Picture rail - yay or nay?

[DitaVonCheese]

Having dealt with the pantry so efficiently, my next keep or bin is the picture rail in the living room. It's a 50s semi so the ceilings aren't especially high (or low) but the living room currently has a picture rail all the way round. Do they make a room look bigger or are they weird? Lighting will be a combination of uplighters and table lamps, oh and a pendant light on one side of the room as I can't be arsed to redo the ceiling to remove the rose.

Help please!

Oh don't remove it if original. They can break up a room, add interest etc. Ours were removed by teh previous philistines who lived here

I think they're original but then the house was probably most recently decorated in the 70s so may just date back to then!

Forgot to say, above picture rail + ceiling is current textured wallpaper (but not too offensive). Ceiling will stay that way as it's not too bad nick plus I can't face stripping and repapering the ceiling. Paper above the rail has already been torn up due to current rewiring project so will just be smooth painted wall - does it matter that they won't match?

i think picture rails are great. saves on wallpaper/paint as you can just paint white above them. but best of all you can hang pictures on them and move them around e.g good for habging christmas cards/pictures etc and no damage to the walls. i would consider putting them in if they fitted with the age of the house!