Using facade decorations, you can make the exterior of a country house much more attractive and original. Buildings with such elements look solid and stand out favorably against the background of nearby buildings. There are many decorative elements of facades. But in the design of modern houses, only some of them are used mainly.
Types of architectural decorations
Facade decorative elements are classified according to several criteria. In relation to the structures of the building itself, they can be active or passive. The first type of jewelry additionally performs some function. For example, columns can support ceilings, decorative cornices can protect walls from moisture, etc. Passive facade elements for buildings are purely decoration. They do not perform any additional function. It can be, for example, stucco, bas-reliefs, patterns, sculptures.
By location, all facade architectural elements are classified into vertical and horizontal. Also suchdecorations can be designed to decorate windows or doors or the walls themselves.
What are they made of?
According to the type of material used for the manufacture of facade elements are divided into light and heavy. Active, carrying any load, can be made:
- made of natural or artificial stone;
- fiber-reinforced concrete or ordinary reinforced concrete;
- bricks, etc.
Quite expensive durable materials are often used for the manufacture of facade passive decorative elements. The need for this arises when there is a possibility of damage to the jewelry as a result of mechanical stress.
Sometimes passive facade elements for buildings can be made from cheaper lightweight materials, for example, from:
- gypsum;
- styrofoam;
- polyurethane foam;
- reinforced polystyrene foam.
List of the most popular facade decorations
Various types of exterior decorative elements have been used by man in the construction of buildings for a long time. In every architectural style there are just a huge number of them. For domestic owners of suburban areas who decide to build a cottage, the names of facade elements in many cases may be unfamiliar. After all, the fashion for various kinds of exterior decorations, uncharacteristic for the Soviet period in private housing construction, appeared on the territory of our country relatively recently.
Meanwhile remember the names of the main facadedecorative elements used in modern construction will be relatively uncomplicated. Nowadays, a more or less limited number of such decorations are still used to decorate houses. Popular vertical building facade elements today are:
- Balusters.
- Columns.
- Rusty.
- Frames.
- Decorative brackets, consoles, keystones.
From the horizontal decorative elements on the facades of houses, you can most often see:
- moldings and cornices;
- sandrikas;
- arches;
- freezes.
Also quite often, more complex passive decorations are used to decorate buildings these days: patterned stucco, rosettes, keystones, bas-reliefs, sculptures, flowerpots, forging, etc.
Balusters
Facade decorations of this type are elements of the parapets of terraces or balconies, as well as railings of street stairs supporting handrails. The material for the manufacture of balusters is chosen, of course, first of all with the style of the building itself. To decorate stone houses, for example, concrete balusters are often used. During the construction of log buildings, such elements, of course, are usually made of wood.
Columns
Such facade decorations have three main elements in their design:
- base - lower support part;
- trunk - main part;
- capital - the upper decorative rather massive part.
Because most of the columnscases in the building structure carry an additional load, durable materials are usually used for their manufacture. More often they are cast from concrete, and later lined with stone or plastered and painted.
Rusty
This is the name of a special type of facade decoration elements, invented once by the ancient Romans. The simplest type of rustication is partial or complete cladding of rectangular stones mounted close to each other. A more difficult option is to install such material with alternating protrusions and recesses. Stones of different lengths can also be used for partial cladding.
Nowadays, with the use of rustic stone, for example, corners of houses, window and door openings are often made out. Both artificial and natural stone can be used for such decoration. Sometimes rust is just a drawing on plaster.
Decorative brackets and consoles
Such additional elements for facades are small in size and serve to support all sorts of small "ledges" - cornices, window sills, visors. In most cases, the architectural details of this variety carry a real load and are made of concrete, brick, stone, metal or wood.
But sometimes imitations of supporting elements of window sills, cornices, etc. can be used in construction. In this case, brackets, consoles and other parts are most often made of polyurethane.
Front architraves
These products may have a variety ofdesign, depending on the style of the building itself. Platbands are used in the exterior design of houses for framing windows and doors. Such facade elements in buildings close the gap between the walls and the frames inserted into the openings. Platbands can be made from:
- artificial stone;
- different types of concrete;
- polyurethane foam, etc.
Decorative cornices
Such building design elements can be:
- crowning - located under the roof and protect the walls from precipitation;
- interfloor - walls are zoned along floors;
- basement - visually separate the foundation from the walls.
The design of such elements, like most other facade elements, of course, usually coincides with the general style of buildings. Decorative cornices are made most often from wood or lightweight concrete.
Mouldings
The decoration of this variety is used quite often when decorating facades. It is a molding stucco element of considerable length with one flat side. In the exterior of the house, such decorations can serve as trims, cornices, skirting boards, etc. Often, moldings are also used to separate the surface of walls or, for example, gables into separate curly sections, which are subsequently painted in a certain color or finished with some materials.
In most cases, such facade design elements are made of plaster. They can also be concrete, polyurethane, etc.
What are sandrikas
Such facade elements on buildingsare installed above windows, doors, niches and are sometimes supplemented with gables. Among other things, sandriks perform the function of protecting the structures of the house from rain. Not infrequently, such elements can often be supplemented, for example, with pediments with stucco compositions. In most cases, the sandrik is supported by brackets.
There are three main types of such facade elements:
- straight - in the form of a cornice;
- radial - circle segment;
- triangular - with a pediment of the corresponding shape.
Arches
Such elements are installed on facades above various openings. In construction, three types of arches are most often used:
- Moorish, resembling a horseshoe;
- semicircular regular;
- lancet (in the form of a dome).
Such elements can be made from concrete, gypsum, wood, polyurethane foam.
What are friezes
Such facade decor elements are spectacular compositions in the form of stripes framing or encircling certain building structures (most often horizontally). Friezes can be decorated with painting, ornament, relief. One of the varieties of such decoration is, for example, anfimion, which is a decorative strip with convex ornaments.
Roof decoration
Of course, various kinds of exterior decorations can be used not only for building facades, but also for roofs. For example, decorative chimneys, carved ridges, arches are often mounted on roofs (for example, ondormer windows), etc. Such elements can also be made using different materials. Chimneys, for example, are most often made of metal, while wood and forging are used to decorate dormers.
What other decorations can there be
Sometimes it is possible to give a building a solid appearance without using the actual decorative elements. You can make the exterior of the house beautiful simply by installing standard designs of the original design. For example, round windows on the gables or front doors, curved street stairs, bay windows, etc. can look quite impressive.
Interesting ideas
With the help of original decorative elements of the facade, you can make the design of a country house amazingly unusual and attractive. For example, a beautiful molding imitating two columns and an arch above them will be just an excellent decoration for windows and doors. The stucco work looks quite beautiful not only on the cornices, above the windows or doors, but also on the brick gables of the roofs.
To give the house a more solid appearance, a special kind of rustication is often mounted on its corners - bassage. In this case, stones of different lengths are used for decoration, which alternate during installation. Sculptures also look beautiful and harmonious in the exterior of buildings. Such elements can be installed next to the columns, in niches or even at the top - above the cornice.
Give the building an original appearance with the help of decorative elements of facades and roofsnot difficult. However, when using such decorations, of course, one of the most important rules for building design should be observed. All elements mounted on the facades and the roof must correspond to one style. For example, the classics are characterized by columns, massive balusters and brackets, simple radius arches, as well as rustication at the corners.
A modern building can be decorated with arches of complex shape, intricately curved moldings, light columns, floral moldings, etc. Country-style home decoration elements can be carved or forged balusters, cornices, platbands, etc.
