• A chair rail marks the shift from upper to lower wall treatments, even as it protects the wall.outdoor dining image by Gina Smith from Fotolia.com
  
  A chair rail is useful for defining different treatments on the upper and lower walls of a room. It can frame a special finish or some customized wall art, bridge colors used on separate sections of wall or continue through adjoining rooms, unifying the design. Today's chair rails may be made of wood that can be stained and varnished, but there are also lightweight composite materials that are easy to install and paint.
  
  

Edging a Mural

• A chair rail works almost like a frame when the top half of a wall is covered by a mural or faux fresco. The rail can be painted to match a lower wall or, if it is a wood rail, varnished to contrast with the art work above it for definition. The mural either starts at the ceiling or stretches from a crown molding to the chair rail. In a playroom, position the chair rail at the height of the children's furniture and fill the upper wall with a pirate adventure scene from "Peter Pan" or an enchanted castle from "Briar Rose." Decorate the chair rail with stickers or hand-painted roses or doubloons to link the storybook upper and painted lower wall.
  
  

Chair Rail and Wainscoting

• In a country kitchen with a breakfast nook, bead-board-covered wainscoting is a nice vintage touch and a neat and attractive wall treatment. Extend the visual line of a built-in corner booth finished in bead board by topping it with a chair rail that then runs around the perimeter of the room. For an area with large messy pets or small messy kids, paint the chair rail and bead board--both wainscoting and booth--in high-gloss paint that is easy to wipe down. Paint the wall above the rail in a pale shade of eggshell so that it bounces more light around the room. Use extra pieces of chair rail to frame a bulletin board or whiteboard on the upper wall.
  
  

Formal Demarcation

• In a formal room with a wallpaper or fabric upper wall, a chair rail that matches crown molding and baseboards both separates and integrates the wall treatment. Because the rail is roughly at the height of chair backs and sofa backs, it not only protects the wallpaper and the paint on the lower wall, it creates a uniform visual line around the room. A matte paint on a lower wall complements the matte finish of fine wallpapers but is vulnerable to scrapes and smudges and difficult to clean. So the rail helps to keep the paint fresh as well as prevent the paper from being torn. Paint the lower wall, chair rail and other trim in a color borrowed from the palette in the wallpaper or use just the chair rail to liven things up--try a contrasting color or a soft metallic platinum paint that echoes any crystal and silver accessories or a chandelier in the room.
  
  

Chair Rail Gallery

• Aside from its protective function, a chair rail can be useful as a shelf. Rest a collection of framed photographs on a chair rail with a flat ledge in a room with period architectural details and modern décor. Or use a plate rail that has a groove cut into the flat ledge to show off Majolica pieces in a kitchen or fine bone china in a dining room. For a living-dining open space or a kitchen-dining area, a chair rail shelf holding a particular kind of collection--all photographs, all paintings or all plates--helps to give the space a coherent design.