Picture Rail Made To Order

Picture rail: adding character back to your walls

A picture rail is a slim timber picture rail moulding fixed horizontally near the top of a wall, usually level with the head of the door architrave, which in a Victorian or Edwardian room often puts it 300mm to 450mm below the ceiling. The lipped top edge takes an S-hook, so pictures hang from chain or cord with no fixings driven into the plaster. It also splits the wall, letting the frieze above be painted or papered differently from the main wall below.

How to match an existing picture rail

• Send a physical offcut if you can. A 100mm to 150mm sample is the most reliable route to an exact reproduction, because the profile can be read straight off the end grain.
• No offcut? Send a photo and a tracing. Photograph the cut end square on with a ruler in shot, or hold paper against the end of the rail and pencil round the outline.
• Measure width and thickness. Width is the face height up the wall; thickness is how far the rail stands proud. Most original rails sit between 38mm and 70mm wide and 13mm to 25mm thick.
• Say what the existing wood is and how it is finished. Painted rails in period houses are usually softwood; stained, waxed or oiled rails are usually a hardwood.
• Give the total running length and add roughly 10 per cent for mitres and waste. Note the longest single length that can physically be carried into the room, so the supplier can plan the joints.

Choosing the timber

If the rail is going to be painted, Scandinavian redwood or another stable softwood is normally the sensible choice and the closest to what was originally used in most Victorian and 1930s houses. For a stained, oiled or clear-finished rail, or where the moulding carries fine detail, an oak picture rail or another hardwood such as ash, sapele, walnut, beech or tulipwood holds a crisp arris and takes the finish better. Any profile shown here can be run in any of the timbers we list.

How to get it made and quoted

Pick the made-to-match option above that comes closest to your existing profile, or browse the pre-designed picture rail moulding range and filter by width, thickness and style. Tell us the timber, the lengths and the quantity. That single enquiry goes out to UK timber suppliers and manufacturers and you compare the quotes that come back, instead of ringing round yourself. Because every length is cut to your specification, allow manufacturing time - these are made-to-order mouldings, not stock lengths off a rack.

Picture rail is rarely restored on its own. If you are putting a whole room back, ask for matching dado rail, skirting and architrave to be quoted at the same time in the same timber, so the profiles and the finish agree right through the room.