Refining your home’s aesthetics is all about attention to detail. With the correct style, material, and size, stone corbels can truly elevate your property’s design and atmosphere. Whether they have decorative or supportive purposes, corbels can transform a plain entrance into a lavish doorway. When placed strategically, they can create a balance between classical architecture and modern design, and they can add a subtle but unmissable detail to your kitchen hearth or fireplace. With such an extensive choice of materials and styles, it is easy to feel overwhelmed – you can find all the tips you need to start your search here.

Evaluate Your Home’s Style

Stone corbels come in a wide range of styles, from more streamlined lines to elaborate carvings. They can bring together the stone elements in your property, such as columns, and can be fitted in various locations – from supporting porches to decorating a mantlepiece.

Because of their versatility, it is crucial to find a style that truly compliments your home’s design. Indeed, a too rich style might create a cluttered look, while plain lines might cause your hand-carved corbels to disappear in the background.

However, corbels have great potential when it comes down to creating the right atmosphere. Indeed, with the right design, you can add a modern touch to your classical-looking home, enhancing the look of a dull hallway or entrance. For an exclusive look, you might also consider a tailor-made corbel created on an original design of your choice.

Speak to a professional architect to find the right style for your home.

Understand the Corbel’s Purpose

Not all corbels are the same or suitable for the same purpose. If you have noticed small corbels on cabinetry and tables, the chances are that they are designed with a decorative purpose in mind. These corbels are usually pieces of art designed to elevate the space’s aesthetics.

However, corbels can also be functional and supportive. For example, if you are thinking about extending the porch area or a veranda, corbels can help you support the roof stylishly and elegantly. For these types of corbels, it is important to speak to an engineer or architect who can tell you exactly what measurements and materials to follow to build a new structure safely and efficiently.

Additionally, you might find that the corbels can support shelves just like nails could, but they also create a style that other only-functional elements might not offer.

Select the Right Stone

Corbels come in a variety of stones and materials. If you have invested in other stone elements in your home – such as columns or fountains – you might decide to create continuity between these elements by using a similar stone.

Some of the ones available include:

• Marble
• Limestone
• Travertine
• Cantera Stone

These stones are not only different in look, but they also boast different hardness and texture. Some marble elements might be more suitable for decorative purposes – because of how beautiful, and refined this material is.

Alternatively, elements such as Limestone and Cantera Stone can withstand the test of time, and they are also used for supportive purposes or outdoor locations. Speak to a professional to learn more about the best type of corbel’s material for your home.

Nobody wants a cookie cutter, generic home that looks like a model or showroom.  While model homes or showrooms are beautiful, they are completely impersonal and lack certain characteristics that give a home charm, elegance, uniqueness, and interest.  Often, it is the small and somewhat overlooked details that give a home its subtle character.  For example, corbels can be used throughout both the interior and exterior of your home for both practical and decorative purposes.  Corbels can be made of a variety of materials but carved stone is timeless in its elegance and adds both perceived and real value to your home.  Corbels are one of those luxurious finishes that you expect to find in high-end custom homes but they can be used in any home to add character and unique decorative style.

Corbels can be used in a wide variety of applications throughout the interior and exterior of your home.  They can be used to decorate or support doorframes.  A boring, basic opening that connects one room to another can be made beautiful and eye-catching with the simple addition of carved stone corbels.  Corbels can be used under cabinetry or countertops in kitchens, bathrooms or laundry rooms for both support and decor purposes.  What is nice about corbels is that they do not have to match the material they are supporting, they can elegantly enhance wood cabinetry or countertops made of a wide range of materials.  They can be used along a ceiling in a room to draw the eye up, perhaps towards a beautiful decorative ceiling or just to make a room feel larger.  Corbels can be used to support beams in a room, taking standard beams from boring to beautiful.  Corbels can also be used around fireplaces to support carved stone mantels which not only create a stunning centerpiece for any room but add immense value to your home.  Finally, you can add shelving to any room in outside of your home by installing corbels on a wall with a shelf on top.  While this could be done with metal brackets, corbels are far more interesting and unique and add that “custom” feel to your home.  They are subtle enough to provide a separation for rooms but still visually interesting enough that they enhance your decor.

