Picture rail question

[soupdragon321]

Hi, we have had the dividing wall removed between front and back reception rooms in our house. There is an original fireplace in each room, and there are picture rails on all walls. The end wall at the back of the house has French doors opening onto a balcony (south facing garden so lots of light). We plan on having crittal style doors between the rooms and building shelving/cupboards in all four alcoves surrounding the two fireplaces. My question is, would it be ok to remove the picture rails above the fireplaces and leave the rest, or is it an all (as in you’d have to remove all picture rails in the rooms)or nothing (leave all picture rails in place) situation? I just cannot make a decision! Help please! ☺️

This is the room. So essentially there would be the whole wall with fireplaces and storage etc but no picture rails, and the opposite side of room would have them. Would that be odd? I really hate the picture rail above the fireplace as it means you can’t really hang pictures or anything there…

Anyone?

I think it would be fine to keep the picture rails

Personally, I think it would look a bit strange. Unless you’re planning on doing that colour drenching thing and painting walls, trim and ceiling the same colour. If you paint the ceiling white down to the picture rails, and then a different colour below the rail, where do you transition from wall colour to ceiling colour on the fireplace wall?

Surely the whole point of a picture rail is to hang pictures from anyway? How do the ones above the fireplace get in the way of that? Do you have very high mantelpieces?

This is the room. So essentially there would be the whole wall with fireplaces and storage etc but no picture rails, and the opposite side of room would have them. Would that be odd? I really hate the picture rail above the fireplace as it means you can’t really hang pictures or anything there…the space between the top of fireplace and the picture rail is quite small. Essentially that whole wall would be one entity if that meshes sense?

This is the room

I would definitely keep the picture rails. The only way it might look ok to remove them from
the fireplaces is if you stripped them back to just be exposed brick, or if you wallpapered just the fireplaces. However, neither of these options will look as nice as just keeping the rails to be honest.
I’d be more tempted to change the fireplace surround as that’s quite big and goes far up the wall. Then you’d have more space for a picture or large mirror above the fireplace.

Thanks @Row23 but changing the fireplaces is not really an option due to budgets 😬. I’ve never liked them but they are original to the house. It’s annoying that they are so in your face! Plus I absolutely hate the red tiles on the front one.

You could definitely make the fireplace look really lovely - could get some of those peel and stick tiles to put over the ones already there, as that’s a cheapish option to make a quick change. And painting the surround will help as well. It looks like a lovely room with such character. I’m jealous :) !

I think it would be a mistake to get rid of the picture rails.

The usual way to hang pictures from picture rails is with hooks and chain or wire but that would probably emphasise the rail in a way that wouldn’t work for you. I do wonder though whether you could hang a big picture using the picture rail as a split batten so that the picture could sit partly above the level of the rail. You’d need the picture to be reasonably light but it could be the width of the chimney breast and pretty much hide the rail.

Otherwise I’d go for smaller pictures propped on the mantelpiece.

Please leave the picture rail. it is a really lovely original feature and it gives the room beautiful proportions. If you want to put huge pictures on that wall then you could stand them on the mantle piece? If it's a TV then you can put it into the built in shelving. Then you can have it a bit lower down so it's easier to see. My folks have theirs like this and it is really nice.

I absolutely love those rooms, the picture rails and the fireplaces make it! I'd keep them, I think it'll ruin the proportions if you remove them. We have a similar set up, open room to be divided by crittal or wooden glazed doors, fireplaces and picture rails. I haven't found the art yet that I want to put above the fireplaces, but I'm planning to do something like this. I also love big art and I think this makes the most of the proportions

Sorry the picture has attached weirdly, but if you click on it you can see the two examples. It's from Houzz, which I love for ideas

Thanks everyone, I think we will keep them. It’s always hard having to make these decisions which are final and expensive! But always good to get confirmation from outside sources 😉

A bit late but we have a similar layout. A man came round yesterday to measure for alcove cupboards and to put up a picture rail.

He said it's common to not have a picture rail accross a chimney breast but have one everywhere else when there is stuff in the alcoves. He suggested that it sonetimes looks vetter not to.

Unfortubately we wont be getting the cupboatds at the moment (ever?) because the quotes are coming in at £4000+ which we cant justify. Not skills to Ikea hack it.

We’ve got picture rails everywhere except where the fireplace is and it doesn’t look odd at all.

Don't get rid of original features that are hard to replace, keep the picture rail and only have your shelving going up to the picture rails.

For those who like picture rails this place have an excellent selection if you're looking for something that matches what you already have: WoodUChoose.

Love fire place don’t change