the.com/crown molding
The trim that convinces your ceiling it went to finishing school.
means A decorative strip of trim installed at the angle where wall meets ceiling, hiding the seam and dressing up the room's edges.
from "Crown" comes via Old French "corone" from Latin "corona," meaning wreath or garland worn atop the head — the same root that gives us the crown on a monarch, a tooth, or a tree. In building terms, "crown" came to mean the topmost, finishing element of a structure, so "crown molding" is literally the piece that caps a wall the way a crown caps a head. "Molding" itself traces to Latin "modulus" (a small measure or shape) via Old French "mouler," meaning to shape or form — the strip that was cast or carved into a profile. Classical architects were already running ornamental cornices at the ceiling line in antiquity; the English terminology just formalized the idea of a decorative 'crown' finishing the room.
- origin
- Named for sitting at the room's highest point
- function
- Hides the ugly seam between wall and ceiling
- angle trick
- Installed upside down and backward to cut correctly
- resale myth
- Adds perceived value more than actual cost