They are most commonly associated with period properties - many Victorian and Edwardian homes have higher, more elaborate skirting boards than modern homes, for example - and picture rails were once, as the name suggests, used to hang pictures from.
If you're buying mouldings to go all around a room, such as skirting boards, divide the perimeter of the room by the length of the moulding, then round up to the next whole number.
To remove an existing skirting board, cut along the top with a craft knife to break the seal between the wallpaper or paint on the wall and the board itself.
It can help to put wooden wedges in the gap you've created, so the skirting is held away from the wall.
Cut the new skirting boards to size using a jigsaw or handsaw.
If you have walls that are long enough to require two or more lengths of skirting, you need to join them as seamlessly as possible and preferably in an inconspicuous place, such as behind a piece of furniture.
Now cut a 45 degree mitre, facing the other way, on one end of the adjoining skirting, ensuring that the mitres fit together well.
Round over one edge of the skirtings with sandpaper, then fit the two side skirtings flush with the back edge of the cabinet, screwing from the back through the side and into the skirting.
Glue and panel pin a decorative moulding to the top of the skirtings to finish off.
The longer front skirting is screwed though the back on to a dressed pine baton, which is screwed to the underside of the bottom.