Style help - dado rails & wallpapering

project16 · 5 November 2019 at 12:12PM

Moved in to a property with dado rails in every room. We cant afford to remove them and have the walls skimmed so they are staying *sigh*. I am clueless when it comes to style, can someone please help with suggestions on wallpaper styles for our living room. We have a cream carpet and a dark grey sofa. We are unsure whether to wallpaper the whole wall (as if the dado rail isn't there, and maybe paint it a colour to match) or is that ridiculous... and should we be papering the top & the bottom differently? Anyone's help/advice/suggestion is really really appreciated. Tearing my hair out looking at samples of wallpapers & patterns!

RelievedSheff · 5 November 2019 at 12:27PM

We had a dado and picture rail in the hallway of our old house. In the end we repaired the plaster and painted above the picture rail, wall papered between the picture rail and dado rail and then put some wooden cladding between the dado and skirting board.

It was a big job but it looked great when it was finished.

We used magnolia at the top, a cream coloured wall paper and brown for the wood.

rach_k · 5 November 2019 at 12:49PM

I think you need to work out what kind of wallpapers you like before deciding where it should go. Some might be too much if you do the whole wall, others would look nice. Similarly, some would look great with unpainted or white dado rail; others would look a bit odd.

What are you most drawn to? If there's nothing that grabs you, maybe wallpaper isn't for you and you could go for paint instead.

Doozergirl · 5 November 2019 at 12:49PM

Get yourself onto Pinterest

https://www.pinterest.com

And run yourself a very simple search on 'dado rail'. You will be inundated with ideas.

You only have neutrals at the moment so nearly anything will go.

Panelling is really popular at the moment, but you can get the look by painting the woodwork and the area in between dado and skirting all in the same colour. Also, disguising the radiator.

https://pin.it/nzgluia2majqtd

That was the first pin that popped out at me, but you may have different ones that jump at you. I'm a huge fan of colour and creativity, picking what brings you joy, rather than conforming to what a majority likes.

Wallpaper, in particular, is a personal choice. Wallpaper direct is a great website. I find that the DIY sheds are all a bit 'samey' and again, I'm looking for something different.

FreeBear · 5 November 2019 at 1:43PM

If you do decide to paint, and the walls are currently lime plaster, put some lining paper up first. This will hide any minor cracks in the plaster and give you a decent surface to paint over. Future owners will thank you for it if they want to uncover the original plaster.

project16 · 5 November 2019 at 3:38PM

Thanks all. My husband wants to go with grey wallpaper, which i'm fine with. We need to wallpaper unfortunately because the walls arent the best. Would papering with something either plain, or a small simple pattern look ok with the dado rail running through the middle?

I do like the look of painting at the dado/skirting/frames all the same... thanks for the suggestion @Doozergirl. I think maybe looking for a wallpaper where we can get a good paint colour match is the way forward for the bottom.... and maybe a simple pattern on top. I have saw some lovely suggestions on pinterest with white for the bottom half and taupe on the top but we have 1 year old.... so we'd just be asking for trouble there.

FreeBear · 5 November 2019 at 4:23PM

project16 wrote: »

Thanks all. My husband wants to go with grey wallpaper, which i'm fine with. We need to wallpaper unfortunately because the walls arent the best.

If you are going to use a thin wallpaper, it would still be worthwhile putting up a thick lining paper first. A previous lodger used some really thin paper, and you could see all the lumps & bumps underneath. I stripped and put up some 1200gsm lining paper, and it has covered all the blemishes.

project16 · 5 November 2019 at 4:39PM

Thanks for the suggestion. When we were stripping the previous paper we noticed that they had lining paper underneath so re-applying that first is definitely something we'll have to do unless we buy a good quality wallpaper. I did consider putting up lining paper and then painting but i'm concerned the seams would be easily visible.

FreeBear · 6 November 2019 at 12:19AM

project16 wrote: »

I did consider putting up lining paper and then painting but i'm concerned the seams would be easily visible.

The trick for dealing with seams is to leave a very small gap between each sheet. With a good quality filling knife, spread the thinest of smears of thinned down filler. Once dry, lightly sand down with a fine grade sand paper. With a bit of practice with the filler, you should need very little sanding.

Style help - dado rails & wallpapering

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free