Yet another paint (but not color) question.

I'm another 'leave 'er be-er' on this sort of feature. Taking it to the edge would make it a bit mmmm suburban. Any house can have that.

I understand that, Osso. I just thought that I hadn't made myself clear.

- It could be tapered, I just don't want to.

I'm not she who must be obeyed. I've lived in five old places, one with a lease, two that I owned. I now live in a little **** splotch, though I kind of like it too.

I'm sorry for some of my early sins, painting the wood in a CA bungalow. How many years in hell?

But also, we didn't jerk the place around, and I figure that gets some points.

But I lived through the eighties in architectureville, Venice, CA. I understand fervor re rebuilding boxes, and fervor for not f.king with them.

I've arch historian friends, preservationist friends, mocking re preservation friends.

We had a client who did a real restoration along with a renovation. I get the diff.

I'm careful now. I'd leave the chair rail.

Plus, the chair rail ending is rather beautiful.

I was thinking about this as I drove in this morning. Do the top and bottom need to be different colours? I think it would distract from the effect of that rather pretty chair rail.

On the flip side (sort of), if there's wainscotting going in there later, the effect of the decorative chair rail end will be lost in any case so you might as well muck it up now.

To argue with myself re keeping the chair rail as it is, and not doing wainscotting there --
if I did do wainscotting, I might take the chair rail out and put some other band at the top of the wainscotting (wherever it ended, as the same thing would happen with the arch... where and just how to end the wainscotting.)

I'm still for leaving c/rail and not doing wainscotting - just thinking what I would do if I thought otherwise.

Yay - for me, it's become an either/or thing. Either the wainscotting or the chair rail as it stands.

It was an interesting thing to mull over in the slower traffic stretches.

Yeh. I'd been puzzleing about the wainscotting/chair rail meeting..

If you go for the wainscoting, Boomer, and don't do anything with the chair rail, you're going to have an unfinished top edge of the wainscoting showing. Where would you end the wainscoting, at the rounded entry edge or somewhere back under the chair rail?

Me too. What kind of WSing are you thinking of doing, frame and panel, beadboard. How far does the bottom moulding on the chair rail extend from the wall?

JTT, I just wouldn't. The lower piece on the chair rail is thin, so how would the meet work? and, besides, I think the wainscot thing and the rail thing are at odds re time and place.

I'm a longtime ca bungalow person, with wainscott up to a shelf level - sort of a picture shelf, over a 1x with some 2 1/2 bys (say, 2 1/2 by four inches at stud points) as stabilizers for the Shelf with dados for photo etc placement.

Damn, I'm really at a loss without being able to post my pics re scanning. Must attend to this.

JTT, I'm not a carpenter and guessing you are - not out to dismiss you, or you, me.

Have to add that my ca bungalows and boomer's house are not the same. And my bungalows weren't spanich (a term within a firm), which is another giant element. My aunt's house was rather like
boomers, and it was extremely simple. Gone now, bad apartments.

I'll also go so far as to wonder if wainscots (scotts?) are right for this house - right now I'm NO on that. Still for keeping the chair rail, if original.

The chair rail will have to go when the wainscotting goes in. This rail won't work with wainscotting.

And I'm not sure how we'll deal with the edge. That's Mr. B's balliwack, not mine. He's pretty clever with such things.

The rail, if original, won't work with your plan?

I admit to fking up on this stuff in my past, but really, I hope you reconsider.

I'm not plumping for wscting, Osso, I'm merely pointing out the problems if Boomer goes that route. Clearly, there will be issues with the thin profile on the bottom of the ch rail, not insurmountable ones but some problems.

I suspect that they are three separate pieces. A sharp chisel and a deft hand could see if the bottom molding would split away. If it's three pieces, then removing the bottom piece isn't a major problem.

The thought never entered my mind, Osso. A good carpenter can do whatever one wants, but obviously those great ideas come from others beside the carpenters.

But wait, I know some sharp carpenters, re, say interior designers. Alert!
really just interested in all the what to do's, which I'm picking up, you are too.

I think a frame and panel wainscoting would look elegant on your walls, Boomer, but this posting isn't meant to encourage you to do so. I'm writing it merely to offer some advice on how to do, carpenterwise.

The following pertains to a frame and panel type wainscoting. First, I'd take off the bottom moulding on the chair rail. Next depending on the jut out distance of the second level moulding, you could use a full thickess frame [normally 3/4"] and panel or you could do a lighter style that's 1/2" thick for the frame.

If there isn't enough room take off both the first and second mouldings from the chair rail and add one back as a closure between the top of the frame and the top piece of the chair rail.

Depending on the available jut out distance, you could rabbet the panel into the back of the frame to save distance/thickness or if you have enough room, just put the frame on top of the panel.

This would also solve the corner problem as you could take the frame and panel around the corner as far you you desired. The back of the frame could have a piece added on the backside to match the curve of the corner.

This would be relatively easy to do even for a beginner because only a short piece at the top would have to be crafted, only the visible portion and it wouldn't need to be a perfect joint as it is a paint job so latex caulk/putty could fill any small voids.