Chair rail's wide portion of profile: up or down?
Bay Area Dave
"standards".
So, for those of you who know your stuff, please offer your idea for
orientation of chair rail: does the thick portion of the rail go up or down?
dave
Mike in Mystic
I'm not really all that expert on this stuff by any means, but if memory
serves all the chair rails I can think of had the wide part on top. In my
current house (an 1880 Victorian with molding everywhere) the chair rails
are all symmetrical, so I can't really point at an example. The ones I'm
thinking of often had some kind of highly decorative portion on the lower
side (maybe a repeating spiral pattern or some flutes or something) topped
with a nice bead detail or coves or something. I don't know if there is a
"rule" or not, but it always looked good to me with the wider part (the bead
in these examples) on top.
Not sure if this is helpful or not, but there ya go.
Take it easy,
Mike
--
There are no stupid questions.
There are a LOT of inquisitive idiots.
"Bay Area Dave" <da...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:RIWeb.8645$dX1....@newssvr27.news.prodigy.com...
Norm Underwood
"Bay Area Dave" <da...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:RIWeb.8645$dX1....@newssvr27.news.prodigy.com...
Depends upon what you like. Personally I like the thick end at the top
so there's less area to catch dust.
Bay Area Dave
"right", but then I put it the other way and it looks ok too! My next
door neighbors used baseboard as crown molding, but laid flat against
the wall; not up on the ceiling. While attending a party at their home,
I heard several people remark about how lame it was to use baseboard as
crown. I don't want to nail it all together and find out I did it bass
ackwards!
dave
Bay Area Dave
with it "up" for the dust aspect.
dave
Mike in Mystic
http://www.wood-molding.com/Site_Map/Products/Moldings/Chair_Rail/chair_rail
.html
(watch the URL wrap)
I know it isn't definitive or anything, but all of the profiles are shown
with the wide part on top, so that probably is the way they are intended to
be installed.
Mike
--
There are no stupid questions.
There are a LOT of inquisitive idiots.
"Mike in Mystic" <sandi...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:nXWeb.8118$yN7....@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com...
Bay Area Dave
that is the definitive answer, Mike! You are "Da Man".
Here's a tougher one: what color should I paint below the rail? <g>
SWMBO and I have been experimenting with "rag on", "rag off", sponging
"on" and "off", dry brushing. We WERE going to get wallpaper for
wainscoting, but we couldn't agree on anything after looking at every
book we could find... I'm almost prepared now to use a natural sponge
and do a two color "sponge on" technique. Wish I was more of an artiste!
dave
Bay Area Dave
middle of a project and get such quick, useful feedback.
dave
Clu LeSnooby
> Here's a tougher one: what color should I paint below the rail? <g>
> SWMBO and I have been experimenting with "rag on", "rag off",
Well, dave, as you seem to be "on the rag" more often than not, I'd go with
that.
Bay Area Dave
dave
Norm Underwood
> that's what I was thinking too--if it "looked" ok either way, I'd go
> with it "up" for the dust aspect.
>
> dave
If you want to go for a "custom" look, use a picture frame molding top
and bottom and put the chair rail over that. DAGS on "built up
moldings".
Norm Underwood
"Norm Underwood" <bayar...@asspounders.com> wrote in message
news:1SYeb.1503$vn....@newssvr22.news.prodigy.com...
Picture "rail" not frame.
George Eversole Jr.
-ghe
Henry St.Pierre
> PERFECT! thanks! I missed the "html" the first time. :)
>
> that is the definitive answer, Mike! You are "Da Man".
>
> Here's a tougher one: what color should I paint below the rail? <g>
> SWMBO and I have been experimenting with "rag on", "rag off", sponging
> "on" and "off", dry brushing. We WERE going to get wallpaper for
> wainscoting, but we couldn't agree on anything after looking at every
> book we could find... I'm almost prepared now to use a natural sponge
> and do a two color "sponge on" technique. Wish I was more of an artiste!
>
> dave
>
Hank
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Morgans
"Bay Area Dave" <da...@nospam.com> wrote > Here's a tougher one: what color
should I paint below the rail? <g>
> SWMBO and I have been experimenting with "rag on", "rag off", sponging
> "on" and "off", dry brushing. We WERE going to get wallpaper for
> wainscoting, but we couldn't agree on anything after looking at every
> book we could find... I'm almost prepared now to use a natural sponge
> and do a two color "sponge on" technique. Wish I was more of an artiste!
>
> dave
My wife, who others say has a decorator's eye, has mandated that upper wall
be painted with flat latex wall paint, while the chair rail, and other trim
be painted with semi-gloss oil, for durability, and for the fact that the
light sheen gives it extra life.
--
Jim in NC
Bay Area Dave
I JUST got back from HD with two cans of...drum roll...semi gloss to do
the "sponging on"! Did I mention before I already bought 3 other quarts
of deeply tinted paint and neither I nor SWMBO liked them on a sample
board we played around with trying to get the "technique" down.
I painted the entire wall with satin. I would have used flat, but I was
told go with satin or semi for the area that would have glaze applied
later. I agree completely with your wife. I just didn't want to buy
two cans gallons of paint--one flat for the top and one semi for the
base coat of the wainscoting. Thank you for your input.
dave
T.
laments:
Here's another question sure to bring out some snide comments about
Don't worry Dave, not from me. I don't have "standards". Or, at
least not bad enough to require Preparation S yet.
JOAT
If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing
again.
- Terry Venables
Life just ain't life without good music. - JOAT
Web Page Update 1 Oct 2003.
Some tunes I like.
http://community-2.webtv.net/Jakofalltrades/SOMETUNESILIKE/
Groggy
side up", but why?
Is it simply eye pleasing proportions, a standard we've become accustomed
to, or something else?
I found a reference that stated "Together, the chair rail, the wainscoting,
and the base molding parallel the pedestal of classical design, where the
chair rail is the cornice, with the fancy embelishment acting as the frieze,
the wide board is the dado, and the base molding is the plinth" Ref:
<http://jointer.oldetoolshop.com/woodwork2.html>
This is borne out clearly by a diagram at
<http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/T2.HTM> where, if you look at the
pedestal of the column, it is easy to imagine it as the portion of the wall
under discussion. The chair rail (cornice) is clearly shown "wide-side up",
the same as the cornice in the entablature or the abacus in the column's
capital. Study of the classical column will answer a lot of questions, I
found this particular diagram very helpful to understand how the various
interior elements come together as a metaphor for the column.
What I did not find was a scale that would help with sizing the various
components to a ratio that suits the architecture of a room so it looked
balanced, though it must be out there somewhere - anyone?
Greg
Tom Watson
wrote:
On any trim element above the base, the part which protrudes the most
goes up. It's all about the shadow lines.
Regards, Tom.
Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker
Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania
http://users.snip.net/~tjwatson