Crown Molding Shelves

Here’s a neat trick: build a shelf that stores, displays, and elevates your favorite collectibles and knickknacks so they’re well within sight but safely out of the way. Before building this crown molding shelf, one skill you may wish to brush up on is cutting and coping crown molding. Working with crown molding requires some mental gymnastics, but once you learn the floor routine you’ll be glad you did. You can hang your new shelves at just about any height, although they naturally look more comfortable higher up on the wall. At least try and position them at or slightly above eye level. Locating the shelves so the bottom edge rests on top of a door head casing is one good strategy.

This crown molding shelf is essentially a built-up box in a straight run along one wall. There are also different variations on how the shelf can be installed. For example, you can wrap the entire room with it, simply span from one wall to another, or place it on three walls only. The design is flexible to suit different needs and tastes. And by choosing trim types and styles that already are present in your home you can enhance the built-in look. If you have the woodworking equipment and skills, consider using dado joints instead of butt joints where it makes sense. With dado joints, the wood parts can expand and contract (as they are prone to) without creating separation gaps.