Wooden dado rails: history, height and fitting

A dado rail is a moulding fixed horizontally around the walls of a room, usually about a metre from the floor. It marks the top of the dado, the lower part of the wall between the rail and the skirting board. Dado is the Italian word for a die or cube: in classical architecture it names the block-like middle section of a pedestal, and the rail is the moulding that crowns it.

This origin explains its place on the wall. In the classical interiors of Bath, the dado with its skirting and rail stood for the pedestal of an order, the wall above for the column shaft and the cornice for the entablature. Older texts call the rail a surbase, and in the United States it is usually known as a chair rail.

A dado rail and a cimaise are the same moulding, in English and in French; a picture rail is a different one, fixed high up to hang frames. The French word comes from the Latin cymatium and the Greek kymation, a small wave, and first named the S-shaped moulding that crowns a classical cornice. In French galleries, cimaise also means the wall on which paintings hang: in exhibitions, the first row of canvases once rested on the rail at chair height, the best-placed spot.

A picture rail runs high on the wall, often around 30 cm below the ceiling or cornice, and frames hang from it on hooks and cords. Its modern gallery version is a metal track, which the French also call a cimaise. A dado rail stays in the lower third of the wall and is mainly decorative; a wooden rail meant to carry frames must be screwed into the wall and is best fitted high, as a picture rail. Our workshop makes decorative dado rails in solid wood, not picture hanging systems, which are a job for specialist suppliers.

Georgian interiors made the dado rail a familiar feature. Dining chairs were often left drawn up against the walls, and the rail stopped their backs from damaging an expensive wall covering. Its height followed the proportions of the room rather than a fixed figure, so a tall reception room could take its rail higher than a modest bedroom.

Fashions changed in the Victorian era and the rail fell out of favour for a time, before returning towards the end of the century and into the Edwardian years as a mostly decorative line. It is often found in hallways and on landings, sometimes above an embossed covering such as Lincrusta, launched in 1877. In a late Victorian or Edwardian hallway, reinstating a dado rail is one of the simplest ways to bring back the period character.

In British homes, a dado rail usually sits around 900 mm to 1 m from the floor. The Cambridge Dictionary describes it as fixed about one metre up, and fitting guides compare that height with a door handle. There is no fixed standard, though: a traditional rule of thumb puts the rail at about a third of the wall height, so tall Victorian rooms take it higher, up to around 1,100 mm.

Then look at the lines already in the room. Where you can, align the rail with the window sills so that one horizontal line runs all the way round. If the sills are too high, set the rail slightly low rather than slightly high, because a rail placed too high makes a room feel squat. Stop it neatly against door architraves instead of cutting across them, then mark your height at several points and join them with a level line.

Choose the profile for the style of the room and the weight you want the line to carry. A plain rail with an S-shaped profile suits a restrained scheme; a rail with beads, a Greek key or scrolling foliage belongs in a richer room. Where mouldings already exist, repeat a profile or an ornament from the cornice or the door surrounds. Our guide to decorative wood mouldings explains the main profiles and period styles.

The wood depends mainly on the finish. For a painted rail, a pale, even wood such as poplar is worth considering; an oak dado rail left visible shows its grain, as do walnut and chestnut. Rails can be supplied raw, ready to paint on site, or finished with wax, varnish, stain or paint. Our article on choosing a wood for a moulding compares these species in detail.

A dado rail is glued, then pinned or screwed along a level line, with its corners mitred or coped: a job for a careful DIYer or for your joiner. Our rails are supplied ready to fit, and we are happy to talk to whoever fits them to give them the information they need. Most guides use grab adhesive along the back, with panel pins while it sets; a solid wood dado rail has real weight, so on old walls, add screws and suitable wall plugs.

External corners are mitred at 45 degrees with a mitre saw or a mitre box. Internal corners are better coped, because walls are rarely square: the second length is cut to the profile of the first with a coping saw, so it sits tight even if the corner is out of true. For a carved rail, set out the lengths before cutting so that the motifs fall neatly at corners and doors; on request, the workshop can prepare this setting out.

Our workshop makes several decorative dado rails. The Greek key dado rail, in poplar or oak, runs a right-angled line that turns back on itself, an ornament used since antiquity; the spiral dado rail unrolls scrolling foliage; the songbird dado rail sets small birds on oak sprigs, a pair facing each other and a third a little apart. Each design is created in 3D, made in our workshop in Cornebarrieu, near Toulouse, then finished and detailed by hand.

For a specific room, the customisable dado rail lets you choose the wood, the finish and the length. If an old rail has been cut by a new doorway or damaged during building work, we can make the missing length to match from a fragment, a measured drawing or clear photos: see our antique boiserie reproduction service. We make new pieces; restoring the original can be entrusted to a partner restorer.