Want to bring to the interior a touch of elevation, spirituality, aristocracy? Complete the interior decoration with columns. The result will surprise you and make you happy. By using the columns of the house one day, you will never want to part with them. What functions does this element of the interior? In what styles is it used? What is it made of? Is it possible to use columns in small apartments? How can I hide the supporting column? The ambiguous design element raises many questions. Relation to the columns in the interior as to elements only of the palace style is a thing of the past. Their use in the premises of home, office, public becomes more and more widespread. And, not in vain. Columns in the interior are worthy to decorate our lives every day.
What sensations? Sensations are contradictory. On the one hand, greatness, massiveness is suppressed. But on the other hand, if you merge with this element, to get accustomed to it, on the contrary, give confidence, allow you to rise above the vanity.
Returning to the art of the ancients, it is amazing how they were able to combine the functionality of the columns with the decorative. The most powerful pillars retained stone overlapping, at the same time they represented real works of art. Columns - an exclusive gift of ancient architects to current designers.
The column in the modern interior performs the following functions:
- bearing support;
- decorative element;
- zoning space;
- concealment of communications (cables, pipes);
- storage systems (niches, lockers).
The classical column consists of three main parts - bases, bodies and capitals. The base is the base of the column, when using it as a support, the base carries a significant load. The body is the pillar that connects the top and bottom. Capital - the upper part, in the classical version is richly decorated.
Features of modern construction consist in the use of columns as a support. This, as a rule, powerful reinforced concrete or metal structures, supporting a huge area of overlap. As a decorative element, the columns are in demand by the owners of country houses, luxury apartments.
The best-decorated columns look in rooms with a high ceiling height - from 290 cm and above.
With the advent of lightweight polyurethane foam products, the use of columns as decorative design details has become possible in high-rise buildings, small apartments. Any column, even standing alone, "splits" the surrounding space. Compositions of two or three columns are convenient to distinguish the room, highlighting individual parts, while maintaining a sense of integrity.
Colonnades with a large number of elements by modern architects are almost not used, if this does not require the construction of the entire building. Comfortability, high level of quality of life requires laying a large number of communications going through all floors of buildings. Hiding cables, pipes inside the column is an original, sometimes, the only acceptable design solution.
The equipment of columns with niches, storage systems is another interesting technique. Often it is caused by the need to hide the pillar, but with good design it is used as a decorative, zoning, functionally justified element. The following types of columns can be distinguished according to the shape of the body:
- round;
- oval;
- square;
- rectangular;
- polygonal.
Considering the columns as a decorative detail, it is worthwhile to include here and semicolumns. Half-columns do not carry a reference load. They are attached to the wall, performing decorating and zoning functions, while retaining all the aesthetic decorativeness inherent in the whole columns. The interior is complemented by low columns from 80cm and above. They are used as tables, stands for vases, sculptures, bowls. 
The era? Style? Direction?
Noble classics
In the basis of the classic interior with antique columns, Greek models - Doric, Ionian, Corinthian styles - were laid. Decoration of the base, body, capitals not only has not changed, moreover, good taste requires the exact adherence to the Greek ideals.
Ancient Greek columns, half-columns harmoniously combined with modern multi-level ceilings, illumination, polyurethane moldings. The decoration of the columns with Venetian plaster, murals, "natural stone" is widely used by decorators. Columns are made of inexpensive materials - polyurethane foam, gypsum, concrete, then richly painted. This significantly reduces the cost of their cost, simplifies installation.
Particularly liked by modern designers is the combination of two or more columns, connected by an arched bend. Arches, in order to reduce the cost of cheaper construction are made 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 Russian mansion in common with wooden panels on the walls.
Mysterious East
Impressive colonnades, connected by arches - an integral element of eastern architecture. In contrast to the classic restraint, the body of the eastern column is richly decorated with mosaic, ornaments, bright colors.
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Arched bends are emphasized by additional lines, also richly and brightly lined. Architectural ensembles with columns in the eastern interiors are complemented by draperies made of fabrics, carpets, stained-glass windows.
