How to Install Stained Crown Moulding

Crown moulding sits along the top of the walls, covering the joint between the walls and ceiling in a decorative strip of wood. It's the same general idea as floor moulding, except that the upside-down position of the ceiling moulding makes it more complicated to cut (since the platform on your miter saw faces up rather than down). Using pre-stained and finished moulding means you have to touch up the nail holes afterward, but that's much easier than trying to finish the trim after installation.

Stepladder
Tape measure
Pencil
Crown moulding (pre-stained)
Miter saw
Finish nail gun
Wood putty (same shade as the stain)

Instructions

- 1
  Measure the first wall from end to end. Put two pencil marks on a span of prefinished moulding that's longer than the wall, with the measured span between the two marks.
- 2
  Lay the moulding on a miter saw, positioned upside down and backward from the way it will hang along the ceiling (right side to the left of the blade, front surface facing up rather than down).
- 3
  Swivel the blade to 45 degrees inward, pointing toward the moulding. Make the cut.
- 4
  Move the moulding so the second mark is under the blade, but is still upside down and backward. Turn the blade 45 degrees inward (so in the opposite direction as before). Cut it.
- 5
  Set the moulding to the top of the wall, where it meets the ceiling. Secure it there with your finish nail gun, shooting the finish nails every foot along the upper and lower edges of the trim.
- 6
  Repeat the whole process to measure, cut and install the trim for the other walls. The mitered ends should butt tightly to one another in the corners.
- 7
  Use your thumb to press wood putty into the holes left by the nails.

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