At Architectural Stone Elements, our corbels are crafted for structural support as well as decorative function.  We have volumes of designs in-house that range from simple to very elaborate – classic to modern.  You can bring in a sketch or picture of something you like and we can custom reproduce it to your selected dimensions and stone preference.  Corbels have always succeeded in adding that balance that gives a room or area a “completed” look.  Stone corbels can be used in any home decor and work beautifully to enhance your home’s other stone elements, elevating the overall design aesthetic of your home.

When you think of architectural enhancements and interior design choices, the first thing that comes to mind is probably not stone corbels.  But, we would argue that it should be!  In homes or businesses in which you have been impressed or awed by the architecture or interior design, corbels were probably used in one way or another.  They can be subtle and understated, or opulent and elegant.  Stone corbels can be used to help display and support other heavy objects but they do not have to be purely functional, they can have great form as well.  Corbels can be made of many different materials but stone corbels add the timeless elegance and value that enhances a home in a way that no other corbel possibly can.

When displaying a heavy item, such as a stone fireplace mantel, sculpture, ceiling beams or a doorframe, a strong and sturdy stone corbel is the ideal piece to use to support your display.  Carved stone is heavier and more durable than other materials and therefore provides better support.  In their essence, corbels are support brackets, but stone corbels are much more beautiful than a metal bracket.  There is a reason that stone corbels that were used centuries ago are still standing today, they are beautiful and they can stand the test of time.  Everyone wants to put their own personal touches into their home’s architecture and design and stone corbels are an ideal way to do so.  There are stone corbel styles to coordinate with any home’s architectural design and decor.  There are more basic carved stone corbels that may coordinate better with a modern or transitional home and more intricately carved designs for traditional architecture styles.

You can incorporate stone corbels in a variety of ways into your home’s design and decor.  Stone corbels can be used in a purely decorative form, enhancing and highlighting architectural features both inside and outside.  Corbels often add balance and proportion, the detail that completes a look and enhances a home in just the right way.  Corbels can also be used to hold up shelves, any kind of shelf – stone, wood, glass or any other material and will add visual interest to any space.  Stone corbels can be used in door frames, archways, or under the ceiling to naturally draw the eye up and make a room feel bigger and more special. But, they do not have to just draw the eye up, they can be used under countertops or cabinetry as well.  For this reason, they are very popular for use in kitchens, which is great because the kitchen is often the room people spend most of their time in and entertain in.  Stone corbels provide beauty and distinction to an architectural feature, design feature or space in a room that might otherwise be simply ordinary.

Every homeowner has their own sense of style and home decor preferences.  No matter what an individual’s style is, everyone wants to put their own unique stamp on their home decor and design to make it feel like their own.  There are, of course, many ways to do this.   Everything from the floors to the ceilings, and everything in between, is a specific choice that makes a statement.  It can be fun to add small or large details that go above and beyond the decor basics and necessities and bring a little something special and unique to a room.  Corbels are a great way to achieve this.  A corbel is an architectural decor element that can be made from a variety of materials such as stone, wood or metal.  They can be used to support weight or as a purely decorative element.  While there are many options when it comes to material, a stone corbel is something timeless and truly special.

A unique, hand-carved stone corbel will not only achieve a utilitarian purpose but will be eye-catching and interesting as well.  When a stone corbel is added it instantly enhances decor and helps set an overall tone for the room.  Stone corbels come in a variety of styles, from baroque all the way to transitional in their finish, to coordinate seamlessly with any home’s architectural style and decor.  The unique thing about corbels is that they are somehow simultaneously subtle and intriguing.  They tend to blend in a way that is not distracting but still makes a definite statement.  Corbels can be used around fireplaces, in conjunction with stone fireplace mantels, to support shelves or cabinetry, to accent the corner of a room, in doorways and so much more.  They can be used in any room inside the home and even in many applications outside the home as well.  Some corbels are not made of materials that are strong or durable enough to support much weight but stone corbels can stand the test of time.  They have been around for centuries because stone is so durable and strong.  They can be used to support a great weight which is why some large stone corbels are even used below balconies on homes.  Stone corbels come in a variety of sizes – small enough that they could be used as a unique wall sconce or small decor element and large enough to enhance architectural elements on the outside of your home.  Stone corbels are incredibly unique, versatile and capable of enhancing any home’s decor.