photos?

The fact of the matter is that they have been out for so long that they are coming back! didnt like them the first time, wont like them now. however, wall coverings, in general, have become very interesting, subtle, elegant. i love the organic, silk, fiber, grasses, etc. Just the mass produced florals are out...

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I love my toile wallpaper. It's very stylish and a great addition to the room.

There's "my" kittie again. LOL I just love her!

The toile is a great idea. It's such a classic that it will probably never go out of style for traditional decor and it's subtle enough not to be obtrusive or look cheap. There may be other similarly classic looks; I just haven't investigated borders for some time. I wouldn't use them myself because I'm going from more tradtional to a more eclectic look, but it depends very much on your decor style.

OK, IÂm going to try a picture! Here goes! Top is the painted marbleized finish, border in the middle, then the raspberry color on the bottom that will be painted a deep blue green.

If this works I will follow with the picture of it bordering the door frames, which is what will make it difficult if I remove it.

Some wallpaper borders drive me crazy - especially the "scenic" ones showing things like houses, lakes with a boat, deer in a field, or the like. I find myself turning in a circle, hypnotized by the Escher-like quality of it all and seeking a change in the pattern. Continuous vines or florals are fine, but what I really love are stencils. I was crazy about wallpaper for a while but now I much prefer the classic simplicity of a painted design. But sure, some wallpaper borders are fine if they aren't too complicated.

Wow! I have not done this before....

trying a closeup of border, tell me if this is dated....though if it is, I have no idea what to do. The faux finish does not go underneath it, so I would have to try to match it around all the doorframes. I don't see that as being possible right now.

By the way, I do love the toile border in the earlier response.

I don't think they're in style, but if you like it, so what? The border you showed looks fine to me and I completely understand the problem with the faux finish. I think the only solution is to completely repaint, so unless you hate what you have or want a change, don't remove anything.

I used a border in a powder room and the paints were all Ralph Lauren river rock, which is a rough texture. If we remove the wallpaper we'll have a smooth spot in the wall, so we'd have to repaint. Oh well. It may not be in style, but I like it!

Here's my bathroom border:

I personaly can be really creative....I don't see any way to make that look not dated...really, how about painting it all? You could do an accent wall on the big wall and another color on the others, or do a nice chair rail with color below and above that differs...

I hate to sound like a stuck record, but Linnea, have you looked at the dining room thead in our Gallery? There are a few hundred pictures of beautiful dining rooms in there and if you look at them all and you still want to keep your border and faux painting, then you deffinitely should keep them.

I don't like borders, never have or stencils for that matter. I would go for wainscoting or a chair rail, it's easy and worth the effort.

Yes, I think borders are out of style. Sorry, but this one is especially dated, plus it's very busy with the faux treatment above. If you don't want to have to re-do the faux in the areas under the border, perhaps you could find a solid-color (or nearly solid) border to replace this one.

Is the faux finish textured? I can see how that would be a problem. If you like it, then keep it. I think the pattern on the border is dated, but again if you like it then keep it. It looks like the bottom part of the wall runs right through the doorway (border to right of door is actually on the wall perpendicular to door), but you've got a 90 degree turn over the door that must have been a bear to trim out with the wallpaper. It would be worse with wood. You'd end up having to trim out the upper part of the doorway with casing running down to meet the chair rail, and I think that would look strange with the right side of the door being at right angle to the upper and left side, plus the mitre would be hard to do. And I'm not sure how it would look to have wood only halfway down rather than running down to floor as most doors (in middle of walls and not in corners) would have. If you don't like the floral anymore, maybe you could find a nearly-solid with some kind of stripe (architectural? like egg and dart?) detail in the same width? But try painting the bottom of the wall first before you strip the border - you may find that this one looks OK with the new color.

I forgot that the gallery was there; I will go look.

I have polled the family, and even though I was the one who did the faux top half, everyone says thatÂs their favorite paint treatment in the house. I think they all remember me adding a new color to it now and then over time. In the pictures the base color looks pink, itÂs really a soft salmon. I could easily put a glaze over it to subdue it more, as long as I didnÂt have to match the unpainted parts of it.

