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Door Pilasters Add Regal Beauty to Your Home

One of the most neglected architectural details for adding elegance to your home’s interior are door pilasters.  These are frames that go around an interior door, much like a frame around a work of art, to add emphasis and charm. 

Exterior Door Pilasters are Popular

Exterior use of door pilasters or door casings is quite common.  You’ll often see houses that use these frames to emphasize the entrance to a home and enhance the style of the house.  Some people will spend thousands of dollars to frame the entryway door to their home with door pilasters on both sides and a richly detailed door header that accentuates the height of the door.  

The key to a cohesive style is making sure that the door header and side pilasters work well together.  Pilasters come in a wide range of widths.  All of them have one flat side to mount flush with the wall, while the decorative side may be fluted, plain, paneled or feature detail work such as braids or scrollwork.  Homeowners should be aware of how the door header will look when matched with the door header.  Elaborate, Egyptian style pilasters can be lovely, but will look out of place if they are matched with a subdued, colonial style door header.

Also keep in mind the size and scale of the house when choosing pilasters or door casing sets (these include the door header and side pilasters in one set).  If you have an expansive front porch and double doors, you can select wide pilasters and an imposing door header.  If you have a smaller home, choose slender pilasters and a door header with the proper proportions so that you don’t overwhelm the house. 

Interior Door Casings Reflect Your Home’s Style

Less common but no less gorgeous are interior door casings.  If you want to add great architectural interest to your rooms, install pilasters and door headers in each room.  An alternative, if you don’t have high ceilings or desire a simpler look that’s still elegant, is pilasters with plinth blocks.  These are the squares that are seen at the top corners of many exterior doors, especially in Victorian and Colonial home that have retained their original woodwork. 

Framing your doors with pilasters and plinth blocks gives you a lot of room for originality.  You can mix and match each element to create a look that’s uniquely yours.  For instance, simple fluted pilasters can be placed on either side of the door with another pilaster lying horizontally across the top of the door.  Use decorative plinth blocks to seamlessly join the three lengths of pilaster.  If you want a contemporary look, choose blocks that have a geometric shape set within the square.  For a traditional look, choose plinth blocks that have a floral rosette, or select something highly stylized for an art deco touch.

Door pilasters add depth and detail to a room that gives it a more polished, richer look.  They are especially nice for adding a touch of elegance where you want to keep the walls relatively uncluttered by art or tapestries.  Pilasters take up very little usable wall space and give the room a beautifully detailed appearance that reflects your attention to detail.  Once you’ve added door pilasters and plinth blocks to one room, you’ll find that you want them for every room!

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