Show me your wood columns/pillars!

I'm also looking to build some shallow wood columns. Hard to find detailed pics or design ideas.

Go take a look at my pictures... shows my column construction and current status of the room: Pics here

Nice looking columns. I'm interested in pictures of ones that are covered in fabric and hide speakers in them. Lets see those pics!

I was going for the Roman-Gothic look. This involved round columns. As I wasn't able to talk the wife into letting me get a lathe that size, I had to order them on-line. HD had these, but in 8" diameter. Too big for my application. I ended up finding them at Pacific Columns .
The sales reps worked with me on the height, size and delivery charges.
They came with the column, cap, and base. Here they are in "position".


After trimming about a 1/2" off and mounting them, I primed with 2 coats of Kilz. I got a great deal from a painter in the neighborhood to marblize them.




After final painting and carpet... yep, that's what I was looking for



While I got the round ones, they may have the 1/2 rounds it sounds like you want. The alternative is building your own or cutting some down the middle with the handy dandy table saw.
Hope this helps.

I built some shallow columns for My Theater to frame my accoustic panels as well as to house my surround speakers. Constructed from clear pine and MDF pnale insets.

Side wall:


With lights up:


Speaker detail without grill (and before touchup):


With grill attached:


Rear wall surrounding fireplace (also houses rear surround speakers):


Distance Shot:

Those look very similiar to what I want to do. Your link didn't work for me. What is on the walls between the shallow columns? I mean specifically what are those acoustic panels made of. Also want the details of those columns if it isn't in your link.

That's what I get for not double-checking my link. Fixed now.

The walls have acoustic panels built directly on to them. I ripped some 2x2's down to 1" thick, and used them to build frames directly on the wall. I then used cotton batting on the upper section for sound dispersion, and Linacoustic material on the bottom for sound (specifically bass) absorption. I then stretched material over the cotton/Linacoutc and frames and stapled it.

On the top and bottom, the staples are hidden by the crown moulding and baseboard. For the sides, the material was stretched around to the "sides" of the wall frames and stapled on the outsides of each frame. The spaces between each frame are where the columns were placed, this hiding the staples on the sides.

You can see some pictures on my site of this in-process.

I don't believe I have any pics of the column construction, but they are simply 1x4 clear pine ripped to the right size to make the face frames. The sides extend back only 2"or so, the column only extends past the 1" thick acoustical panels by about 1.75". Behind the face-frames is a 1/2" piece of OSB backing running the entire height of the column. In the center openings of the face frame, the routed panel inserts were glued in place. A buddy had a router jug and we made the panels out of MDF and painted them up. The OSB was cut out for the 4 columns housing speakers, and they were mounted instead of a panel.

Thanks for the working link. Those pictures are great! I might copy quite a bit of your design. How deep are your surround speakers in the columns? I'm hoping something like these slim columns will work in my room.

The speakers are in-walls, so they protrude about 3-1/4" out the back. I had to make sheetrock penetrations for the speakers, as my columns weren't that deep. I boxed the penetrations in, and then added extra insulation to help avoid sound transmission.

One of my favorite columns of recent (and the ones I plan to duplicate) are Ronnie Jackson's. Very elegant and most of all unique in shape. I think his design also allows the option of having columns in a fairly narrow room, since the top is deeper than the bottom.




Here's a drawing that he posted on his overall side dimensions. I've narrowed these dimensions a bit for my theater, but the overall look will be the same.

I will have to go into the sheetrock as well to run the wires. I sent you a pm.

Hear are some oak columns I had built. I kind of used the Runco design on them.

I stole,,,, err,, uhmm,, aaahh,,, was inspired by Danny's as well!


See my build thread for construction pics...

PS. Thanks Danny!

Hi Digital Man,

Here is the pillar I built but not for my theater. I installed it between living room and dining room to make it act like a divider or entrance. I'm thinking of doing the same design again for my future theater but I'll make some revisions so that it can accomodate surround speakers and a little bit of contemporary design.

You can see more detailed pics from this link.



Updated Nov 16:
My links above were dead. I corrected them. I'm including my latest columns which I did in the family room. Ceiling is also new. However, the columns that I'm planning for my dream theater will be totally different.

Here are all the pictures during my family room renovation, this link.

Guy:Here are my wood trimmed columns. I used MDF, like so many others, and a thin veneer to cover.
Actually pretty fun to build, and I like the finished effect. I am NOT a carpenter and don't even portray one on TV, but I think it worked ok.
Best,
Tom
Chinaclipper

My columns are cherry ply veneer,with a panel moulding. Simply cut out the box size you want and trim the opening. Run your mitres on the table saw for your outside corners, glue and brad nail, and your done.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mahler00...82934323177538

Not wood columns, here are mine:

DIY sconce, dazian janus fabric wraping mdf. Black trim to hid staples, ascend htm-200's in the side columns (wired for 7.1, installed 5.1):

The four rear columns:

The front two:

80% done on my 1920 Art Deco style HT. Incorporated a plaster column/pillar (from a landscape store) and then build wood boxes at the top and bottom of the pillar to finish them off from the pony wall to the celing. If you look at my sig file for the 1st HT I built you will see the pillars in their original state before I brought them acrosss country when we moved for the 2nd HT

My columns are 10" wide made of 1x4's ripped down to 2 5/8" wide with a bevel on one edge. I then put a 1/4" sheet of birch that is 9.5" wide for the front. To add some detail I added a 2" wide piece of trim around the top, some trim to form a rectangle down the face of the column, and a plain 1x4 wrapped around the bottom to match the base trim. Making the columns 2 5/8" thick allowed the finished piece to be flush with the crown mold above it (1/4" face + 1/2" thick piece of trim), which is a 1x4 width out from the wall.









Yes there is no trim around the second column yet, not quite finished...

Here are a few shots of a room we just finished:







Bud

[ATTACH]Attachment 134548[/ATTACH]

My columns, purchased from Pacific columns.

Tony

Do you have any issues with the Dazian fabric hiding speakers?

I have some Celtic on the way, but I'm concerned about it being AT enough to hide the surround speakers.

I don't own the room anymore, but I could never detect any difference with Janus. Their phone rep indicated to some one that their three AT fabrics are Janus, Celtic and Exposure. I know white Celtic was used as a DIY AT screen material before SmX and its ilk came out. It was low gain, but no one complained of audio issues.

Here's mine. I built a 2x2 frame and then ripped the cherry plywood for the bottom on the table saw to get the miters. the top section is actually 3 separate "frames" of symmetrical chair rail with fabric stapled on the back, and then nailed to the 2x2's...


Garen

Garen: how did you finish the edge of your plywood?

Actually, I cut both sides on a 45 1/2" degree angle on the table saw. That way just the leading edge hits and you get a nice tight joint, since you don't need the joint to have any strength...

My columns were designed in the "amish mission" style. They are 4" pine on the sides, with 1" pine on the front creating an "H" shape, with 4" pine on the ends. The inside is .75" birch.

The bottom is just covered with base boards. The top is a layer of crown molding, and then with an additional 1" "C" shaped pine cap (because I mis-measured).

All wood was joined with biscuit joins and wood glue, and then two layers of Miniwax "Red Mahogony" oil-based stain, followed by 4 coats of minwax satin polyurethane.

The light box is actually mounted to a 2x4 on the wall behind, so the column just slid over top of it. Detailed pics are in my build thread.

This sides of these are maple-veneered plywood, while the frame on the front is solid maple. The rear 4 colums house speakers, while the front two are stuffed with insulation.

Under construction:




Fairly poor picture of the final installation: