Ugly Support Beams? Eight Great Ideas to Integrate Into Your Design.
Design challenges such as steel support beams can be frustrating to a home owner but to an interior designer is a exciting problem to solve.
Many homes and loft apartments have support beams to help carry the weight of the upper floor and ceilings.
They are often in inconvenient places but fortunately, there are ways to conceal them to make them more pleasing to the eye. While you can decorate around some columns, there are times when you need to disguise them; especially when it is unbelievably ugly or conflicting with your decor.
Here are a few unique solutions that will give you the visualization you need to create something beautiful and functional.
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Creative Custom Shelving |
Consider building a custom bookcase that runs between two columns or from the column to a wall. By including the column into the bookshelf, it is both removed from sight and moved to a position where it will no longer be a stand-alone obstacle when moving through the room.
Add a built-in bookshelf by leaving the upper post natural like the photo below. Here we created a bookshelf that attaches to the wall. This half-wall provides definition, function and disguises the support column.
Another great idea is to box in the column and then build custom shelving as shown above to create an eye catching display piece which provides a huge wow factor to the room. No one would ever guess you were hiding anything!
Make it an Architectural Detail |
This is an inventive way to blend the beam into the space without hiding it in any way. Leaving it in its raw natural form with the unfinished concrete ceiling beam creates texture in the otherwise serial environment of the loft. Utilizing it to support the kitchen counter is genius!
Kitchen with concrete counters and raw beams
Match it to the Ceiling Design Elements….. |
Sometimes the process of designing around something ugly like steel support beam and exposed pipes creates a solution that brings a room to life. Solving those two design issues created a fun architectural element that offers an appealing contrast to the white walls and ceilings.
support beam with ceiling detail
Make it a Stone Pillar |
In a large home one pillar may look out of place. The perfect solution was to camouflage the pillar with a beautiful hand- crafted product which is 100% premium pure limestone aggregate and them creating additional pillars to create the feeling of a Spanish Villa.
Stone Columns
Encase It with Medal |
Using medal as an architectural element in a home is always attention-grabbing. Encasing the support beams in medal fashions the structure into a form that looks like it belongs in the room
Steel Covered Support Beam
Design it into a Bar |
Our designer’s creatively was at its ultimate when she designed this stunning custom bar to conceal the support beam in this New York apartment. Even without the function of the bar, the architectural details, the lighting and the contrast between it and the floors and furniture is truly spectacular.
Creative design element to camouflage a support beam
Craft a Archway |
If you have the space and the ceiling height this is a dramatic way to design a structure to conceal supportive structures.
Creative way to balance out a high ceiling
