Do you want to bring notes of sublimity, spirituality, aristocracy into the interior? Complete the interior with columns. The result will surprise and delight you. Having applied the columns of the house once, you will never want to part with them.
What functions does this element of the interior? What styles are used? What is it made of? Is it possible to use columns in small apartments? How can you hide a carrier column? The ambiguous design element raises many questions.
The attitude to the columns in the interior as elements of only the palace style is a thing of the past. Their use in the premises of home, office, public is becoming more common. And, for good reason. Columns in an interior are worthy to decorate our life every day.
Support or decorative element
The ancient architects were unusually skilled in the use of columns. They created magnificent grandiose colonnades of temples, public buildings, houses of nobility, royal apartments.
Perhaps, therefore, for several millennia, the history of architecture considered columns as interior and exterior elements of luxury, power.
Here lies not only the status rank, but also the sense of self-perception, self-esteem of the owner of the house. Try to stand next to some grand column, for example, the Winter Palace, or walk along the colonnade of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
What are the sensations? Feelings are contradictory. On the one hand, greatness, massiveness suppress. But on the other hand, if you merge with this element, get used to it, on the contrary, give confidence, allow you to rise above the bustle.
Returning to the art of the ancients, it is amazing how they were able to combine the functionality of the columns with decorative. The strongest pillars held stone floors, while they were real works of art themselves. Columns - an exclusive gift of ancient architects to current designers.
The column in the modern interior performs the following functions:
- bearing support;
- decorative element;
- space zoning;
- hiding communications (cables, pipes);
- storage systems (niches, lockers).
The classical column consists of three main parts - the base, the body and the capitals. The base is the base of the column, when used as a support, the base carries a significant load. The body is a pillar connecting the top and bottom. Capital - the upper part, in the classic version is richly decorated.
Features of modern construction are the use of columns as a support. These are, as a rule, powerful reinforced concrete or metal structures supporting vast areas of overlap. As a decorative element, the columns are claimed by the owners of country mansions, luxury apartments.
Best of all, the richly decorated columns look in rooms with a large ceiling height - from 290 cm and higher.
With the advent of lightweight polyurethane foam products, the use of columns as decorative design details has become possible in high-rise buildings and small apartments. Any column, even standing alone, "crushes" the surrounding space. The composition of two or three columns is convenient to distinguish between the room, highlighting the individual parts, while maintaining a sense of integrity.
Colonnades with a large number of elements are almost never used by modern architects unless the construction of the entire building requires it. Comfortable, high quality of life requires laying a large number of communications going through all floors of buildings. The concealment of cables, pipes inside the column is an original, at times, the only acceptable design solution.
Equipment columns niches, storage systems - another interesting technique. Often it is caused by the need to hide the bearing pillar, but with good design it is used as a decorative, zoning, functionally sound element.
The shape of the body can be divided into the following types of columns:
- round;
- oval;
- square;
- rectangular;
- polygonal.
Considering the columns as a decorative detail, it is necessary to include here and half-columns. Semi-columns do not carry support load. They are attached to the wall, performing decorating and zoning functions, while retaining all the aesthetic decorativeness inherent in whole columns.
Originally complement the interior of the low columns of 80cm and above. They are used as tables, stands for vases, sculptures, bowls.
Epoch? Style? Direction?
Noble classics
The basis of the classic interior with antique columns, formed the Greek samples - Doric, Ionic, Corinthian styles. The decoration of the base, the body, the capitals has not only not changed; moreover, good taste requires precise adherence to the Greek ideals.
Ancient Greek columns, semi-columns are harmoniously combined with modern multi-level ceilings, lighting, polyurethane stucco. The decoration of the columns with Venetian plaster, "marbled", "natural stone" is widely used by artists - decorators. Columns are made of inexpensive materials - polyurethane foam, gypsum, concrete, then richly painted. This significantly reduces the cost, simplifies installation.
The combination of two or more columns connected by an arched bend was especially liked by modern designers. The arches, in order to reduce the cost, facilitate the construction of plasterboard.
To the same style can be attributed rectangular wooden columns, decorated with expensive varieties of wood in the style of an English cabinet or a Russian mansion with wooden panels on the walls.
Mysterious east
The impressive colonnades connected by arches are an integral element of Eastern architecture. In contrast to classical restraint, the body of the eastern column is richly decorated with mosaics, ornaments, bright color.
