Dado rails, are they out of date?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

bikergran I have had dado rails in some houses, but wouldn't now, they collect dust and are a pain on the stairs when it comes to carrying stuff up and down.

This site

www.notonthehighstreet.com/art/wall-stickers?page=1

has pages and pages of what is now the most common form of wall decoration - big stickers that you can place where you like. there are pages and pages of them, so go to the next pages. They may not be to you taste but other sites do them. I was actually trying to find a lovely one that I saw for a staircase, but I couldn't find it. Your colours sound very modern, I'm not sure a dado rail would work but we got around it by having a stripy stair carpet, which draws the eye. I do remember that one of the colourways did have a lime green stripe in it, and black.

Dado rails in my opinion are so last decade (or more) - if your house is large and ceilings are high then I can understand the need to break up the monotony of large expanses of walls but if it isn't, then why make a small space even smaller? I agree with Jings on this one - add interest to walls by putting up pictures and/or photographs. But really it is just a matter of personal preference at the end of the day - one man's meat is another man's poison after all..... On the other hand, of course, is it 30 years or more since they were last "the in thing"? if so, then yes put them up if you want to be the height of current fashion!!!!

I've seen lots of very chic houses in magazines where dado rails feature. I like them, especially if skirting boards, the dado rails and ceilings are painted a brilliant white. I am about to have my hall and stairs decorated and am going for a slate grey paint below the dado rail with a pale, silvery grey above it. I had my then husband put a dado rail in the hall and up the dog-leg staircase when we moved to this house in the '80s. I think they add character to a room, but I am very fond of houses with period features.

I think that one of the reasons why I went with dado rails in the hall/landing was to cover up the damage done to the plaster by removing the Laura Ashley floral border that had been there before, so it's always a good idea [as has been advised on here]to consider problems caused by removing a decorative feature that is currently fashionable. A good piece of advice I heard years ago [strangely enough in the awful Changing Rooms programme] was, if you're going with something currently fashionable, just do one room so that when it goes out of fashion you only have one room to change. I find that the dado rail in my hall/landing adds interest to a house that has, in general, square, boring boxy rooms and that putting the pictures above the dado rail frames them even more, especially if the colour in the pictures is picked up in the colour in the bottom half of the room. But I am biased about it I suppose .

I am no expert on what's in or not and had always thought dado rails to look smart but were to some degree a little old fashioned.

However it's not what other people think is it, and you are not going to sell your house so if it's your thing then put them in.

When I make changes to my home I only do what suits me don't consider if someone might not like it.

In my living room I have a dado rail. It's a late Victorian miner's house, so the rail is appropriate. Otherwise, I had the whole place done with emulsion on top of lining paper. It badly needs re-painting! Oh the upheaval! My DS2 - the family 'expert' because he worked with a decorator during Uni holidays - recommends F&B because in the long run, he found he used less of it than Dulux or Crown and the colours are interesting.

I saw a dado rail on one of those house selling/decorating programmes and immediately thought how dated it looked, so I guess it all depends on where it is and what colours are used. My hall and landing are so typically 1970's square and boring looking that I felt a detail of some kind would break it up a bit, and I think [and hope] that it works.

Just out of interest, a Farrow and Ball tester pot is £4.80 ish. A Dulux one 53p. I'm not at all sure the cost is worth it. Dulux paint is very good.

One of the F&B colours is called 'Calamine'. Yes. Interesting.

'Mole Breath' caught my interest...