Dado Rails

[jeanette1]

Hi all, in a bit of a quandry. Have L shaped front room with Dado Rails about halfway up running all round room. Wall above and below wallpapered and painted slightly different shades of yellow. (There when we moved in). Am thinking of removing the Dado Rails as they do not seem to serve any particular purpose. The room is quite dark as has very small window at front and dining room extension on back. French Doors (painted white) from front room leading to Dining Room. Would like to repaper and paint a much lighter colour. Hubby likes Dado Rails(have thought of painting them white) but I feel they make the room look too busy as I like pictures on the walls and somehow pictures look wrong with the Dado Rail. I know that there will be a bit of mess taking them off, but I normally do the decorating anyway, so that is my problem to handle. Have any of you any thoughts about Dado Rails. Thanks for your input. Jeanette

[jeanette1]

You are so right! Have started to take the rails off.
Jeanette

[Shazza36]

We took ours off- needed to do quite a bit of plastering afterwards but the living room looks much better without.

[pingping]

take them off - horrible things!

[jeanette1]

Shazza and PingPing,
thank you for your replies, I have taken them off in the front room - they were all screwed in and luckily no plaster has come off. Will have to fill in the screw holes but that is all. Definetely looks better without them. Just the dining room to do now. That can wait though until I have finished decorating the front room.
Jeanette

[Ethel]

They used to serve a purpose - when wallpaper was horrendously expensive because it couldn't be mass produced easily, dado rails protected it from damage from furniture, particularly chair backs.