Building Cabinets that will get Crown Molding

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R

remout

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I'm starting on my kitchen upper cabinets. These will have crown molding. I'm building face frame cabinets with overlay doors. I've been using 1 X 2 poplar for the face frames.

Should I build the top rail out of 1 x 4 instead of 1 x 2? My thought is that would give me more material above the top of the cabinet door to attach the crown molding to.
 
There are several Items to consider when deciding to use crown as an aesthetic.

54" off the floor is the bottom of the uppers, which leaves you 18" counter space.

Ceiling height.

Do you use the upper shelf of the cabinet?

What is the crown's profile?

What is the desired reveal you wish to attain for the "picture frame" of the doors when mounted?

You then can adjust both the height of the top rail of the face frame, as well as the height of the cabinet box to accommodate the aesthetics you are seeking.
 
I've built one, out of 13, upper cabinets so we can visualize some of these details.

Ceiling height is 9'3"

Face Frame height 52" leaving 5" between top rail and ceiling.
The 52" FF is broken up into a 36" cabinet and a 16" on top with a glass insert in the door.

When it's all mounted up, I have 1 3/4" of FF above the top door. 3/4" of that is reserved for picture framing the door. This leaves 1" to mount crown molding (CM).

We haven't picked out the CM yet. Only decision we've made is to not take it all the way to the ceiling. If I started the CM 1" down on the top rail and left 2" between the ceiling and top of CM then the CM would need to be ~3" depending on how vertical it is.

We want very plain CM. Is it critical to pick the CM prior to building the cabinets?

Thank you!
 
For stability, it's a good Idea to have two nailing attachments for crown, so, 45's blocking as cleats or an "L" shaped top rail would suffice.

Multiple step crowns lend themselves to a 60 degree instead of the typical 45 degree application, and it's always good to know what to plan for.
 
If you are using normal crown adding a little to attach to or some hard wood crowns a made to sit on top of the box and nail down into face frame.
 
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