Home Improvement: 5 Uses of PVC Decorative Columns

Classical columns are wonderful in adding beauty, architectural details and function to a home. Oftentimes, columns are used for structural purposes- especially the load bearing ones. However, a lot of homeowners install classical columns to add architectural beauty. It can define spaces between rooms, acting as room dividers. Our home has a pair of classical columns between the formal dining room and formal living room. These classical columns are made of PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride), and are hollow in the middle.

Here are some ways you can use PVC decorative columns:

1) Add curb appeal: If you add a column to the exterior of your home, you are adding curb appeal. Imagine a plain traditional home, by adding a pair of columns makes it look stately. Classical Columns are used in traditional Georgian style homes and Italianate/Roman Styles. I have started liking columns after watching "Gone with the Wind". Tara (the name of the plantation home used in the film) looked so beautiful and stately with those characteristic columns on the exterior of Scarlett Ohara's mansion. The columns were used to wrap around the front porch. Nowadays, the decorative columns made of PVC may not have the same structural strength than those used in stately homes, like the one in this move, but using the PVC's allow us to have attractive facades for a fraction of the cost to have the real load bearing ones installed.

2) Room divider: Although decorative columns may not be as functional as the real ones as far as load bearing is concerned, it is still functional in a sense that it can be used as a room divider to define the rooms. As I mentioned in my introduction, the decorative columns in my home divided the formal living room from the formal dining room. So even if the two rooms share the same spaces with no walls and doors in between them, the pair of columns can give that sense of separation and distinction. I have seen these used in master baths adorning the whirlpool tub or in the kitchen framing the bar-peninsula.