Painting - Painting a room with cathedral ceiling

I just moved into a new house, and I really want my dining room to be a cranberry or dark red, but it is a very open area between the dining room and the living room. I think painting it all the way up to the ceiling would be difficult because I would ultimately have to paint the living room the same color due to the fact that the dining room and living room are connected by one main wall. I could do a chair rail and paint red below it, but would it look strange for it to only be on two walls of the rectangular dining room? One end of the room is french doors.