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So I really love the look of walls with a chair rail, one color on top and another on the bottom. My husband and I just closed on a house and we are thinking about what we might like, but adding chair rails in the rooms is a project we won't get to in a while. However, paint might be something we can do sooner. So my question is, would it look weird if I painted the walls two-thirds of the way up in one color and use the other for the rest?
Getting a sharp, straight line between two colors is difficult. It requires precise taping, and even with the newer tapes it is hard to prevent paint from leaching under the tape. If you are moderately handy, adding a chair rail should not be difficult.
Two thirds of the way up the wall would be high for a chair rail. After all, the theory behind the rail is to prevent the top of the back of a chair from hitting the wall. The chair rail should be 32 " to 36" from the floor, more like one third of the way up.
Another option would be to use a wallpaper border to separate the two colors. That might be a little less expensive than the chair rail.
What room are you interested in decorating? I think of a chair rail more as something to use in a dining room. Of course, decorative molding can be used anywhere, from plain to fancy.
Under no circumstances would I recommend a wallpaper border. Wallpaper is totally acceptable, but border outside of a kids room is a no no.
With that said, I wouldn't do the two colors unless the chair rail was installed. If you're going to buy paint, you might as well buy the chair rail, as it's not expensive. You can get primed MDF chair rail at Home Depot or Lowe's for little money. Even the pine molding is pretty affordable. I think you could get enough molding to do a normal sized dining room for under $50.00. Of course, the thing with molding is that they all have to be in proportion, so if you have a relatively weak crown or base, it won't look very good. but like I said, primed MDF molding isn't expensive at all.
Getting a sharp, straight line between two colors is difficult. It requires precise taping, and even with the newer tapes it is hard to prevent paint from leaching under the tape. If you are moderately handy, adding a chair rail should not be difficult.
Two thirds of the way up the wall would be high for a chair rail. After all, the theory behind the rail is to prevent the top of the back of a chair from hitting the wall. The chair rail should be 32 " to 36" from the floor, more like one third of the way up.
Another option would be to use a wallpaper border to separate the two colors. That might be a little less expensive than the chair rail.
What room are you interested in decorating? I think of a chair rail more as something to use in a dining room. Of course, decorative molding can be used anywhere, from plain to fancy.
nah. its not that hard to get a straight line. the trick there is to paint the tape edges with the original color. that should fill the gaps under the tape
If it's just one room, I would consider doing the chair railing yourself first. It's very easy with two people and a pneumatic nailer. Your cuts are straight forward since everything is 45 degrees unlike crown molding which is a little trickier. Just make sure you mark the studs and draw a level line on all four walls.
One thing that's very helpful to consider is painting the chair railing first if you want it semi-gloss before you install. Otherwise you'll end up taping it many times when you paint the walls then paint the chair railings. I never like getting any wall paint on my molding since it might leave a high spot that's very noticeable after using semi-gloss.
If you decide to paint first then do the chair railings later, draw a line and paint the top portion first. Make sure you paint beyond the line. After it completely dries, then go back and tape and paint the lower section. Don't go cheap on the tape for this step. Get the blue painters tape. Press the tape firmly and using the paint brush, paint the area just below the tape. By using a brush and going sideways, this creates a seal and causes less bleeding. Gravity helps here since you've already painted the top portion. The issue here is after installing the chair railing later, you still need to caulk top and bottom and this will require you go to around the room and paint a strip above and below the railing unless you somehow get paint matching caulk.
I agree i'd just go ahead and put the chair rail molding in first. It's like 60c a foot or so at the home depot.
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