Home > Upper Wall Cabinetry > How to Fix Loose Crown Molding on Cabinet

How to Fix Loose Crown Molding on Cabinet

January 12th, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments

I’ve wrestled with how to fix kitchen upper cabinets that have loose crown molding many times. Some cabinet installers only use a small staple to hold the corner joints together. Sometimes they miss the mark just enough to cause the molding to separate and a gap will appear in the corner miter joint over time. This is usually caused by the wood joints expanding and contracting with the temperature changes.

Try getting some Fast Drying Miter Joint Wood Glue to repair the separation with.

Fixing wall cabinet decorative crown can be frustrating because sometimes the installer did not get the miter aligned properly during the original installation. If this is the case, you can really only do the best that you can do with what you have to work with. Unless you want to try and disassemble the whole mess and try to redo the messed up miter joint. That type of molding repair my friend will be an extensive project to undertake.


If you don’t have a small brad nailer or a finish carpenter for a friend, you may just need to use some masking tape and yellow glue to re-glue the loose crown molding joint.

It is also possible to purchase fast drying miter joint glue to make the crown molding repair with. A word of caution though, this glue dries really super fast.

Fixing Cabinet Crown Molding Joints that Have Separated

Here are the basics for fixing the kitchen crown molding that has separated at the miter joint. If you can get a finish nail gun or brad nailer, follow steps one and two below and then nail that joint together using one single staple. If you must add another one to get things to stay tight make sure that you use some sort of wood filler after you finish fastening the two pieces together

1) If the existing staple will not align and go into its original hole break it off by using a pair of diagonal cutters (dikes). Do this by grabbing the staple on the farthest end from the wood molding and wiggle it back and forth until it breaks off. You must do this repair in this way because if you just try to cut it off next to the crown molding the staple will stick up just far enough to be a frustrating obstacle.

2) Squirt a small amount of yellow glue on both pieces of the miter joint molding. Rub the glue thoroughly on both pieces. Now, wipe your fingers off with a damp cloth and clean any excess off of the crown pieces.

3) With your masking tape near by, align the two pieces flush with each other.

4) By fixing the masking tape to both pieces of the wall cabinet’s crown align the joint as best as you can.

5) Place several pieces of tape over the loose joint.

  • Tip: Use your glue sparingly so that you do not get it all over the finish of the decorative molding.

Fixing crown molding that has become separated at the joint is going to be a challenge every time so make sure that you have your patience hat on. Repairing this area really is just a matter of using common sense and taking your time. If you want to further fix the molding up, go to your local hardware center and get some real wood putty repair sticks, if you are working with a stained or natural wood molding. If the crown is white, just use Dap or caulking. I basically learned how to repair this type of molding by trial and error. If I can fix broken crown molding joints so can you.

Categories: Upper Wall Cabinetry
  1. January 26th, 2010 at 21:28 | #1

    Thanks for the tips. Great Post.

  1. No trackbacks yet.

*