabinet and screw from below into the joists/trusses.

As far as cutting the flat stock to fit. A scribe would probably be your best bet. Clamp the pieces to the top of the cabinet lower than they would actually be installed and run the scribe (ie. protractor) along the ceiling with the set offset of your distance below you've clamped the piece. You have to make sure everything is perfectly level...or at least the same angle as the upper cabinets if they aren't exact...before you start though. It will be a lot of trial and error but that should get you close.

Yes the human eye normally won't detect the difference in visible flat stock height but you might need to trick it a little if it's a big change. You can try sanding down the top of your crown slightly if it has a flat face at the top.

[kaylie]

Yeah, I'm less than pleased with the inconsistencies in our walls/ceilings. It's over a span of about 12 feet, so hopefully I'm the only one who will notice (and I WILL notice).

For the 1x3s, I was going to do it the same way our old cabinets had them in. They were set on top of the cabinet, back 1/4 inch from the front of the cabinet and screwed in through the top of the cabinet into the wood. They weren't actually drilled into the ceiling at all. I was planning to screw the backs of the cabinets into the wall studs, so no support from the ceiling (this is also how our old cabinets were). I think this photo shows 1x3s attached to the top of the left cabinet prior to molding install:


From there I'll add the flat stock to cover the 1x3s, and put the crown over the flat stock, similar to a two piece crown molding using the flat stock as the base.



Is this a scribe?

[FoxInFiji]

Oh I see. So the crown isn't actually touching the ceiling that way and you're screwing through the top of the cabinets. Gotcha. Well if you're leaving an air gap then the change in ceiling height should be even less of an issue. You can try to make the flat stock change in height along with change the gap height or just let the gap take all of the height.

A scribe as used today is essentially this:


But you can get away with using a compass (sorry that is what I meant in my quick reply before). Especially since it would be a simple flat change you're trying to mimic not anything too complicated.

[kaylie]

I flubbed again. (This is crazy hard to explain) My crown will touch the ceiling, that picture just happened to have crown not touching it and I only used it because it showed the 1x3. Sorry!

Thanks for posting the compass picture - I get what you're saying now.

We were just playing with the level and the measuring tape and I think it'll be more like a 1 to 1 1/2 inch difference total, so not quite as bad. The highest part is in the corner with the corner cabinet, and it slants lower towards where the front of the cabinet will be.

I think I'll end up sanding down the molding a bit on the low part and exposing more of the flat stock on the high part. I'll just hope combining the two adjustments makes it less noticeable overall.

Thanks for your help Fox!