i went into excel and colored some cells, dark on top, lighter on bottom. the only problem i had with it is when the room was half dark and half light. your eye is drawn to the dark, and it seemed to disorient me a little, as if my vision would be constantly drawn up toward the ceiling.
when i adjusted it so the dark was the predominant part of the wall, and the light was a lesser proportion, it seemed fine. 50/50 was bad. 70/30 seemed better. so then as long as your chair rail isnt too high (and again, i think they look better on most walls around 30-36 in up) i think itll look good. you said in the original post you were going to do half and half. id probably not do that, but i could be absolutely wrong. havent seen it.... and i think you said youd seen a pic like that before, so as long as thats true, trust you eye. your room.
here is an ex that does not really match exactly what youre doing, but it is a pic of a rec room with white trim that i saved for when we are deciding how to redo ours. hope it helps. i think white trim in a rec room is fine.
http://picuploader.com/view/f29898cceb.jpg
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