Painting a room in two colours

January 28, 2015 2:05 PM

Decorating-challenged man with limited colour sense has large family room (24' x 30') with walls divided roughly half way up the wall (on three sides) by narrow (4") shelf/plate rail. Is there a general guideline/rule for painting such a room with one colour up to and including the rail and another colour from there to the ceiling?

Room has high ceiling (8.5') which will be painted white. Hoping to use a darkish taupe somewhere in the mix but not wedded to this. Room has lots of natural light (glass sliding door on one side and long, narrow window on the other). Does light always go above dark in terms of painting or the other way? What colour should go on the wall which has no division? Not really looking to make the room seem bigger but definitely want to avoid the "rec room vibe"

posted by RafikiGuy to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

What I've seen as most common would be painting the same color as the trim below the chair rail. So if the rail and the moldings are white like the ceiling, below the rail white as well, with taupe on top. The fourth wall you can either do all taupe or install a rail to match the others.

This doesn't mean you can't do other things, like two colors with one above and one below or white above and color below or all in taupe with just the rail white.

Pics would help us give advice. :)
posted by amaire at 2:10 PM on January 28, 2015

With wainscoting, it usually goes dark over light. Consider the bottom half an extension of the baseboard.

It's also a great opportunity to add texture to the bottom half of the wall.
posted by politikitty at 2:12 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh! Also: the rail should be white to match the baseboards, moulding, and ceiling no matter what colors you paint above and below it. (With white on the bottom the most common as I described above).
posted by amaire at 2:16 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

While I like wainscoting to match molding (usually white), with just a chair rail, I prefer the look of a white chair rail with a darker color anchoring the bottom portion and a slightly lighter shade above the rail to the ceiling. Like so.
posted by quince at 2:16 PM on January 28, 2015

Response by poster: I should clarify a little. The divider in the middle of the wall is not actually a plate rail. The lower part of the wall stops part way up, then indents about 4 inches (a shelf) and then continues at the indented place to the ceiling.
posted by RafikiGuy at 2:39 PM on January 28, 2015

I think what you describe is unusual enough to not have a rule. In that case, I'd go darker on the bottom - it's grounding and won't feel like the top of the wall is falling in on you. Other option is to paint the whole wall the same color and just ignore that the jog is in the wall at all.
posted by cecic at 3:21 PM on January 28, 2015

Is there a general guideline/rule for painting such a room with one colour up to and including the rail and another colour from there to the ceiling?

Yes: don't. It's 2015 and this is a really 80s thing to do IMHO. Just paint the all the walls a nice mid-tone-neutral and paint the chair rail, trim and doors in gloss white. This is a much, MUCH easier and less dated approach.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:56 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Weird. Can you install a proper plate rail on top of the ledge, and paint it white? Is the ledge just made of drywall, with no trim/molding installed at that point?

Maybe just even add a quarter-round trim to the outside edge of the "shelf", then paint the trim and the flat shelf white, along with the wall below it? In this case I'd also install some simple wainscotting panels to the bottom wall, though.
posted by amaire at 3:59 PM on January 28, 2015

Do you have any ability with Photoshop or any other paint program? If so - I find it helps me to take a picture of the room, load it into Photoshop, take a few minutes to select the areas to be painted, and try different color ideas.
posted by doctor tough love at 5:48 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

I agree with DarlingBri. Unless you're going for a decorating style that requires a bit of fussiness and are OK with the room looking somewhat dated, you are far better served with a single neutral colour. If you want to introduce some contrast, paint one or two of the walls a different colour as a feature - you can visibly change the dimensions of a room this way, too, if that's something you'd like to do.
posted by dg at 9:04 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for all your input. We did end up painting the room in two colours - dark over light - after considering feature walls (different colour on one wall) and a solid colour throughout. We even had the painters try this on a couple of walls. We are not trying to make the room look elegant but really strived to avoid the basement rec-room look and the two colour combo seemed to work.
posted by RafikiGuy at 4:52 PM on March 2, 2015