What Is A High Chair Rail Called

Chair rail and wainscoting.

What is a high chair rail called.

A lot of people are confused between the standard height of a chair rail and the exceptions made for the purpose of decoration. The term chair rail is orginially derived from the latin root word chair which means. Chair rails have a practical use in the function of protecting the wall from being damaged by the backs of chairs as people move them about generally getting up and down from the dinner table. Diagram of a wall illustrating the crown molding top dado rail middle and the skirting board lower.

Let the chair rail run below the window sill. A chair rail also known as a chair rail molding is what people install to guard the plaster on walls from cracking or getting damaged when chairs are placed against it. The chair rail at 36 in an 8 room nearly cuts the room in half. However if existing windows aren t as low as the chair rail needs to be that s fine.

Now it depends more on the height of the room. Good question no the ancient greeks were not considering chairs when they designed the chair rail. In fact it wasn t called the chair rail but the pedastal cap. The real purpose of a chair rail is to add visually pleasing architectural interest to your room so the wall s dimensions are what should guide the placement of the molding.

The general rule of thumb is to position a chair rail in the lower one third of the wall height. In new construction it is ideal for windows to be sized such that the lower edges can be in line with chair rail. Wainscoting also called a dado or dado wall paneling is supposed to mimic the pedestal of the column. Actually the goldern ratio is close a to 5 3 ratio not an 8 3 ratio.

If the ceiling is really high instead of using the one third rule you might want to move the chair rail down a bit so it won t look odd. Installing chair railing too high will visually shrink the room. If you have high ceilings another example of this two tone technique might be to pair a bright coral with tan this time reversing the theme of light above dark. A dado rail also known as a chair rail or surbase is a type of moulding fixed horizontally to the wall around the perimeter of a room.

The chair rail was originally placed at around a third the height of the wall which put it at the height of your average chair back says dixon. Contrary to what many people think the height of chair rail should not match the height of a chair back just because it s called chair rail. Chair rail represents the molding that caps the top of the pedestal. We can ignore lots of fancy math and simply estimate that the rail should hit about 1 3 up the wall.