When picking colors for a bedroom wall, don't forget the colors for the chair rail.
A chair rail is placed in a room to prevent the backs of chairs from scratching the paint or denting the walls. Though more often seen in dining and living rooms, they can appear as decorative, waist-high molding accents along bedroom walls. There the piece adds an elegant touch and visually breaks up the height of tall walls. Take advantage of a chair rail and incorporate it into your bedroom painting and don't hide it from view.
Dividing Line
Use the chair rail as a dividing line across a solid-colored wall. Paint the chair rail in a contrasting color to the wall to make it stand out, but use the same color on it as the rest of the trim in the bedroom to incorporate it into the painting theme. For instance, if your bedroom walls are painted in red with white trim, paint the chair rail white. It will stand out against the red wall and fit in visually with the crown molding, baseboard and door jamb color.
Visual Height
Enhance the appearance of height in your bedroom by using the chair rail as a dividing line between two different shades of the same color. Paint the bottom half of the wall in a dark color and the top half the same color, but a lighter shade. For instance, if your bedroom is decorated in blue, paint the wall below the chair rail navy blue and the upper half sky blue. The upper portion will appear to be higher than the bottom half, giving your bedroom the illusion of height. Paint the ceiling an even lighter shade of the same color than the top half of the wall for the greatest appearance of height. Use this in a room with a shorter ceiling.
Child's Bedroom Road
For a child's room, turn the chair rail into a race track. Paint it black and add a white stripe in the middle of it all around to look like a road. To enhance the effect even more, paint the chair rail with black magnetic paint. Attach lightweight car magnets at various points around the chair rail for the child to attach to it and race around the room. This works best in a room decorated with a car or racing theme, and if the chair rail has ridges at the same level or a flat surface for attaching car magnets.
Stamped Rail
Use the chair rail as a canvas for different painting techniques to set it apart from the color of the walls. Paint the walls a solid color, then use a sponge, stenciling or stamping technique on the chair rail. Choose two of the colors already in the room's decorating theme for its painting. For instance, if your bedroom is black and white, against a white wall, paint the chair rail white and apply black stamps, stencils or a sponge technique with black paint. This painting option works best for simple chair rails that don't have ridges or grooves in their design.
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