I am not a fan of doing 2 colors with the chair rail, but that;s just me. Here's what i did. I painted my walls one color then the ceiling a darker color. I really had to step outside the box on this one but glad I did. It's my favorite room in the house. I almost chickened out and went with the lighter color on the walls, but went with my gut feeling. I think the 2 golds you chose would work well like that.

Growing up, we had the darker color below the chair rail and a lighter color on top (yellow over green with white crown, chair rail, and baseboards). I always thought it was very pretty.

I don't have any chair rails in my home now, but plan on including them in my garage when I convert it to a game room with an English Pub decor. I always thought if you did 2 tones, the darker tone was below, so that the area above the rail was the light one to open up the top of the room. Or dark below and a patterned paper above. Denali's room is beautiful too. :-)

I prefer darker on the bottom because darker colors read as more heavy to me.

I agree with lukkiirish about darker looking heavier.

But, I have seen walls done in either dark on the bottom
or light on the bottom. I think it depends on the
size of the room, is the bottom part of the wall the color
of the trim... Lots of options to think about.
Here are some ideas.

Well, that's a great question! It seems to me to come down to personal preference-- neither way is "wrong." My sister-in-law has probably the most beautifully decorated house of anyone I know IRL, and she has red above and cream below. On the other hand, I just had an interior decorator (who is a friend, with confirmed great taste b/c I've seen her house) tell me in no uncertain terms that the darker color needs to go below. Something about heaviness.

I think if you decorate as if you had confidence in your choice (even if you're still not sure), it will look wonderful.

I'd prefer darker on bottom unless you were doing picture frame moulding on the bottom, then white is very traditional.

I think it's definitely a personal preference thing, but to me, darker colors (colors with more weight) belong on the bottom. Anytime it is opposite (you see this with housing siding a lot) to me it looks like the house/room is going to fall over. The exception is as noted in one of those photos above with the wainscotting painted in white.

I have chair rails in my dining room. Darker color on the bottom. The bottom is actually RL River Rock. I don't know if there is a right or wrong to it, but I like the look.

If Magnaverde were to read this post, he'd reply with pics from the White House, where he has (in past posts on another forum) shown us that dark is on top at least in some rooms there.

I would think it's a matter of preference, but I could be wrong. We have both in our home. The DR has color on top, white white chair rail and picture frame moulding on the bottom. I personally love it. In our kids' playroom, we have the color on the bottom and above the chair rail is white. We were thinking more of little hands and keeping the walls clean, in that room though! :)

I think it really depends upon the color combos that you choose. Have you tried SW designing plan or some site similar, to get an idea of what you do and don't like? I think I'd start there. Or take a pic of the room and if you have something as simple as Paint, you can do your own mock up perhaps. Good luck!

Would have been even funnier had she known what she was talking about...

BTW, the watermelon-pink-&-sea-green color scheme in the 6th photo that Boxerpups posted above looks just as striking in that stair hall as it does in the room that surely inspired it, the Drawing Room at Lansdowne House in London, designed by Robert Adam in the 17OOs, and currently installed in glory at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. So much for the silly idea that people used to be "afraid of color."

When I said that it's important to know how & when to break the rules, I was talking about rooms like this.

Regards,
Magnaverde.

Thanks for all of your help. I'm still not 100% certain which way I will go. I am putting raised paneling in my hallway (white) and I want the dining room to feel balanced with the raised paneling. I will eventually put wallpaper in place of the darker color so it is really just a place holder for now.

WAIT...I followed a rule and did something right, lol?
When I said that this was what I wanted in our DR, everyone tried to talk me out of it~
Good luck, Jamaraz with your decision. :)

SPAMMER ALERT: lex87

Hi Jamaraz,

I like darker below the chair rail. I also love the colors you are considering. I have them in my home. I used the BM Ivory Ttusk on that card for the trim. It looks great. My dining room is Ralph Lauren Balmoral Red with BM White Dove wainscoting on the bottom half of the wall. I like the red a lot but I would also love the Tapestry and Cork combo. Putting the Desert Tan in the hallway will make everything blend nicely. Desert Tan is a great color that looks great with so many other colors. Good luck and let us know what you decide!

years ago painted dining rm garnet at bottom and gold at top and it looked great. Recently repainted plum at bottom and cream at top. Looks out of balance since ceiling and trim are white. Now have to change something to balance the room. So I guess it just depends on the colors. In this case I should have done the darker color at the top but was only thinking about the red being difficult to paint over with light colors

so my question is....whether darker on the bottom n lighter colour on top would not suggest out dated or not keeping up with the trend right? would it look a little bit classic as time goes by like in 10 years to come? do u reckon it will look old fashioned? hmmm

Wow. I can't believe the age of this thread. I still.have dark colors on the bottom and still love it with no regard to what is on trend. This past year has reinforced for me the importance of doing what you love. Life is short and it should be beautiful by your standards.