Modern interior directions
Minimalist style, high-tech, loft - did not bypass the column side. These styles assume a large free space, a significant height. The columns here act as supports of the floors. Most often, these are simple poles, decorated in accordance with the style of the room - metal (for silver, nickel, chrome, copper), clinker "for aged brick," concrete with traces of formwork. The last trend is the use of illumination in glass columns with bubbles.
Country styles
In the good Old Provence, Russian rustic style, other ethnic styles for finishing columns, wood and rough natural stone are preferred. The columns can be completely wooden, and the "stone" finish on different substrates (concrete, polyurethane foam, plasterboard, false column) is made with materials that mimic the stone.
Using semi-columns, columns, decorate them based on the style of the whole room, and any, even the most simple rack, will become a "highlight".
Suitable materials for the manufacture of columns
Traditionally, the elements of the column were sawed out of stone - marble, granite, travertine. A 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 tightly rubbed, the column pillar looked solid.
Now decorative columns made of natural stone are almost not made because of the high cost and laboriousness of the manufacturing process. For solid structures that can withstand heavy weight, concrete is used. The prepared formwork is poured with a sand-cement mortar, it is kept to hardening, then the formwork is removed. Monolithic columns are made directly on site simultaneously with the erection of the building.
For wooden buildings are convenient and natural elements of solid logs, although here you can apply a concrete structure with subsequent wood trim.
Another "solid" material - gypsum, gypsum columns, heavy and quite expensive, they can be ordered by craftsmen who make plaster moldings. Metal - suitable for minimalist interiors, quite heavy, and "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 bonded with special compounds or glue such as "liquid nails".
Manufacturers of polyurethane foam decorative products offer a huge selection of finished columns, separate bases, capitals. You can select all parts of the column individually, then compose to your liking.
Columns made of this material must be painted, otherwise the element will "fall out" from the interior stylistics.
Economy version of materials for the column - foam and plasterboard. Products made of foam have the same characteristics as polyurethane foam, but less density and strength. They can be purchased ready.
Columns made of plasterboard are made on site. It is very simple to make round, square, rectangular elements, complement them with arches, niches, shelves. Gypsum board - a universal material, allowing you to perform the most unexpected designs. The surface of drywall is shpaklyuetsya, on the putty is applied any finishing material - paint, liquid wallpaper, Venetian plaster.
Columns and half-columns of polyurethane foam, foam plastic, gypsum board are relevant for interiors of high-rise multi-storey buildings and small apartments. They allow preserving the decorativeness of these architectural elements, eliminating the weight and massiveness of natural, concrete, gypsum analogs.
How to hide a column that is not needed
The structural features of some buildings assume a large area of overlap with a small number of partitions and load-bearing walls. Without support of the type of a massive column in the middle of the room under these conditions is difficult to manage. If the column does not correspond to the general style of the room, it makes sense to decorate it.
Mirrors on the surface of the column "dissolve" an uncomfortable column in space, and the whole room will be given 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 back of a sofa or a bench, a cabinet for decorative items. An omnipresent drywall will help hide an object of disagreement under any intricate shape.
The interior of the room with columns will always be more advantageous in relation to the interior without them. If the area is not allowed to accommodate full columns, use half-columns, they will not take up much space, but they will perform their decorative function.
Unusually winning compositions from semicolumns combined with photo wallpapers. Picking up a picture of a suitable style, you can transform any, even the tiniest room, for example, the hallway. A small street, a piece of the garden or canals of Venice harmoniously increase and refresh the space, thanks to the framing of the semi-columns.
Reflecting on the ideas of ancient architects, selecting appropriate modern technological materials, the gray concrete-glass building can really be turned into a luxurious palace, an eastern harem, a brutal loft or a beautiful garden.
So what is the secret of using columns in the interior? They give volume, turn a flat image into 3D, create a stereo effect, set the rhythm of space, and thus make the interior alive, real.
