Galaxy Nickel Crown Molding Cabinets

Measure from the top of the wall cabinet box to the ceiling, at both ends of every run, because the two numbers will not match. Old ceilings sag, new ones are framed to a tolerance, and a half-inch of difference over ten feet is entirely normal. The larger of the two numbers is the one that decides the profile; the smaller one is the one the installer has to scribe out.

What comes back is one of three conditions. Zero to about an inch is the flush condition: a 42-inch box on a 96-inch wall, where the cabinet effectively touches the ceiling. Two to eight inches is the short condition, and it is by far the most common — a 36-inch box topping out at 90 inches under an eight-foot ceiling leaves six inches of wall showing. Anything more than eight inches usually means a soffit, a bulkhead, or a deliberate decision to stop the cabinets low, and that is a different problem with a different answer.

One rule sits behind that whole table and it is worth stating plainly: a crown profile should never be taller than the gap it is filling. A four-inch profile in a three-inch reveal has to be furred down, which drops the whole assembly below the cabinet top and looks like a mistake, because it is one. When the numbers are close, go one profile shorter, not one taller.

Seven profiles are stocked in this finish and the numbering misleads people constantly. GN CM-1 at $117.00 is not the entry-level version of GN CM-8 at $367.25; they are different shapes at different heights, and the price tracks how much material is in the stick. The middle of the list is GN CM-3 at $123.50, GN CM-4 at $139.75, and then GN CM-6 and GN CM-9 sharing $152.75, which is the point where most kitchens land. GN CM-7 at $295.75 and GN CM-8 at $367.25 are the two tall assemblies, and they belong on nine- and ten-foot ceilings.

You will notice there is no CM-2 and no CM-5 on the live list. That is not an error on this page: the manufacturer publishes a wider series than the mill runs in every colour. If a drawing names a profile number we do not show, send it to us rather than substituting by eye.

Height is where the finish changes the answer once. A crown profile carries the cabinet colour up onto the plane nearest the ceiling, and a mid-tone grey occupies that plane more insistently than a white does — the same six-inch assembly that disappears in a white kitchen stays visible in this one. It is not a reason to avoid a tall profile. It is a reason to look at the assembly height in the room rather than on a screen, and to scale down a step when the gap is marginal.

Where the gap is bigger than any single profile, crown gets stacked: a lower element sets the line, and the crown itself sits on top of it, so the assembly closes four or five inches instead of two. Two parts do that work. GN STRM-8, starter top moulding, is $133.25 for an eight-foot stick, and it builds the cabinet top forward so a profile too deep for the box has a bearing surface. GN STKM-8, stacked top moulding, is the same $133.25 and adds the second step.

Neither is optional on a tall profile. A big crown projects forward as well as upward, and nailed straight to a cabinet top with no build-out behind it, there is nothing structural to fasten into across most of its depth.

For gaps well beyond stacking range, the answer moves off this page entirely. Molding extension, GN MEX-8 at $289.25, raises the whole assembly; ship lap, GN SHL-8 at $169.00, clads the gap rather than moulding it; and both are listed with the rest of the decorative accessories. A twelve-inch gap is a carpentry job, not a trim job, and treating it as one is how you end up with a six-inch crown floating in a foot of wall.

Straight runs of crown are easy. Corners are where the material goes. Every inside corner — the re-entrant angle where two walls of cabinets meet — takes two mitred ends, and every outside corner, where a run turns the end of a cabinet and comes back, takes two more plus a short return piece that is frequently under six inches long and cannot be cut from an offcut because the grain and the profile have to run continuously through the turn.

That is why counting corners tells you more than measuring run length. An L-shaped kitchen with one bank of uppers returning at a window typically has one inside and two outside corners; a U-shaped kitchen with a hood surround and a tall cabinet at one end can easily have two inside and six outside.

• Inside corner: two mitres, and the run continues. Allow the profile’s own projection off each stick — a deep profile eats more.
• Outside corner: two mitres plus a return. Allow a full extra foot per outside corner, because the short piece has to come from a fresh length.
• End of a run into open air: the crown has to return onto itself against the cabinet side, which is another short piece and another two cuts.
• Over a hood surround: four corners in four feet, and the most material-hungry stretch of crown in most kitchens — see the range hood list.
• Across a tall cabinet: the crown steps forward where a 24-inch-deep pantry meets 12-inch-deep uppers — two more outside corners and a short piece across the front.

The practical consequence: two kitchens with identical run lengths can need quite different quantities of crown. If a takeoff was done off run length alone, add a stick for every outside corner past the first two.

First, the stick length on the profile you have chosen. The eight-foot parts announce themselves in the code — GN STRM-8 and GN STKM-8 both carry the 8 — but the CM profiles do not publish a length on the live page, and crown is sold by the stick. Ask us before the quantity is calculated.

Second, whether the crown goes on before or after the ceiling is painted. Crown scribed to a wavy ceiling leaves a hairline that gets filled, and filling it is a painter’s job — deciding that in advance is what keeps a white caulk line off the top edge of a coloured profile. The technique is in the end panels, scribe moulding and fillers guide, and the scribe moulding page prices the part.

Everything above is priced on the crown moulding page against the rest of the collection, and the light rail at the other end of the cabinet is the piece most often ordered in the same breath.