I'm am about to paint my living room a gorgeous khaki color.It's not a huge room but it's got some space. I really love the look of crown molding but really don't have the money to add it to the room yet, So I came up with this idea of just adding the appearance of crown molding. When I paint the room I thought i'd leave about a 2 inch space between the paint and the ceiling. Since the color of the room is already white, and i'm leaving all the trim that color as well it would look like a white border at the top. Can I have some input as to what others think if you walked into a house and seen this?

Sorry - haven't seen what you have described in painting. But, I was at a big box store and happened to see crown molding but in a plastic - almost styrofoam material. it's light-weight, easy to cut and can be glued! It wasn't too expensive (way less than wood) -- Once it's up - you can't tell that it's not wood. Pretty neat - Will try to have DH look at it for our DR.

We used a styrofoam product called Creative Crown Moulding in our living room. It was easy to install with Liquid Nails and look just like crown moulding. You just prime them, paint them and put them up. They have a website. Just Google Creative Crown Moulding, and you should find it.

JJM
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If you check at your public library, bet you can find some books on trompe l'oeil. A while back, I was outta work, no money, and BORED. Checked out a book from library and attacked plain hollow core doors. Took lots of painters tape and a little measuring but everybody HAS to touch them to be convinced they're FLAT and not raised panels. I used left-over wall paint and 4/$1 craft paint. Book even showed arease that should be light, medium or dark. Can't think of author/title now but have the book. PM me if you want more info.

Is your ceiling also white? If you leave a white border at the top of your walls, that may make the ceiling appear to be lower than you'd like it to appear. My 2 cents: I would just paint the walls all the way to the ceiling and install crown moulding when I could. Otherwise, I think your walls will just look unfinished.