Interior Architectural Columns

From the birth of the column, they have been used on the interior of building just as much as they were used on the exterior. Although most ancient architectural columns located on the interior of buildings did provide structural strength for the building, many interior architectural columns are commonly used for decoration purposes only.

Decorative interior columns are becoming more popular with small business and home owners, often requiring a half a column and capital to place up against a wall as a pilaster column. This effect produces a look as if a column was assisting the wall in structural support.

Dating back several thousand years, architectural columns have had many interior purposes. One of the most debated interior columns in architecture history is actually the first known Corinthian Column. This column stands alone inside the innermost section of the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae in Arcadia. This interior architectural column stands alone with no structural purpose and without being accompanied by any other columns of the same order. There is much debate between architects as to the reason or nature of this first interior Corinthian column.

Since that first use of the Corinthian column as an interior pillar, thousands of the same style of column has been used on the interior of buildings every year. It has become the epitome of elegance when searching for a column of stature and beauty. Although the Corinthian column is known for beauty and grandeur, probably the most commonly used interior architectural column is from the Tuscan order.

The Tuscan column is the most widely manufactured and distributed column on the market today, both for exterior and interior applications. When in true architectural proportions, (following the Tuscan order architectural guidelines of Vignola), the interior Tuscan column provides the room with a sense of elegant strength.

When searching for an interior architectural column, there are many different materials that you will come across, including: paint-grade wood, stain-grade wood, spun cast columns, faux stone columns, and fiberglass columns. Each one of those materials has different features and application possibilities, but the most important fact that must be considered when looking for a column for your project is if the column is architecturally correct. When an architecturally correct interior column is compared with one that does not have those features, the aesthetic difference is one to take note of.