I like the fancy molding below matching the trim, like the pic. And the more dramatic the paint, the better for up top.

do a google search on chair moldings and check out all the pictures to see what others have done. I've always like chair molding and liked just looking at all the pics.

Sorry-the woodwork painted in colors. Not pastels or light, either.

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone done white above and below the chair rail, but the rail itself of a different subtle off-white (eg pastel) color?

True old colonial style had the walls white/neutral and the woodwork painted.

Has anyone done white above and below the chair rail, but the rail itself of a different subtle off-white (eg pastel) color?

we painted it the same color above and below. It really depends on your style. We also ripped out a lot of chair rail as someone decided to put it in every single room in our house.

We did ours like option c. The rail, molding and bottom half off wall are white, with the different color above. Like it a lot, but to each his own...

Anonymous wrote:We just faced this and did the same color because of the location (off the kitchen which also has it and flows into the foyer with two different colors). I didnt' want four colors together so the same color on top and bottom looks really nice. We painted the top only first to see what it would look like with white below and ours looked very unfinished but we don't have additional molding like many dining rooms.

We did this very same thing for the same reasons - didn't want too many colors going on. We painted the living room and dining room (above and below chair rail) the same color. We painted the chair rail white to match the trim. I think it looks really nice.

In my old house, I painted the chair rail and below it white semi-gloss and painted the area above it red flat in the dining room. That's a very typical dining room look for this area. I got a bit tired of it, since half the houses I went into had a red dining room with white below the chair rail. But it looks nice if that's your thing.

In the dining room of the very traditional house I just sold, I painted the chair rail and walls below it (which had picture molding) off white semi-gloss (SW Navajo white), and I painted the area above the chair rail flat cream color (can't remember the color, a Behr color like Buttermilk?). It looked great! Really nice combination, subtle but warm. The contrast between semi-gloss and flat looked very sophisticated, but made a nice neutral backdrop. The house looked great and sold quickly!

In my new house, I'm debating what to do, though. My new house has a lot of moldings, but I want to decorate it as a seaside cottage, moving far from traditional! I don't know how to deal with the chair rail and picture moldings for a less traditional, casual look. I can't remove them without damaging the plaster walls, and I don't have the budget for plaster repairs! I'm leaning toward using milk paint on the walls and ignoring the chair rail, but that's only my preliminary thought. DH wants the same deal as in the old house, since it looked so good.

Suggestions welcome!

oops, my links didn't work, sorry about that!

I'm tempted to keep the bottom half white. It looks pretty nice, though I do like the look of the bottom being darker. . .is there a "standard" or is it really based on personal preference?

We have a chair rail in our new house, and can't decide what to do with it either.

It is beautiful molding, but it is not really our style. However, we hate to tear it out as it fits the architectural details of the house and it really is quite well done.

For those of you who do the walls (top/bottom) in one color, do you paint the chair rail white to match the trim or the same color as the walls?

We just faced this and did the same color because of the location (off the kitchen which also has it and flows into the foyer with two different colors). I didnt' want four colors together so the same color on top and bottom looks really nice. We painted the top only first to see what it would look like with white below and ours looked very unfinished but we don't have additional molding like many dining rooms.

We just bought a house (yay!) and are in the midst of painting. The entire interior is painted in off white - trim and walls, and so we are adding some color. My question is, do we paint the area above the chair molding the same color as the area below? A shade lighter? A totally unrelated but neutral color (like leaving it white)? what do you think? So in short, this:

[img]http://domolding.com/media/img/gallery/services/5%20inch%20Chair%20Rail%20with%20Baseboard.jpg

this:

[/img]http://www.yourmoderncouple.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/eliz-3.jpg

or this:

[img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8PCxCB0IVIk/T60cF41uSdI/AAAAAAAABdg/6Pycua7u3ps/s1600/install-chair-rail-800x800.jpg