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proportions of making these into columns

16 years ago

We are asking the builder to replace the "colonial" style columns in the dining with some wood trimmed columns as that would work better with the more rustic feeling great room that it is wide open too the Great Room. Also we have a farmhouse dining table so it would go better with that.

I was trying to show the builder a picture of what we'd like them to look like, but could only find some stair posts that look like what is in my head. I want to specify a little more to make sure they end up like I envision them.

How would you divide up the parts of this to make it columns?

1. How tall for the bottom part? How wide?

2. How tall for the middle part?

3. How tall for the top part?

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There are 6x6 posts that will be wrapped with wood. The corners have been shaved round on these so they need to be wrapped with trim.

Here is a a link to the Great Room

Dining with existing columns

Dining with virtual of similar columns. We probably won't do the wall separating entry to dining as DH and I can't agree on it. We've decided to mock it up with boxes once we live there and decide then.

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Comments (4)

buzzsaw
16 years ago
I'm building my own and my style is similar, but a little different. Specific dims will vary depending on railing style and post location.

Overall height are around 52 - 56 inches
Bottom portion height is 20 - 24 inches
Top portion height is 6 - 8 inches

Width in middle is 5 - 6 inches
Width of base is 6.5 - 7.5 inches

Keep searching stair part websites. I have seen several that give dimensions.
lyfia
Original Author
16 years ago
buzzsaw - thanks for your reply. This is just a stair post to show the style I'd like to see for some 8' columns. I did find the stair sizes, but scaling it to 8' didn't look proportional to me for a column. Maybe I just need to play with a few on graph paper and see what makes sense.

I'm having the most trouble with the height of the thicker base.
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sombreuil_mongrel
16 years ago
Hi,
I'd make the lower portion 32-36", do away with or severely shrink the "neck molding", and soften the corners of the "shaft" portion with bead or chamfer molding. Rather than make panels in the shaft, make them in the base portion. The shaft could, however, be fluted. These are column-like characteristics that will prevent them from looking like overgrown newel posts.
Casey
lyfia
Original Author
16 years ago
Casey - thank you and that does make sense. Might be why I can't make the proportions to look correct.

What does a bead or chamfer molding look like and where can you find it? I know what a bead or chamfer is, but don't think I've seen it as a molding and we would really need it as a molding as there are no corners to route due to them being rounded due to the existing columns.

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