I'd like to put a picture rail up in our ground floor hallway and paint the area above the same colour as the ceiling in order to show off the cornice to best effect. I'm unsure whether to end the picture rail at the bottom of the stairs or to continue it up the stairwell. At some point it will simply have to finish in "mid air" if you follow my drift and there will need to be a vertical line between the ceiling colour and and wall colour below the picture rail. I really need a diagram to explain this more clearly but hopefully the problem will be understandable/recognisable. Grateful for advice/experience of what works.
- Thread starter graypark
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Penners
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Stopping the picture rail is not a big problem. I reckon the neatest way would be to make an external mitre-cut the end, and then mitre on a piece of the moulding the length of its depth.
That probably makes no sense at all verbally, but here's a little diagram of what I mean. I hope it makes the explanation clearer.
That probably makes no sense at all verbally, but here's a little diagram of what I mean. I hope it makes the explanation clearer.
chuckey
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I would do it as Penners suggested , but as I see it the vertical bit(going down in Penners sketch) should go up with its outer edge being flush with the edge of the stair well.
After I read your note I went down stairs to check to see how our picture rail works around the stairwell. Despite having lived in this house for 27 years , I had forgotten that there is NO picture rail in the hall, although there is every other room!! Sign of old age?
Frank
After I read your note I went down stairs to check to see how our picture rail works around the stairwell. Despite having lived in this house for 27 years , I had forgotten that there is NO picture rail in the hall, although there is every other room!! Sign of old age?
Frank
thank you both very much. I'll mull over both suggestions which seem very logical. That said penners proposal still leaves me with the problem of going from the ceiling colour to the wall colour without any transition (ie ceiling colour before the end of the rail and wall colour afterwards, working horizontally along the wall above the rail). Chuckey's avoids this but I wonder whether a picture rail moulding rising vertically wouldn't look a bit odd. Given the answer doesn't appear to be obvious it would be very useful to hear from anyone who actually has a picture rail in their hallway! Many thanks. gray
My son's house has picture rails in the hall, which stop when they meet the elaborate plaster bracket thingys (**) just before the stairs. Could you instal a pair in your hall?
** I know it has a proper name (corbel?) but I'm not too hot on architectural terms.
** I know it has a proper name (corbel?) but I'm not too hot on architectural terms.
Lime
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A right angle upright that disappears into the ceiling is the most common way of dealing with this problem where it meets the stairs (for instance).
That is what I have.
It enters the ceiling where the cornice finishes next to where the upstairs floor finishes and the stairwell opening begins..
Alternatively, if the cornice occupies the space too much to allow that to happen, the the picture rail should be extended beyond the cornice into the "open" space of the stairwell then have a right angle upright (slightly longer than if going into the ceiling) then a further right angle turning back to the floor edge just below the bannister etc. Make it look like a square box with a side missing.
That is what I have.
It enters the ceiling where the cornice finishes next to where the upstairs floor finishes and the stairwell opening begins..
Alternatively, if the cornice occupies the space too much to allow that to happen, the the picture rail should be extended beyond the cornice into the "open" space of the stairwell then have a right angle upright (slightly longer than if going into the ceiling) then a further right angle turning back to the floor edge just below the bannister etc. Make it look like a square box with a side missing.