Painting - Old Farmhouse Beadboard

We have kept the old beadboard in our dining room to maintain the integrity of our old farmhouse. I'd like to add a chair rail & paint the bottom of the wall (wainscot) in a contrasting color. The boarding runs horizontally & the baseboard is 6 inches wide. What width chair rail would be appropriate & should I do a solid color &/or texture paint the wainscoting? I want to make the room more formal but not stuffy. It's just too plain right now.

I would like to help with your dilemma if you could get back to us with your ceiling height and the height of your present below treatment. I will be back after 10PM CST and check with you. I look very much forward to hearing from you. I think Decorating and Design Mods and readers come here; however, I think you would be well served to post in that forum due to some great people...Mike

So other forum readers will know I am passing on the ceiling height you informed me of via e-mail and that is 8 1/2 feet. My personal thoughts are that the c/rail should be between 3 1/2 inches and 5 inches. Anything less or more IMO would be unbalanced...Mike

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mikejmerritt:
So other forum readers will know I am passing on the ceiling height you informed me of via e-mail and that is 8 1/2 feet. My personal thoughts are that the c/rail should be between 3 1/2 inches and 5 inches. Anything less or more IMO would be unbalanced...Mike<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I guess my final question would be if I should keep w/ a solid color for the c/rail (trims & baseboards) & wainscoting or try a texture look for the latter. This would be done on the original bead boarding. Thanks for the input. You are most helpful.