The Dado Rail and Interior Decoration

Interior illustration 1884

The sectioning up of walls by using dado rails was a peculiar idea that had its heyday in the nineteenth century. There was some logic to the idea at the beginning, but today we are largely left with the style as an affectation or reminder of another design period.

In many nineteenth century houses and a fair amount of twentieth century as well, there were usually one or two dado rails. The first would be situated just a little way below the ceiling. This served a number of purposes. The wooden dado was used either to hang framed pictures from or to place picture frames within a space made between the ceiling and the dado, rather like a small exhibition space along the top of a room. This must have appealed to households with smaller incomes as it would be more difficult for guests to see the pictures clearly and so cheaper alternatives to oil or watercolour paintings could be used.

Another reason for the higher dado rail was to optically bring the height of the ceiling down. A number of nineteenth century houses had ceilings so high that the dimensions of the room were difficult to incorporate within a decorative scheme.

The lower dado rail was usually placed at chair height. This was a common practice in the eighteenth century when chairs, particularly in dining rooms, were not placed around a table when not in use, but placed against a wall. To stop the chairs damaging the sometimes expensive wallpaper, a wooden dado rail was used.

In the nineteenth century this was not really an issue as interior fashions had changed, but the habit of including a chair height dado rail, was continued. There is no real reason why this should have been so, as the interior decor item served no real purpose. It was probably maintained as a decorative accessory.

Interior illustration 1880s

Splitting walls into two, three, sometimes four horizontal zones, produced an opportunity to expand on decorative effects. One wallpaper design was now no longer adequate as a minimum of two was expected. These wallpapers very often had a common theme that tied different designs together and could be bought as a set to decorate a room. However, sometimes the common theme was somewhat vague and could even be bewildering, which led to all sorts of peculiarly decorated walls.

One way of accentuating a dado divided wall was to use different types of wallpaper finish rather than different designs. Flock and Anaglypta are two heavy and exceedingly unsubtle wallpaper finishes that were used extensively both in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Today the dado rails are still with us and are usually separated now by subtle colour tones rather than colour changes. They are seen as period details and although still not serving a purpose have become an ornament or identifier of a particular era.

Many modern homes, particularly those built after 1945, have no dado rails at all. Walls are meant to be clean and minimal and the modern home was seen more as a functional machine. However, this does not stop the determined dado enthusiast, as wallpaper manufacturers and designers have come up with the wallpaper border.

Wallpaper border 1955

Wallpaper borders have, admittedly, been around for a long time and have been used quite effectively within interior schemes. However, their use today as modern dado rails, is less than effective and very often counter productive to a decorative scheme.

Wallpaper border 1955

Many modern home owners have used wallpaper borders as little more than large felt pen markers. They are used to outline ceilings, doors, windows and stairs. They are not subtle, but to be fair, they are probably not really meant to be. They are also used extensively to separate walls horizontally, aping the dado rail. It is meant to give a modern home a vague illusion of a Victorian feel.

Wallpaper border 1955

Wallpaper borders acting as dado rails have also made possible the Resurrection of different designs or types of wallpaper to be used on the same wall, hence the continuing popularity of Flock and Anaglypta.

The dado rail, or its modern alternative, will probably never leave us. There is too great a temptation for some to decorate to excess, and long may they feel independent and confident enough to do so.