• Small framed art looks inappropriate in rooms with tall walls.living room shot image by Tracy Horning from Fotolia.com
  
  Rooms with tall walls present a daunting task to many homeowners and decorators. Traditional wall hangings look tiny and inappropriate for such a space. However, tall wall space expands decorative opportunities. Take advantage of your tall walls and enjoy decorating them.
  
  

Chair Rails

• Chair rails customarily keep chair backs from scraping against the wall, preventing wall damage. However, many interior designers now use chair rails mainly for their appearance. Chair rails help to divide and conquer tall wall space so that you only have to worry about decorating the space above. Although typically 3 feet in height, some designers use the chair rail concept and expand it to include rail molding up to 5-feet high. Fill the space in between the rail and floor molding with sleek molding rectangles. This option appears especially suited for formal rooms such as dining rooms and parlors. For a more casual look, keep the chair rail molding low, and fill the space in between the rail and floor with wainscoting. Alternatively, leave the space between the rail and floor uncovered, and paint it a dramatically different color than the rest of the wall to aid further in breaking up wall space.
  
  

Build up

• Tall walls in small rooms open the room and provide decorative and functional advantage. Rather than downplay a tall wall in a small room, build up to add useful space and purposefully bring the viewer's eye up. Install functional shelving higher than usual, and use it to store books or decorative items. Install molding where the ceiling meets the wall to create a clean appearance when the eye looks up.
  
  

Oversize Art

• Wall hangings should fit the space in which they hang. If the wall is big, think big. Oversize art fills tall walls appropriately. However, many people cannot afford traditional framed artwork in oversize form. Large frames and large panes of glass are expensive and difficult to hang. Instead, choose nontraditional oversize art of textiles or metal. Hang curtains in a tall wall space and tie back to act as a frame for other wall decor. Purchase large metal wall sculptures to add texture as well as filling the space. Alternatively, find a large decorative tapestry of thin cotton or interesting antique quilt to hang from the wall with a curtain rod.