Design ideas/solutions?

[rnt80]

I have a couple of built ins on my upcoming schedule and one of them is a floor to ceiling unit.  The homeowner had coffered ceilings installed and had them stop short of the back wall by 18", the depth of the upper cabs.  When they installed the beams they divided the room into thirds, the result being vertical lines that the pillars of the built in will not match up with since the specs require a middle section that is twice the width of the flanking sections.  Additionally, as I see it the front surface of the uppers will have to be flush in order to meet the back side of the crown. That will mean 16' of flush uppers with no reveals or changes in depth - not ideal and not how this was drawn up. Any ideas/suggestions on how to tackle these issues?

 

[roblg3]

It looks like you've been handed a box of crap!  Only thing i see is a redesign of the built in??

 

[Marshall Monnett]

The way i see it is you will have to redesign the pillar location of the built in to match the coffered, or rebuild the coffered to make it match the built in. And again with the front of the built in having to touch the crown it will have to be flat.
Another idea might be to build down a flat box part behind the crofferd, and build the built in underneath so that you can have the crown on top of the built in and/or staggered fronts. But that might make the depth of the built in to shallow.   

 

[rnt80]

Marshall, your second idea is what I came up with while I was at my son's school concert tonight.  The lines of the pillars won't match up but it will give me a flat surface to but the top of the crown up to on the built in.  It won't mess with the depth too much since she wanted the uppers extra deep (18") anyhow.  The depth I'll be losing will be equivalent to the projection of the crown.

 

[Marshall Monnett]

Great minds think alike, If the customer is ok with the pillars not lining up, then that is what i would do.
Good luck

 

[tiralie]

Additionally, as I see it the front surface of the uppers will have to be flush in order to meet the back side of the crown. That will mean 16' of flush uppers with no reveals or changes in depth

There is nothing wrong creating a soffit and then you can have stepped and shorter uppers and your crown can be the transition.

If I had the space, I think I would shorten the cabinet by a foot so and make it look more like a free standing piece of furniture rather than a built in. Terminate the open part of the coffer with a soffit.

The visual break with the top and sides will give the eye some relief.

If you are going to go with the built in look, and you are going to run your crown right up to the crown in the coffer, I would consider a supporting crown vs. a terminating crown.
Tim

 

[tiki man]

looks like you should remove 9 pieces of existing crown. build your case work up to the ceiling as drawn with the inside of the case work top flush with existing crown bottom. start your crown run at left or right wall and wrap new casework with crown as drawn and include the coffer ceiling in your design. lots of cuts but that will look sweet when finished and will look like a real built in that someone took the time to design and integrate with ceiling work..

 

[mike_aa]

If you go with some sort of soffit and lower the cabinet you might consider lining up the cabinet top to the approximate height of the opening to the right in the first picture.  Can't see what's in the rest of the room, but that might help to anchor the lower height visually to an element that's already there.

Mike A.

 

[rnt80]

looks like you should remove 9 pieces of existing crown. build your case work up to the ceiling as drawn with the inside of the case work top flush with existing crown bottom. start your crown run at left or right wall and wrap new casework with crown as drawn and include the coffer ceiling in your design. lots of cuts but that will look sweet when finished and will look like a real built in that someone took the time to design and integrate with ceiling work..

I like the idea of removing the crown although I think I would only need to remove the three pieces that run parallel to the back wall.  The pieces running perpendicular to that back wall would be tied into with the new crown.

 

[wow]

I don't have a solution nor do I know what I'd do, but I'm going to keep an eye on this thread because I'm quite sure I'll learn something valuable.

Be sure to post your solution and progress, OK?