Painting Entranceway and Making a Distinction Between Walls and Arched Ceiling

We’re going to paint the entrance of our building — the one up the stoop steps. Our entire house had a picture rail added to it by the previous owner for some reason. We removed it from our apartment and it’s so much better without it — the height of the walls is uninterrupted. In the foyer, we have the original arched plaster ceiling (see pics). Without the picture rail, the wall color would extend to the decorative element on the ceiling. Would that look weird? Does anyone know how this area would have been handled originally? Would there have been a picture rail? Would love some ideas and pics if available.

Guest User | 10 years and 10 months ago

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no-permits | 10 years and 9 months ago

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while that molding might be new, it probably originally had picture molding in the same place. in my house, i did exactly as showing in your photograph. color below the rails and a neutral color above. it breaks up the color, makes the rooms feel more open and highlights the detail of the crown molding in my option.

Arkady | 10 years and 10 months ago

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My house has rails there & I’m sure they’re original. I’ve kept the color uniform but I’ve seen other houses that don’t & they look good too. rh has good suggestions.

rh | 10 years and 10 months ago

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It shouldn’t look weird. I might paint the ceiling detail a different color to highlight it. If the previous owner added it, that means you can probably pick up more to match? Why not carefully remove a section, paint to the ceiling and see how you like it? If you don’t like it and the piece is not damaged, just re-insall. If it gets damaged, you can buy more to match. Or actually….just paint the same color over the picture rail to ceiling and see how it looks. No need to remove it at all if you just want to see how the color flows.