Decorating and Design - Crown Molding with Southwestern Theme?

What is your opinion about the use of crown molding in our new master bedroom addition that is going to be painted and decorated to achieve a Southwestern look? Currently, less than 1/2 of the rest of house has crown molding installed.

Wide traditional crown molding, especially when painted white, would be inappropriate for a southwestern-themed room. if you're wanting to put something up to "finish off" the walls & ceiling of the room, my suggestion would be to go with something more rustic looking. something stained instead of painted, maybe with knot holes or slightly "beaten up" (distressed). think of the exposed beams used in adobe houses. that would really add an authentic SW element. however, i wouldn't use store-bought crown molding, with the traditional profiles. i'd go with a 1x4 or 1x6 piece of lumber (depending on the height of your ceiling), with the edges slightly rounded over, so it looks like part of a beam showing. maybe even use several across the ceiling for a faux "exposed beam ceiling" look. i've seen it done & it was really eye-catching. the walls were done to look like adobe, in sort of a terra cotta colorwash effect.

However........if you're talking about a simple little 3" wide moulding, if you paint it white like the ceiling, and the walls are another color, i suppose it wouldn't be too distracting. if you had enough other stuff going on in the room, no one would probably even notice it or think twice about it.

how's that for wishy-washy?!?!

If you want that "beam" look, try using some 1x6 that you beat up with a hammer and then stain. To look authentic, it can only be on two parallel walls and not the whole perimeter. If you have a piece of SW furniture that has a crown molding on it, take a picture to your local moulding mill and get them to custom it for you for a really authentic SW look. As for me, I'd use a border matched to my paint if I really had to have something up there, or some stencilling.

Thanks for that input. I suppose one thing to consider is the fact that this is a new addition to a 20+ year old house. The rest of the house is traditional, but with touches of southwestern decor. Should a new room be very different from the rest of our house? We think that we want the differences to be less pronounced. For example, we planned to keep the same white baseboards and door/window casing throughout the house to give that consistency. However, we did go with a orange-peel wall texture on the drywall in the new room to add to the southwestern decor. Our bath cabinets were built in the mission style flat panel doors, in clear finished maple.

Any comments or input will be appreciated.

If that is what you want to do, then by all means do it. I think the only reason people are decorating their home is one predominant style is because of these open floor plans. But if you have some walls and a door, you can be different on the other side. Now don't get me started about "peach skin". Spray on finish is just an excuse because no one today seems to know how to put a finish on drywall by hand and they are not going to learn to do it just because the homeowner wants smooth surfaces that could be wallpapered. Peach skin is the only thing close to a flat wall that I could get.

i think a lot of my opinions about all this depends on your situation: is this your dream house? is this the house you plan on spending the rest of your lives in? or do you think you'll probably be moving in 5 years? because for resale purposes, you shouldn't do anything too drastic (like the faux beams and all that). but if you're planning on staying there, then go crazy and have fun with this!

normally, you want all the rooms in your house to flow together, but i've always thought that bedrooms are somewhat of an exception, because they're not "public" spaces. when a guest comes to your house, you want them to think your house flows from room to room, and they will, because they're not (usually) going into your Master bedroom for anything! so i think you can think of your bedroom as a private haven and decorate it any way you want, and not have to worry that it's a different style than the rest of the house.

sometimes it's nice to have your bedroom in a completely different style than the rest of your house for a change from the fairly dull, "safe" ways a lot of people decorate their houses! think about it.....most people paint their living room walls off-white. it's safe. it goes with everything. ie: boring. then those same people start to decorate their kids' rooms and they go WILD! they get creative. they have fun. they paint each wall a different color & do fun, whimsical window treatments, and bright colored bedding, etc. and they really LOVE it! but mostly, it's so fun to do because it's "allowed"! those same people would never dream of decorating their living rooms with such bold, bright colors because "what would the neighbors think!!!" but when it comes to our Master bedrooms, we often take a little license and go just a little crazy. well, i say, go a lot crazy! it's YOUR room! decorate the rest of the house & public spaces for "everyone", but do YOUR room however YOU want it! our kids do, so why shouldn't we???

so........bottom line: selling in 5 years? or afraid this SW thing is just a phase, and you'll want to change it after a while? then keep the structural changes (wood work, etc) the same & just decorate the room in the SW style using paint colors/techniques, bedding, accessories, etc. living there forever? have fun with it! do the faux wood beams & the stucco walls, etc. go crazy! you can always shut the door when company comes over!

Annette, you and I should go into business together. Great minds thing alike. LOL IMHO if he has to do that room in SW style, he should do it in 1875 Santa Fe cat house. Lord deliver me from bleached out cow skulls in my bedroom!

More good information to consider!

Don't worry about the bleached cow skull. We have a Navajo ethinic background in our family, and that is what is driving the southwestern decorating.