Arched bends are underlined by additional lines, they are also richly and brightly faced.
Architectural ensembles with columns in oriental interiors are complemented by draperies made of fabrics, carpets, and stained glass.
Modern interior design
The minimalist style, hi-tech, loft - did not bypass the columns. These styles suggest a large free space, a considerable height. The columns here act as supports of the floors. Most often, these are simple pillars, finished in accordance with the style of the room - metal (for silver, nickel, chrome, copper), clinker “for aged brick”, concrete with traces of formwork.
The latest trend - the use of lighting in glass columns with bubbles.
Village styles
In the good old Provence, Russian rustic style, and other ethnic styles, wood and coarse natural stone are preferred for the decoration of the columns.
The columns can be completely wooden, and the "stone" finish on various bases (concrete, polyurethane foam, drywall, false-column) is made of materials that mimic stone.
Using semi-columns, columns, decorate them based on the style of the entire room, and any, even the simplest stand, will become a "highlight".
Suitable ... materials for the manufacture of columns
Traditionally, the elements of the column were cut out of stone - marble, granite, travertine. Local stone was used from nearby deposits, because heavy boulders are difficult to transport over long distances. The body of the column was assembled from several parts, the seams between them were rubbed tightly, the column column looked monolithic.
Now decorative columns from natural stone are almost not made due to the high cost and laboriousness of the manufacturing process.
Concrete is used for solid structures capable of withstanding heavy loads. The prepared formwork is poured with sand-cement mortar, held until it hardens, then the formwork is removed. Monolithic columns are made on site at the same time as the construction of the building.
Elements of solid logs are convenient and natural for wooden buildings, although here you can use a concrete structure followed by wood trim.
Another "solid" material - gypsum, plaster columns, heavy and quite expensive, you can order them to the masters who make plaster moldings.
Metal is suitable for minimalist interiors, is rather heavy, and the "noble" metal (chrome, nickel) is not cheap.
The most democratic option - columns of polyurethane foam. It is a light plastic material, easily cut with a simple hacksaw, well glued together with special compounds or glue like “liquid nails”.
Manufacturers of polyurethane decorative products offer a huge selection of finished columns, separate bases, capitals. You can select all parts of the column separately, then arrange to your liking.
Columns from this material must be painted, otherwise the element will "fall out" of the interior style.
Economy version of materials for the column - foam and drywall.
Products from foam have the same characteristics as polyurethane foam, but less density and strength. They can be purchased ready.
Drywall columns are made on site. It is very simple to make round, square, rectangular elements, to add them with arches, niches, shelves. Drywall is a versatile material that allows you to perform the most unexpected designs.
The plasterboard surface is puttied, any finishing material is applied to the plaster - paint, liquid wallpaper, Venetian plaster.
Columns and semi-columns of polyurethane foam, foam plastic, drywall are relevant for the interiors of high-rise high-rise buildings and small apartments. They allow you to maintain the decorativeness of these architectural elements, eliminating the weight and massiveness of natural, concrete, gypsum counterparts.
How to hide a column that is not needed
The design features of some buildings suggest a large floor area with a small number of partitions and load-bearing walls. It is difficult to do without a support like a massive column in the middle of a room. If the column does not correspond to the general style of the room, it makes sense to decorate it.
The mirrors on the surface of the column "dissolve" the inconvenient pillar in space, and give the whole room volume. The original solution will be the transformation of the column into an interior item - a cabinet with shelves or a niche, a support for the backrest of a sofa or a bench, a stand for decorative products.
The interior of the room with columns will always be more advantageous to the interior without them. If the area does not allow to place full columns, use semi-columns, they will not take up much space, but will fulfill their decorative function.
The compositions of the half-columns combined with photo wallpapers are unusually advantageous. Picking up a picture of a suitable style, you can transform any, even the tiniest room, for example, a hallway. A small street, a piece of the garden or the canals of Venice will harmoniously increase and refresh the space, thanks to the framing with semi-columns.
Having understood the ideas of the ancient architects, having picked up the corresponding modern technological materials, a gray concrete-glass building can really be turned into a magnificent palace, an oriental harem, a brutal loft or ... a beautiful garden.
So what is the secret of using columns in the interior? They give volume, transform a flat image into 3D, create a stereo effect, set the rhythm of space, and therefore make the interior alive and real.
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