I have to start with the tub apron itself. I don't like anything that has to do with the picture frame molding on the tub apron. I don't get the frame that runs off the right side of the tub apron and behind the side fo the vanity. I understand that the wall continues off behind the vanity. I just don't get the trim layout and the 1-1/2 frames that cover the tub apron. With that in mind, I'd want the frames on the tub's back wall to mimic, or at least try to relate to, the frames on the tub apron. They don't. Not even close. A single large frame on the back wall. 1-1/2 frames on the tub's apron. To keep the frames on the back wall at a minimum I'd want a chair rail on the left and back tub walls and I'd want to paint the chair rail and everything below it white. Good luck with it.

I think the rule is: there are no rules. Some people paint below the c.r. same color as trim to make it look like wainscot. Some paint below the c.r a darker color, which makes the room appear *taller*. You can also paint below the c.r. a color that compliments a wallpaper or decorative treatment above the c.r. So many options, just depends on the look you want.

Thanks everyone, I love having some input into this! I've contemplated taking down the chair rail in the hall and entry, but I'm not sure about removing something that adds "character", even if it is a little odd. I'm not sure which one of the previous owners installed it and I've wondered why they chose to do it there and not, say, the kitchen. Some additional information that I forgot to mention is that this entry/hall/LR area also opens to the kitchen area (same level as hall and entry, you step down into LR from kitchen)... and it does NOT have a chair rail. Right now the kitchen is a brighter yellow than the Ivoire and Blonde (more of a sunny yellow) and it has honey pine cabinets and flooring. Needless to say, the kitchen will soon be painted also because it's just too darned yellow and I don't like how it blends in with the pine. Right now I'm leaning towards a light shade of green (but NOT minty), but haven't found one I like yet. Soooo... taking that into account, does that change anyone's recommendations? I wish I had a picture of that area - I'll try to get one and post it tonight. Thanks! Dawn

In Postwar houses with the same kind of evil, rough, sanded-plaster walls that we had when I was five, a chair rail may protect chairs' finish or upholstery from getting shredded, but generally, a chair rail's protection is intended to work the other way around: not to protect the chairs, but to keep the paint unmarked & the plaster un-gouged from the chairs being knocked into or dragged along the walls. I'm just sayin'. But chair rails protect the walls from more than chairs. There are also kids, and while plain walls with smooth finishes were all the style thing in 1965, they're also a lot harder to maintain in pristine condition than walls broken up into separate sections with moldings, which moldings allow you to freshen the walls without too much effort. In our family we had four boys & assorted pets, and in no house we ever lived did the place look as dingy & dodgy as our 196Os ranch with its long, narrow corridors of mint green & aqua & pink. Up above, the brand-new walls were immaculate, but from doorknob height on down, it was always a mess. Worse, because there was no convenient cut-off place--as there would have been with a chair rail--you couldn't just touch up the wall where a say, the heel of cowboy boot had gouged the plaster during a corridor ambush of the posse by a gang of bad guys, or where an errant Big Wheel had gone out of control & left a dirty scrape all the way down the hall. Add to those occasional incidents the continual finger-dragging that little kids seem to do by nature, and the the general grimy area that you get when you combine narrow halls & large dogs, and you can see the logic of having a molding a few feet above the floor. But our house was crisp & Modern and it didn't have what were considered superfluous, old-fashioned moldings, so it was either paint the whole wall, end-to-end, floor-to-ceiling, or do nothing & just leave the marks & smears & chipped plaster. My mother, being an early proponent of Energy Conservation, chose the latter, with the result that that place always looked like hell. When we moved into a big old Craftsman Style house, with a dark oak dado that stood chest high in the hall & the corridors, my mom no longer had to worry about telltale dirt & scuff marks on the walls. Not, of course, that she ever did. Anyway, stylistically speaking, chair rails may be out of place in a Modern house, but for simple practicality, they're hard to beat.