Picture Rail and Dado Rail, Heights, History and Styling

A dado rail is the horizontal moulding that runs around a wall at roughly chair back height, and a picture rail is the moulding that runs higher up, near the ceiling, so pictures can hang from it on hooks and cords. The dado rail began as protection for the wall, the picture rail as a way to hang art without fixing into the plaster. There is no single correct height for either. The best guide is any original evidence in your house, then the proportions of the room.

This guide covers what each rail was for, where they usually sit, how they appear in Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian houses, and how to style and paint them today. If you are restoring a period room, our plaster cornice and coving page explains the plaster mouldings we supply, fit and match.

What a dado rail was for

The word dado comes from classical architecture. Britannica defines it as the plain part of a column's pedestal, between its base and cornice, and in later interiors as the panelled, painted or decorated lower part of a wall. Country Life describes how Georgian panelled rooms follow the classical column, with the dado rail as the plinth, the panels above as the shaft and the cornice as the capital.

The rail also had a practical job. The Victorian Society explains that the dado rail originally protected expensive wall hangings from the backs of chairs, and that the point where a chair back brushes the wall determines its height. Designing Buildings adds that chairs in Georgian dining rooms were kept against the walls when not in use. You will sometimes see the same moulding called a chair rail for that reason.

Fashion moved on. According to Designing Buildings, the dado rail was less used for a time in the Victorian period, then grew popular again towards the end of it as a decorative device, often with panelling below, and most Edwardian entrance halls had one.

What a picture rail was for

A picture rail is a moulding fixed high on the wall, shaped so that metal hooks can sit over its top edge. Pictures hang from those hooks on cords, wires or chains. Designing Buildings describes the main benefit simply, you can move and change pictures without damaging the wall.

Picture rails are most closely linked with Victorian and Edwardian houses. Designing Buildings notes that in the Victorian period they were often set at around the height of the tall door architraves, and that Edwardian rooms often had a decorative frieze between the picture rail and the cornice, frequently painted in a contrasting colour. Traditionally they were timber or moulded plaster, usually painted.

Picture rail and dado rail heights

We would be wary of any guide that gives one exact height. Original rails were set by the room, the furniture and the fashion of the day. These are the most reliable pointers we have found.

• Look for evidence first. The Victorian Society notes that if you are reinstating a dado rail, it is usually easy to see where the original was fixed. Old fixing holes, a line in the plaster or a change in the paint layers will tell you.
• Dado rail. Britannica describes the historic dado as reaching up to about 60 to 90 cm above the floor. Within that range, choose a height that suits your chairs and the proportions of the wall.
• On a staircase. The Victorian Society advises that a dado rail on a staircase wall should match the height of the handrail on the banisters.
• Picture rail. In many Victorian rooms it sits around the height of the tops of the door architraves. In a room with a lower ceiling, setting it closer to the cornice keeps the wall from feeling cut in half.
• Wallpaper and Lincrusta. The Victorian Society points out that a pattern repeat, or a dado material such as Lincrusta, may dictate the precise height.

Rails in period houses

In a Georgian house, the dado rail is part of an ordered scheme, so it is worth keeping it in proportion with the cornice and skirting rather than treating it as a decorating trick. In a Victorian or Edwardian house, rails often survive in the hall, the stairs and the main rooms, and their profiles are frequently shared with neighbouring houses of the same age. If a rail has been lost, a neighbour's surviving run is often the best guide to what belongs.

If your house is listed, check with your local authority before removing or changing original mouldings. For the cornice that often sits above a picture rail, our guide to Victorian, Georgian and Edwardian coving explains how to read the period.

How to style picture rails and dado rails today

• Two colours, split at the dado. A deeper shade below the rail and a lighter one above is the classic approach, and the darker colour hides scuffs in a hall.
• Colour drenching. Paint the wall, the rails and the skirting in one colour. The mouldings still catch the light, but the room feels calm and modern.
• A coloured frieze. Paint the band between the picture rail and the cornice in the ceiling colour, or in a contrast, to lower a very tall ceiling visually.
• Actually hang pictures from it. Brass hooks and cords or fine chains look handsome, and you can rearrange a gallery wall without filling holes.
• Panelling below the rail. Panel mouldings below a dado rail give a hall or dining room real structure. Our guide to wall panelling ideas covers layouts.

Paint and finish ideas

Many people paint rails in a slightly harder wearing finish than the walls, so they can be wiped, while the walls stay flat and soft. Check the paint maker's guidance on which finish suits which surface. For a softer look, the wall above the rail can be finished in limewash or Venetian plaster, with the rail painted to pick out one of its tones. In a richly decorated room, picking out mouldings in gold leaf reads beautifully in lamplight.

Questions we get asked

Is a chair rail the same as a dado rail?

Yes, in everyday use the two names describe the same moulding, a rail at around chair back height, named for the job it did.

Can you have both a picture rail and a dado rail in one room?

Yes. Both were in use in Victorian and Edwardian houses and they sit comfortably together. Keep the profiles in the same family so the room reads as one scheme.

Will a picture rail hold heavy pictures?

That depends on how well the rail is fixed and what it is made of. For a heavy mirror or large framed piece, fix directly into the wall instead.

Do you fit picture rails and dado rails?

We do not supply timber rails. We supply and fit plaster mouldings, including cornice, coving, ceiling roses, panel mouldings and corbels, and we make new lengths to match an existing plaster profile. Send us photos of what you have and we will tell you what we can do.

Where to go next. See the plaster mouldings we supply, fit, restore and match on our plaster cornice and coving page, or send photos of your room and any surviving mouldings through our contact page.