Dado rails, are they out of date? thinking of putting one up the stairs

My sofa and chairs don't match. Not keen on three piece suites.

Mine don't match either. Whenever I watch a homestyle programme on the telly (not as if we're short of 'em) I shudder when I see those huge black or dark brown fake leather sofas crammed into a small room.

We just have a three seater sofa and two upcycled wing back armchairs in our sitting room. If we need more seating we have bean bags, floor cushions and a cream moroccan pouffe. The oldies (us) get first dibs on the chairs

We have got one (real!) leather brown armchair which is really far too big for the room. But soooo comfy!

My latest bugbear is baths, having spent a few days at a super B&B in all respects other than the bath was uncomfortable. Like sinks now, baths are styled to look good but with no regard to things like being able to lie back comfortably etc. Plus the fashion for baths in bedrooms; all I can think about is how damp everything will get.

I wouldn't put dado rails up. Too fussy and would look dated in a modern house. I go with a nice farrow and ball colour and carefully chosen prints.

Well you wouldn't choose a horrible colour, would you?

Why is Farrow & Ball paint so expensive? Seriously.

It doesn't go on so easily as Dulux. (DH said, the one time we tried it) I try to match the colour with a mixed specially Dulux one.

I think it might have a ,somehow, "National Trust" look to the colours. Or just very up yourself posh.

I didn't mean to be rude to you susied!!!

Farrow and Ball are expensive , but worth it in my opinion. They are made in Uk and not shipped in from China. They have more authentic ( not synthetic) pigment So the colour is more accurate and concentrated. I think it goes on way better than Dulux and is easier to clean off the rollers etc. you can try to get the colour mixed up in Homebase or wherever but try the 2 against each other and you will see the difference. All their colours are understated and don't date, look good in modern. Period or retro settings. No I don't work for them and I do use other paint as well! But if you are doing a room you use all the time and won't be doing it again for a few years then it's worth getting something you really like.

DS and DDIL have used F&B in their flat. I think it's Mousesback in their living room, it looks lovely.

Right. I' m sending for some F and B tester pots!

I will admit to having painted over a very figured wall paper in our dining room that is F&B colour is string - I like that. I needed something to go with curtains.

I've been trying to get DH to agree to dado rail up our staircase, but can't convince him. It's a 1930s terrace with a very narrow steep staircase. Because it's so narrow, the lowest 2 or 3 feet get scuffed all the time and look terrible now (it's six years since we last painted that wall). Painting the whole thing is a major job because the ceilings are so high, so for practical reasons I'd like to have paper above the dado and probably paint below. That way, the scuffed part could be regularly repainted without having to touch the higher part.

I slightly envy those of you who have walls that are smooth enough to just be emulsioned. Most of the walls in our rented house are so patched up with polyfiller that the only realistic option open to us when we moved in (apart from paying for replastering of a house that we don't own) was to use anaglypta below the emulsion, to help disguise some of the irregularities. Luckily, we've lived here long enough now for me not to notice the uneven walls most of the time, but we've just had visitors for the weekend so I've become a bit more aware of it again. Time to get some paint charts and start planning the next face-lift, I think!

I have always had chairs and sofas that do not match, never owned a three piece suite in my life. Firstly because we couldn't afford one but mainly because we have always bought our furniture second hand at junk shops or at auction.

As far as dado rails are concerned, who cares about fashion. It is your house, Biker, do what you like.

lots of thoughts and ideas ! thanks all... will deff tak a look at the F & B range..

I like emulsions walls because it's easy....excepting for very high stairwells. I think dado rails are dated, but that's just me. My home is pretty much matching but not highly modern, and lots of it 'pre loved'

Compromise, do a stencil where a dado rail would go? There are some brilliant kits around, and some of them are very easy to do. I did a vine leaf one in a previous house.

(Sorry if someone else had already suggested this)

What I have done is emulsion in two colours, using masking tape along the line that a rail would be positioned.
Alternatively you could use a roll of border, there are some modern patterns available these days.

Choose to do whatever you want, who cares whether others like it!

I suppose it depends on whether you want your house to appear dated in a very short time. The OP asks if dado rails are out of date? The answer is Yes. The same goes for stencilled borders and (even worse) rolls of patterned border.

If someone advised me to do what I want and who cares if others like it I'd think they're the ones who actually don't care.

Look at the rest of your home and work out what is definitely your style. Think of ways of merging your character with modern tastes. Dated furniture can easily be upcyled but once you have stuck a dado rail on a long staircase wall you'll be stuck with it.

I think that's a bit harsh merlot. Not everyone has the same taste.

Lots of our furniture is old but I don't want it upcycling. We have a dado rail in our hall with a striped paper under and emulsion above. IMO it suits our (quite large) hall which contains a georgian desk and chair, a Victorian grandfather clock and a rustic chest of drawers we have mirrors and prints in gold frames. We also have a dado rail on the stairs as the wall is enormous. This wall is painted a deep red, to match the ceiling, below the dado and a warm cream above.

DD3 is very good at upcycling furniture and it looks great but isn't our style at all.

We had a rail up the stairs hall and landings of a Victorian house we lived in. Suited the house very well and we put one of the very expensive analglypta papers with a small pattern on below the rail - painted that Egyptian sand which is a lovely understated soft yellow and cream paint above. We had a lovely shade of red carpet - not harsh colour at all - red carpet is hard to pick as some colours are just too harsh - and I managed to get a lovely toning fabric to make a curtain. The hall always looked beautifully bright and sunny and an amazing number of visitors remarked on how welcoming the house always looked. In fact one couple so loved it all they repeated it in their house!
Go with what you think will suit your lifestyle and not make things too difficult to keep looking nice. The rail certainly makes it very possible to repaint just that section if it gets marked but I would say get any rail put on correctly and also any paper underneath - a cheap embossed type will not look good at all as sometimes the pattern goes flat when hung. The Analglypta papers although very expensive - I paid around £15 a roll twenty years ago - it is a great quality and very strong - needs cutting as cannot be torn at all. Good luck biker whatever you choose and I hope you are happy with the result.

phoenix now that is something to think about as It could always be painted over without any hassle..

yes I up cycled our old tatty sofa that the cats had plucked to death....luckily the extra sofa covers that they sell in Ikea fit our suite, I did originally buy black to go with the lime green décor....everyone kept say "have you got anew suite"? lol now that the cats have departed this world I have whipped the black ones off and replaced with cream 9£50 for the sofa and one chair cover so good buy) thing is young GS is started to "move" around.... maybe cream wasn't such a good choice, but the other colours were soooooo expensive, I think one iof the colures chair covers was about £145! but as mine were just the raw cotton colour that's why there cheaper, certainly brightens the room up.

We put in dado rails in nineties /nought ids and took down in daughter's room last year. We had to have the whole room re plastered . I would like to take down the one on stairs hall and landing as it does look dated, but don't want to spend loads on plastering .

Not harsh at all, kitty. I was just responding to the OP