There are few architectural finishes more versatile than the fiberglass column. A column can be decorative or functional, bold or subtle. A column can add depth to your design and provide shape to an open room. A column can hide architectural support beams in the center of a room or create an illusion of ancient-classical construction. If you have one wonderful idea for what to do with columns, it’s easy to overlook the many other possibilities.
Most notably, a fiberglass column can be used indoors or outdoors, providing the same beauty and elegance to your home design whether you are adding columns to the interior design or transforming your curb appeal. Let’s take a closer look at several of the ways that you can put fiberglass columns to work with the interior and exterior of your home.
Indoor Fiberglass Column Uses
Inside the home, fiberglass columns add class and depth to the architectural design. They are decorative, functional, and give a free-standing design an elegant structure without removing that open, airy feeling.
Wrap a Supporting Beam
Not everyone knows this, but fiberglass columns are hollow inside. They are made in two halves that snap together with a perfect seamless finish. This means you can fit a fiberglass column of the correct size over a supporting beam inside the home. So if you take out walls or have an old undecorative support beam in the home, wrap that beam in a fiberglass column to give the structural support style and class. Make it part of the interior design, not just an architectural necessity.
Frame Islands and Counters
Islands, counters, and half-walls are a signature of open-design homes but they tend to float freely with nothing to visually anchor them to the rest of the house. A fiberglass column capping the free-standing ends of a counter or half-wall can bring the lines of the room together, connecting the counter to the ceiling in a majestic sweep.
Create Depth and Accent Architecture
Columns can also go anywhere you think they would be attractive. Unlike the clean flat walls of painted drywall, columns bring an element of curve, connection to the ceiling, and visual depth. For an open-design home or a great room, a few columns can add a real sense of detail and versatility to an otherwise empty-seeming room.
Outdoor Fiberglass Column Uses
Fiberglass columns are just as useful and beautiful outdoors, partly because fiberglass is such a sturdy and long-lasting material. You can decorate and redesign your home exterior with new columns just as easily or even easier than using columns indoors.
Porch and Deck Roof Support
The most popular way to use new columns is to build them around porch roof supports. Your front porch or back deck are much more comfortable with a shady roof overhead, and a roof needs supports. Just like indoors, those wooden beams can be beautified with the addition of fiberglass columns; turning your post-modern home into a neo-classical abode. The columns can also be designed to blend well with a new balustrade railing system.
Classic Style Curb Appeal
Of course, the most traditional way to use columns is multi-story columns from the ground to the bottom of your roof. A row of columns along the front face of a home gives it an imposing classic-to-colonial style that many homeowners dream of. If you’re looking to completely transform the impression your home gives by adding something beautiful, fiberglass columns are a wonderful architectural finish to choose.
Backyard Gazebos and Pergolas
Finally, columns even offer some backyard fun. If you enjoy holding family or social events in your backyard, a pergola or gazebo could be a breathtaking and useful addition. And because these structures are supported by wooden struts, you can redesign them with the classical look of fiberglass columns instead. Turn your backyard pergola into a Romanesque escape with fiberglass column design.
Are you thinking about redesigning your home interior or exterior with a more classical design? Contact us to find out more about the perfect fiberglass columns and other architectural finishes to make your vision a reality.