I am remodeling a room and have decided to put in a chair rail. I need to know how high on the wall is it supposed to be.
Chair rail height is anywhere from 32-36 off the floor. When the chair rail comes to a door, just butt it to the door casing. When it comes to an archway you can cut a return for it or cut a 22 1/2 inside miter just to give it some end detail. At the window, butt the chair rail to thw window casing. As far as painting, you can paint the chair rail, then your 2 different colors before installing the chair rail then you dont have to worry about cutting in or you can install the rail then paint the walls rail. Before you install the rail find the stud locations and mark them on the wall so you know where the nails go.
Traditionally a chair rail is used to protect from chairs marking a wall, so you would put it at a height that chairs that would be moved around are kept from hitting the wall. From a decorating stand point 36 to 42 in height has a pleasing aesthetic value. Be sure it does not interfere with switches or the like. An easy way to see is to use a low adhesive masking tape to visualize the height.
To determine the height of your chair rail, measure the height of the ceiling and divide it by three. The general rule is that the chair rail should be about 1/3 of the way up from the floor (between 32 and 36 for an 8' ceiling). You can also slide a chair up to the wall and mark where it will hit on the wall.
Measuring the height of the room and dividing it by 3 works only if the room is up to 8 feet high. Above that the 1/3 of the room height becomes taller than most back rests and the purpose of installing a chair rail that high becomes useless.
