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Dado rail & door colours

8 years ago

In the process of decorating the hallway and just finished the main walls (staircase is new and waiting to be painted and having a new carpet/runner once it's finished)

My question is should I put a dado rail up to break up the huge expanse of white and also to help stop the wall from getting dirty?

Should it be the same height as the bannister rail?

I was thinking also of painting the hall doors a pale grey and running the same colour at the bottom of the dado if we put it on. Would this look ok?

Otherwise everything is all white! I have the front door (which is white composite so can't change that), a door to the left and in front and to the right.

I tend to get scared of painting anything but white as we are selling the house next year so want to keep it easy and neutral. However it might b v boring if I leave it all white.

The floor will be a rich mid walnut gloss laminate

Featured Answer

mrsmcee74

8 years ago

Definition of little boys: noise with dirt on.

Comments (12)

Tani H-S
Original Author
8 years ago
This is the view from the stairs (ignore the mess! Lol)
minnie101
8 years ago
Doors look good in grey. Dark greys look really good but depends on light. This is a pale grey pic from roomsforrentblog. I would carry the grey across to all or part of the stairs and also paint the upstairs doors. I'm not sure whether the dado will work from the perspective of keeping the wall clean. You could try black white framed photos going up the stairs?
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I would make a feature of it; it adds character and structure and takes the eye sweepingly along and up which is good for adding a sense of space. Could you paint it a colour that ties in with something else - the flooring or a rug, for example? Or you could put patterned wallpaper or a different colour paint below and a lighter shade above it. You could also hang pictures in the feature shapes above though if they aren't original I'd be tempted to get rid of them. I'd move away from the rather feminine and twee decoration and make it bolder, stronger.
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I think a dado rail is a (timeless) lovely idea and I really like your wallpaper. I would be careful not to veer away too much from 'standard' heights. However, looking at your windows (great to have so much natural light coming into the staircase!) I'm not sure how to best approach it. Hopefully someone else here is :)
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We are going to decorate our hall, stairs and landing which is quite dark with not a great deal of natural light. The HSL have a dado rail and a picture rail which give us 5 things to consider painting 1 ) the woodwork i.e. doorframes, skirting, dado and picture rails [the doors are pine] 2) Below the dado 3) Between dado and picture rail 4) Above picture rail 5) the ceiling The woodwork needs to be white, so my question is, what do you consider the best way of doing the wall and ceiling areas. Since it's a dark hallway, the colours have got to be on the lighter shades. Options are: 1) Darker colour under the dado, lighter shade between dado and picture rail and then white above picture rail and ceiling .... I'm not sure if this looks a bit dated and fussy these days with effectively three different colours on the wall. 2) Have the same colour above and below the dado rail and then white above picture rail and ceiling. 3) Have white under the dado rail, have a band of colour between dado and picture rail and then white above picture rail and ceiling 4) Same as 3, but having a very light off white under the dado and above picture rail and ceiling. Has anyone got any experience of having a dado and a picture rail and what did you decide to plump for? What is the modern way of looking at this? And the last question - I've been looking at some greys for this hallway, but I'm really not sure that my pine doors and grey paint make great bedfellows - again, opinions gratefully received. Many thanks.
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Jonathan
8 years ago
If you are selling next year then don't spend the money on a dado. Add interest with pictures.
I personally wouldn't have a dado anyway in this room because the height looks best tied into the centre panel of the door but this is different from the handle height and different from the banister so it could look untidy.
Tani H-S
Original Author
8 years ago
Hi both, thank you for replying.

Minnie - I love that pale grey, don't suppose you know what it is??
I have some grey undercoat which is dark so I could always try that on a test patch to get an idea although I think paler would work best in this hall. It's south facing so gets sun in the morning but is fairly dark in the avo.

Yes I plan on hanging some pictures to balance out the large expanse of wall up the stairs as it looks too bare now.

Re the dado - I was only going to run it up the stairs really and not around the rest of the hall, although this might be a no no.
It was mainly to break it up and give people something to hold/touch when walking down the stairs
minnie101
8 years ago
Hi Tani, sorry no pininterest does not behave on an iPad! I've used chic shadow by Dulux in a south facing room before and think it's a similar colour so maybe give this a go
mrsmcee74
8 years ago
I did all mine off white and really wished I'd gone for a darker colour on the staircase wall, I'm constantly scrubbing off dirty little finger marks. Maybe only an issue if you have little ones.

But yes otherwise jazz up the wall with art and you could bring in colour with the flooring to break up the expanse of white.
mrsmcee74
8 years ago
Couple of options
Laura
8 years ago
I'm not a fan of feature walls, but I definitely think it's suitable in hallways and on stairs.

We currently have a dado rail, which looks great, but it's old and tired. I'm considering removing it, painting everything white to keep it bright, but paint the stairs wall blue
Tani H-S
Original Author
8 years ago
My problem is that it extends up to a massive height from the stairs so it's not easy to paint and it's not just that one wall.
I had to wedge 2 ladders and boarding to reach the ceiling but even then it was a struggle to reach & paint!
mrsmcee74
8 years ago
Must admit Tani the stairs is the one room I won't tackle myself because I'm terrified of heights and quite accident prone! It's the one bit of the house I'm happy to pay someone else to do. But suppose you may as well fork out for a dado as pay a decorator. I must say I'm loving those open back wall panels you can get now, might have a go with those next time we decorate the stairs.
minnie101
8 years ago
I'm with you on that one mrsmcee! We have a galleried landing which had to be boarded out and I couldn't even watch the decorators do it! My son has left filthy handmarks down the stairs which don't wash off (stupidly got estate emulsion) so I bought another tin of elephants breath to touch it up and it's awful. Looks fine facing the wall but look at it sideways and it's horrendous, like I've had a family of snails over the wall. I'm now going to have to pay to get the whole wall done professionally.. Tani, the pics down the stairs worked perfectly with my nephews or panelling as gloss/satin is easier to keep clean. Panelling isn't obviously particularly cheap though

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