Would you do chair rail?

[dd1204]

Update with pictures

I want to put chair rail in my dining room and have a dark color at the bottom with something light on top. My hesitation is that the style I'm going for is more transitional and I'm not sure if chair rails are a traditional look.

The room is not that big and I don't want to make it look smaller.

[moolarkey]

We have chair rail in our dining room. The bottom is a dark "old gold" color, the top is the same gold but rag rolled so it is much lighter. We have deep red drapes (floor to ceiling, 10' ceilings) with flecks of gold. Our DR opens on to our living room but no chair railing and the walls are the old gold with the same drapes.

Our dining has a tray ceiling, we put the old gold in their, with a white ceiling. We have beige carpet. What I find as a challenge is what color table cloth to use. I tend to use a green during the holidays and a very light whitish gold one the rest of the year. I do want a table cloth in there, but finding the color for it and cloth napkins can be a challenge. I do sometimes use the white/gold tablecloth with napkins in the same shade of deep red as the drapes.

Our room is probably - 10x12

We get a lot of compliments on the colors in the two rooms.

[kaylie]

I think chair rail can definitely be transitional, it just depends on what you do with it. In your case, I think it will depend on what colors you use.

This was the dining room before we moved in (former owner's stuff). I don't know if I would call it "traditional", but it was definitely "blah".


This is what we changed it to - would call it transitional for lack of a better term. I don't think the dark paint makes it look smaller, but we did use more substantial furniture which probably does.

[moolarkey]

Kaylie, I love what you did with that dining room. So much more elegant. The original room would make me want to vomit daily.

[jloww]

Dec 14, 2013 13:53:54 GMT -5 kaylie said:

I think chair rail can definitely be transitional, it just depends on what you do with it. In your case, I think it will depend on what colors you use.

This is what we changed it to - would call it transitional for lack of a better term. I don't think the dark paint makes it look smaller, but we did use more substantial furniture which probably does.

Wow!  I love this.

[kaylie]

Dec 14, 2013 14:00:19 GMT -5 moolarkey said:

Kaylie, I love what you did with that dining room. So much more elegant. The original room would make me want to vomit daily.

Thanks! It was definitely one of the less tolerable rooms in the house. The previous owners had terrible taste in paint colors.

[jloww]

Dec 14, 2013 14:02:54 GMT -5 kaylie said:

Dec 14, 2013 14:00:19 GMT -5 moolarkey said:

Kaylie, I love what you did with that dining room. So much more elegant. The original room would make me want to vomit daily.

Thanks! It was definitely one of the less tolerable rooms in the house. The previous owners had terrible taste in paint colors.

Where did you get the light fixture?  Does it come in ORB?

[kaylie]

Dec 14, 2013 14:06:30 GMT -5 jloww said:

Dec 14, 2013 14:02:54 GMT -5 kaylie said:

Thanks! It was definitely one of the less tolerable rooms in the house. The previous owners had terrible taste in paint colors.

Where did you get the light fixture?  Does it come in ORB?

It's this one (but ours is "Olde Silver"): www.homeclick.com/crystorama-9228-eb-solaris-6-light-up-lighting-large-chandelier-in-english-bronze/p-562723.aspx

BUT, I've seen them on Overstock and a few other places much cheaper since we bought ours. If you search for "orb chandelier" you'll get a lot of results.

[auntie]

I think a chair rail can work in a transitional or eclectic setting.

IMHO, I think light/white on the bottom tends to make the room look bigger than the other way around. I recently repainted my dining room and was surprised how much more spacious it looks compared to the previous two iterations- midtone lower wall/lighter wallpaper and then midtones top and bottom.

[Susie]

We generally skew toward transitional, but our dining room is the most traditional room in the house:

The mirrors and sideboard were great quality pieces that my parents handed down to us.  Since this picture, my dad built us a shaker style table, a little more in line with my taste, that is stained to match the sideboard exactly.

I don't think chair rail is strictly traditional.  We've put it up in two other places (foyer and half bath) that I don't think are particularly traditional.

[dd1204]

This is what we changed it to - would call it transitional for lack of a better term. I don't think the dark paint makes it look smaller, but we did use more substantial furniture which probably does.

[/quote]

I really love what you did to the room. When I get home I'll upload a picture of the room is 10x12 but feel smaller and their is a wall that transition into the kitchen.

Thanks everyone for your comment.

[reason]

We have dark on the bottom, light on the top chair rail and I love it. (First time posting pic!)

Attachment Deleted

[downtoearth]

I always think more traditional with a chair rail, but I think @kaylie did great with making hers more transitional.

I also think a higher, less traditional height rail can add to a more transitional/modern feel. I like the chair rail here (but not the chairs).



Or go lower than usual...that also seems more modern, but I'm wondering how it would work in a dining area.



Also stencils below the chair rail can seem more transitional, but I don't like the furniture or lighting here:

[tarheels]

I prefer a look like @kaylie 's where the dark color is on top. In a dining room, you've got all this heavy furniture on the floor already - the sideboard, the table, the chairs - so I think it balances things nicely to do the dark color on top.

[lavender444]

Kaylie, what color did you use on the top? It's beautiful!

[kaylie]

Dec 16, 2013 15:20:41 GMT -5 lavender444 said:

Kaylie, what color did you use on the top? It's beautiful!

It's SW Porpoise. It's probably my favorite paint color in the house =)

[dd1204]

The first picture is the wall that I'm unsure if I should also put chair rail because it also connects to the kitchen. The second picture shows the color of the adjacent room.

Would you bring the chair rail all the way to the kitchen wall and what dark color would look cohesive with the gray in the other room

[kaylie]

Are you able to stand in a corner and get one general pic of the whole room? I can't really figure out what I'm looking at. It might be because they're all sideways.

[dd1204]

Dec 18, 2013 4:52:37 GMT -5 kaylie said:

Are you able to stand in a corner and get one general pic of the whole room? I can't really figure out what I'm looking at. It might be because they're all sideways.

I'll try tonight. The first picture is looking from the kitchen to the dining room. The second is just showing the color of the adjacent room which is the living room and the third was the best picture I could take off the whole room.

Anyone know why my pictures upload side way and how to fix.