The more I look at the border the more dated I feel it is. I think I needed someone to tell me.

I also thought of a chair rail, which I would like, except the whole issue of that awkward doorway into the kitchen. I would love to case all these drywalled doorways, but I have a lot of them, and I think the effect would not be worth the amount of effort it would take. If I did one I feel like I would have to do all of them. IÂm not sure about casing a doorway that has no door, eitherÂwould it look odd? Plus I have my new DR furniture in, and the buffet is higher than my old one, effectively covering much of a chair rail if I had one.

I think my best option is to cover the old border with a new border, or remove it and put in a new one. At least I can paint first without having to protect the border. I do like the idea of something architectural, ajsmama! I love egg and dart. You reminded me, I was in a new hotel this last summer that had a wonderful architectural "crown molding" that was a border. That leads me to think maybe something that LOOKS like a chair rail, like tromp dÂoeil. I think it could go well with the new formal furniture too.

I definitely think they're out of style. I have one in my living room, and wonder what I was thinking back now. Happily, it's coming down due to a remodel and I'll NEVER use any kind of wallpaper again. I hate the stuff when it's time to get rid of it.

However, if you like it, use it.

It's hard, with the different colors in the paint and the dark furniture. But what about something like this?

http://www.usawallpaper.com/architectural.html?page=5

If you want something that really looks more like chair rail (but I'm not sure how it would look around the door), try this

http://www.usawallpaper.com/architectural.html?page=9

I think the cream crackle might work with your faux treatment.

Those architectural borders are really nice! ThereÂs even one the same size as my current one, 7"! Maybe this is the solution without biting off too much.

I went through the whole dining room gallery and copied pictures of what I liked. Thanks for leading me to it. I want my room to be formal, though many of the ones I really liked must be in multi million dollar homes: really "over the top" for my house. Now I need to figure out how to make some of the ideas work without having one room that no longer meshes with the rest of the house.

I will post pictures of the new furniture in the room tomorrow when I have the room cleaned up enough to be seen.

Sheesh, I just thought how you'd do the right side of the door with wood - you'd just cope it, like you do with baseboard or anything in an inside corner! But if your border is 7" wide, you'd need at least that wide (can build up with different profiles and widths of trim, doesn't need to be 1 piece) to hide the edge of the paint/border you have now. Wallpaper would be easier, but if you're good with a coping saw and don't pick a really fancy profile, you could do it. Especially if you paint it to match the baseboards - caulk and paint hide a lot! Except then I'd be looking at replacing the baseboard with something taller to keep things in scale, and maybe doing crown molding too...

Here are the pictures with the new furniture in place. The scale and weight of these may help narrow down the choices of what would be suitable. IÂm thinking about doing moldings but since they would have to be 7" wide, and that probably means 2 widths stacked, thatÂs a lot of cutting. Around the rooms is easy enough, but around all the doors tooÂummm. I also thought of dealing with that awkward strip to the right of the door by putting a simple flat column there, and a matching one on the opposite side. I do want to do a crown: fortunately that is 4 easy runs with no odd corners.

I found this neat molding to cover the border from a foam molding site that is 7 inches wide: probably too fussy, though. And too pricey as well at $45 a length.

Here is a link that might be useful: 7

It's very nice for a chair rail, and at under $6/lf it's not too pricey (compared to unfinished oak, for example). But you couldn't use it for around the door - it would be too hard to cope. The wallpaper border would certainly be easier, but if you want something with some thickness to it (wood, MDF or polyurethane), I'd look for something with a simple profile, or even use a piece of flat stock and then trim out top and bottom with base cap or something, you could even run a fillet lengthwise in the middle of the flat portion. So 3-4 different pieces of paint-grade trim, coped in the corners and mitered where they turn 90 degrees but if each piece is a simple profile the coping won't be too hard to do.