Final Chair Rail Selection

We’ve finally settled on a chair rail for the baby’s nursery. In a previous post I shared a similar chair rail design that we liked. All I did was to make the proportions a little smaller and I changed the lowest moulding to a piece of cove instead of the miny bed moulding that sample used.

I’m going to be using finger jointed, primed pine for the main rail pieces (top and back). The bed moulding and cove moulding are regular pine mouldings that I picked up at the local lumber yard. I’m using a 9/16″ x 1-5/8″ bed moulding and a 5/8″ cove moulding. Most lumber yards have a pretty extensive selection of pine mouldings in stock.

I plan on installing the back piece of 1×2-1/2 to the wall first. I’ll space it approximately 32 inches above the floor. Typical chair rails are spaced from 32″ to 36″ off the floor based on personal preference. Once the back rail is installed I’ll attach the top 1×2 rail. It will be easier to install the bed moulding after the top rail is in place. Then I’ll nail and glue the bed moulding below the top rail as shown in the sketch. The final step will be installing the lower cove moulding. Again I’ll nail and glue it in place.

The last steps will be filling the nail holes and caulking between the wall and the new chair rail. A coat of primer and a couple of coats of semi-gloss latex paint and the project will be complete.