You might find your answer.....

Here is a link that might be useful: here.....

Thanks Patty_Cakes for that link. But I also think there were some other solutions that GWer's posted, and I seem to recall it had something to do with the crown molding itself. I am hoping someone on this forum will provide their advice. TIA.

Well, you'll have to scribe the crown itself no matter what. The technique you may be thinking of is to attach a piece of flat board that joins cabinet top and crown, and that's where the difference is taken up (rather than trimming down the crown which is a lot more noticeable).

Others will have better examples, but here's our shaker crown with the flat trim board, in our case the board is 5" high, but it can be as little as 1". There's a good 1/2" difference in the ceiling from front to back of the cabinet here:

Thanks Circuspeanut! That is helpful. Anyone else have any examples or input?

We plan on having our contractor pull down all our sheet rock from the ceilings and the walls in our kitchen and that way we would know that the kitchen is square and the ceiling is level.

More cost but better in the long run.

We have exactly the same issue. Our kitchen is almost done. Our cabinet guy added extra wood in the biggest gaps and used bondo on everything. Now all of the caulking is cracked at the ceiling (I think due to contraction of the wood when it got cold) and now it just looks like a mess. Would love to hear more advice on this issue!

Hi everyone. I am bumping this thread in hopes that there's more forum "traffic" on a Saturday, and I'll get some more advice on this issue. TIA!

If you are in the planning stage, "plan" on taking down the ceiling drywall/plaster, and make the framing level before the new drywall (use 5/8) goes up. You can install crown in spite of an unlevel ceiling, but it does nothing to hide the fact. Most crown molding can be lightly scribed (1/8") around low spots so that the crown's lower edge remains straight, and the caulk joint to the ceiling remains minuscule, but there's no way it can conceal inches-worth of problems.
Casey

We had brand new sheetrock and the ceiling joists were redone and we still ended up with an uneven ceiling. They put in shims and caulked and it still cracked. I guess we will have to do some touching up. It helps that the crown molding is white though and less visible.

After we stripped out to the studs, it became apparent the whole room wall to wall, floor to ceiling was way off. The ceiling looks like a roller coaster ride. But, my house was built in 1880 and I think it adds character. My new do camouflages it a lot. I don't know how bad the cabinet/ceiling issue will be. Tomorrow is day 1 for that.

We used 3-piece crown molding on our cabinets...but we have 6" of crown, not 3". The problem you may have is that the shorter the crown molding, the more noticeable height differences are.

Anyway, this is our crown molding design...

Notice the 3 pieces. The middle piece ("Stock-S") is a flat filler piece that goes b/w the two detailed pieces ("Crown" and "Soffit A"). The Stock/filler piece is what changes based on ceiling height...the other two pieces are exactly the same throughout the kitchen, regardless of ceiling evenness.

In your case, you could try eliminating the bottom piece ("Soffit A"), use a narrow piece for the top ("Crown"), and use a filler/stock piece in the middle to accommodate ceiling differences.

" I suppose he can shim the sheetrock to try and square it up, but that's just asking for future nail pops."

Shimming is a real PITA.

It is faster and provides a flatter surface to sister 2x2 (half a 2x4) to the sides of the existing joists so that the new surface is flat.

I use a laser level and a piece of scrap with the difference between laser and the bottom of the new wood to make sure the surface created is flat and level.

An air nailer is really required to get the job done.

The same trick works for walls on old studs, though you need a laser that can also project a vertical line.

Use screws to attach the new drywall and there should not be any nail pops.