Chair rail & crown on stairs w landing
Greetings.
My wife and I are DIYers and we are having a “discussion” on how to mount a chair rail. (livingroom is layout of the floor, frontwall is layout of the front wall w. rail options).
We are going to mount it around the living room at 34″ish high from the main floor level. The problem we get into is that we are looking to extent the chair rail up the stairway. To the right of the front door we have a single 8″ side light (unlabeled on the drawing), followed by about 8″ of wall space then you would step up (7.75″) onto a 3’x3′ landing. Turn to the right and then continue up the stirs to the second floor.
What has us stumped is how to handle the change in altitude from the main floor to the height of the landing. We have been using painter’s tape to try layouts.
She does not like the idea of having a sloped piece butting into the trim next to the side light (the red rail). She seems to like the idea of splitting the height difference between the 34″ in the main room and the 41.75″ it would be (34+7.75) (the blue rail).
So what is done in a normal trim out? We don’t really find much info in the library, and not too much on the web.
On a related note, she would like to extent the crown up the stairs. From what I can ell, its going to be a pain to cut an 3 way compound angle (sloping ceiling meeting a flat ceiling at the transition up the stairs. Any good tips on how to handle the transition?
Replies
Chair rail is just that; rail designed to protect chairs from leaning back and bashing into walls. I would not use it anywhere save for a dining room or possibly a kitchen.
A handrail is more appropriate,and on its own height, to go up the stairs.
We already have a handrail on the right side of the steps (@36"ish off the tread nose). This is going to divide the two paint treatments on the wall.
The trick to using old style details like chair rails is to use them they way they were supposed to be used. You would never have a chair rail on stairs because you would never have chairs on stairs. BUT, you might have wainscotting going up a stair, and the rise would follow the rise in the stairs, whether it is a single step up to the landing or a rise up the stairs. So, the red line in your drawing would be the proper application. But remember, form followed function back then.
SHG
I'll take the second question first -- Crown in the stairwell. Think for a minute about the geometry that is involved when you miter cut a flat piece of wood. The mitered end is wider than a the end of a perpendicular-cut board. So, if you try to match one to the other, it simply won't work.
Crown is much more complex, but it suffers the same problem. The geometry just doesn't work. That said, you might want to check out an article that is stored over at JLC -- it shows how you can create specially made crown molding that might work.
Now for the chair rail question. It sounds to me like this will be a rather nicely appointed home. With that in mind, you might want to think about mounting the chair rail on a backer board. This is sometimes done with a flat backer, sometimes the backer has a simple bead on its edges.
When chair rail backer is used, it is common for the chair rail to not be mitered into any corner. Instead, the chair rail is cut a few inches short of the corner, and is "returned". This is also true where the rail meets door trim -- it's cut a few inches short and returned. This gives quite an elegant look.
This method could be used easily for the non-handrail side of your stairwell, and the geometry question can be avoided easily. It's a bit more for the materials, and about twice the labor, but it really is a "Fine" feature.
Unless you're the lead dog, the view just never changes.