by The Frog Prince & Family
Home Decorating Collection . . .
Do you have a lot of beautiful frames that you have collected and filled with special photographs over the years, but suddenly you are living in a place with less free table area – or maybe just need to keep things OFF the table area because of a new pet or child – and so you are left without a good way to display your keepsakes?
Unfortunately, few tabletop frames are also equipped to be, or can easily be adapted into wall frames. Also unfortunately, even ugly wall shelves tend to be fairly expensive, and not all that long. You might fit three or four small frames on the average one, at best. There is an elegant solution!
The solution lies in crown molding. Yes, the same crown molding that is normally found between wall and ceiling, to make a room look a little less like a box. Because it is intended for installation flat against a wall, if you install it flat against a wall further down from the ceiling, what was going to be the flat top pressed against the ceiling is now a narrow shelf. Frames do not take up a lot of forward-backward space no matter their shape or size, even with their little prop-stands, which makes the few inches of depth that crown-molding-turned-shelving provides, just right.
Admittedly, there will not be any kind of lip at the edge of the now-shelf surface to help keep things from coming straight off if they are knocked into – not that all wall shelves have this, either – but since crown molding tends to come unfinished and custom-cut to desired measurements and angles, if you are worried you can always have a small strip of wood cut at the same time. You can attach it yourself with wood glue or small nails.
Crown molding comes in a variety of styles, so you could either pick one that matches molding already in your home, or go with whatever suits your interior decorating otherwise. Similarly, you can finish it with wood stains and lacquers, paint, glazes, or whatever looks best to you.
You can have it cut to extend all the way along one wall, or the space between two windows, or have the ends angled so that it can free-float in a wall space and still look like something made to be a shelf. A perfect place for those frames – or collectable plates, or whatever other knick-knacks you enjoy – that’s always going to be the right size, and offer one attractive, visually consistent décor element.
It might even add value to your home!