Here is what we plan so far:
wall ceiling drywall with an orange peel texture
Ceiling color - an off-white (lemon peel)
Bdrm Wall color - gold (Laura Ashley Home gold 4 - from Lowes)
Bath Wall color - brick (Laura Ashley Home brick 6 - from Lowes)
Bdrm Flooring - 5 inch planks, beveled edge, wild pecan with a clear finish (no stain)
Bath flooring - terra cotta and bone color 12" tile in diagonal pattern

From what input you have provided, we could go with more rustic square edge 1x4 door and window casing if we wanted. What about the baseboard - any suggestions.

Sure you can can have some 1x4 baseboards. I certainly do like mine, but my goal was to create a 'granny house'. The other day someone said, " I want to apologize for saying this cuz I know your house is new, but sometimes I think I'm in an old house". Yippee! That is what I wanted.

I'd have a nice wide 1x.8 or even a 1x12 for the window cil.

for better proportions, i think your baseboards need to be wider than your window & door casings. if you go with 4" casings, i'd go 6" on your baseboards.

as for PaulaDavis's suggestion for 8 or 12" window sills, i don't know what she's talking about!!! i think she means that she'd suggest they be 8 or 12" DEEP, but if your wall thickness isn't that deep, then it'd jut out way too far from the wall & look like a wierd shelf or something. i'd skip that idea.

if she's talking about the apron, that goes underneath the sill, i think that would be strange-looking also. the apron should only be about 6" if the casings are 4".

maybe she'd like to clarify what she's got in mind (?). :)

However, the more i think about your original comment of "we want the differences to be less pronounced", i'm not sure i'd do difference casings in this room. and i'm even more unsure of it when i look back to see that you're wanting to paint them white! are you still painting the woodwork white?? even with wood floors, you're wanting to paint the baseboard white???? i think maybe too much attention will be drawn to the woodwork. the walls are gold, the ceiling off-white, the floor is very light, unstained wood, the bathroom is terra cotta, bone, & brick......all very warm, SW colors. but i picture walking into that room and all those white "lines" (woodwork) will be screaming! the walls & the floors will be muted & warm, but the woodwork will be too bright. maybe you should think about an off-white, like the ceiling, or even going with a stain???

maybe i'm missing something.......tell me the reason you're painting the woodwork white. is there white furniture or something??

Yes, some kind of wierd shelf or something, Ann. My window sil (sic) doesn't have room for anything to be placed on it, not a flower vase, not anything, and I hate that. I think the white trim is about the fact that the rest of the house has white trim. Ann, do you think a crackle finish might be in order on the trim for a more rustic look? Again, it depends on how long they think they will keep that decor or live in the house, or how long they think they will like the SW look.

Sorry, Paul, i didn't mean to offend with the "wierd shelf or something" crack!! but seriously, a 12" wide board for a window sill??? really?

i do, however, love the crackle finish idea for the woodwork. that would be wonderful!

Trim color
Our original thought was to use the brick bathroom wall color as the bedroom trim color. However the local decorating help we are getting suggested the white to flow with the rest of the house. I agree that the white trim will stand out. If we stained the baseboard, should all the other trim be treated the same way.

Window Trim
I like the idea of having a sill deep enough to be used to set a small potted plant on. Our walls are typical 4 inch deep walls. I don't know how deep to go and still look right.

I"m partial to stained trim all over, but if you have some good local on-site advise, go with it. Also, if you have good taste, go with what you like! You could use your lemon ceiling color. Also, if your bathroom is part of your master suite, I really think you need to keep the colors similar. That way, you can find towels to co-ordinate with your bedspread and all that.

As for how deep the sill is, a wider sill is common in an older style of house. It depends on if you want a rustic look or a modern look. I think a nice wide sill stained would be super. But again, keep in mind that the modern decorating style is all about painting the wood, and most take a "minimalist" approach to wood trim anyway.

whatever you decide to do with your trim, paint or stain, be consistent within the room & do it all the same. and do the trim in the bedroom the same as the bathroom to unify the spaces. if you were thinking about using the bathroom wall color for the bedroom trim color, what were you going to do with the bathroom trim??? avoid the temptation to get too mixy-matchy. it will look choppy & tacky.

the depth of your window sill will depend on where your window is located. particularly if it's next to a traffic path. you certainly don't want the sill to protrude so far out that it becomes something you might whack your hip on while you're walking past it. or interfere with furniture placement. i wouldn't have it coming out from the wall any further than it goes into the wall. specifically, if your wall is 4" deep, then don't have it protrude more than 4". or it will look cantilevered and seem like it's about to fall out. personally, i wouldn't do more than 3".

One more question - if we go with a stained baseboard, and stained door casings, could the window casing be painted the off white like the ceiling and look good? We have two windows in the bedroom (white vinyl single hung windows).

i really don't think so. i think you might be able to get away with white shutters or wood blinds INSIDE the stained window casing, but i think the majority of the wood trim in the room needs to all be the same.