Decorative dado rails and friezes in solid wood

Inherited from classical houses, this moulded rail runs horizontally along the walls, about a metre above the floor or higher up, depending on the tradition followed. At the lower height, it is the dado rail (a chair rail, in American English): it separates the dado panelling from the upper part of the wall and protects the walls from being scuffed by chair backs. In drawing rooms, it also served as a picture rail for hanging paintings.

Today, a wooden dado rail sets the character of a room in just a few linear metres: it emphasises the ceiling height, frames wallpaper and gives wooden dado panelling or wall panelling a visual anchor.

Like an antique boiserie (carved wood panelling), a solid wood dado rail can be sanded, repaired, stained, waxed or painted, and its carved edges stay crisp over the years. An oak dado rail makes the most of finishes that leave the wood visible; poplar lends itself to profiles intended for painting, and walnut, reputed to be the finest of our cabinet-making woods, to decors that call for a darker wood.

Each profile is carved, then inspected, in our workshop in Cornebarrieu, near Toulouse.

The wooden wall frieze is the ornate sister of the dado rail: where the dado rail gives structure, the frieze tells a story. Foliate scrolls, egg-and-dart, gadroons, Greek key patterns or contemporary designs dress a band of wall, underline a cornice, or frame a panel or a door.

Our collection of decorative wood mouldings covers the most common needs: classic profiles, carved friezes, dado rails you can personalise, lengths sold by the linear metre and workshop finishes. For an antique profile to reproduce, a long run or a complete wall boiserie project, contact us: the workshop considers every request.